Organizational intelligence

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Organizational intelligence refers to a special form of intelligence : it is not an individual that is considered with regard to his behavior and various abilities, but a community or a collective as a whole. The German term is uncommon, the English terms organizational intelligence and organizational IQ are more common in the German-speaking world .

Term and areas of application

As explained in the article intelligence , there is no general definition for the term intelligence . Rather, most of the catchy definitions provide restrictive attributes by referring to intelligence quotients , emotional intelligence , success intelligence , etc. In all definitions, however, the focus is on the abilities and activities of the mind - such as understanding , thinking , apprehending - and it therefore seems obvious to attribute these to functions of the individual brain .

However, as soon as one applies the concept of intelligence to organizations , it becomes clear that it is an emergent phenomenon: all sufficiently complex systems are characterized by the fact that the whole is more than the sum of its components : the behavior and capabilities of the whole do not predict and understand themselves based solely on a sufficient knowledge of their constituent components. The behavior of the overall system affects its components and influences them significantly ( non-linear interactions, superposition principle not applicable).

Entities in the above sense that can be viewed with regard to their organizational intelligence are:

Biological systems:

All forms of human community that are socially structured:

Forms of organized cooperation under predominantly technical / social / economic aspects:

In practice, the term organizational intelligence is most frequently applied to this third group of companies and institutions in order to evaluate the ability of the organization to efficiently do justice to its self-imposed tasks and the requirements of its environment . This usually takes place within the framework of a consultation , a supervision or continuous systemic coaching , internal mutual (self) coaching .

The management style of an organization is one of the deciding factors in the degree to which the collective organizational intelligence appears in relation to the individual behavior of its representatives - that is why there are naturally many mixed forms and levels. In this article only the collective aspects are described.

methodology

In view of the methodological difficulties outlined above, it makes sense to choose a pragmatic approach with which intelligent behavior can be described in individuals and collectives alike. Accordingly, intelligent behavior is dependent on the following observable skills:

  • Curiosity : constant attention and willingness to be receptive
  • Capacity to record complex information quickly from the outside world and evaluate appropriate
  • (Re) action ability to react appropriately quickly and sensibly (purposefully) to this information
  • Ability to learn : derive additional options for action from experience (expansion of the repertoire of suitable action patterns, requisite variety): stupidity does not consist in making mistakes, but in repeating them

Organizational behavior in the public perception

In the public perception, individual companies and institutions often appear as stupid in the sense of being mentally sluggish when it comes to necessary adjustment processes. This is usually the case when the organization is in the (current) focus of media interest because of its tasks or its economic situation and does not respond appropriately. This task of the public relation of an organization corresponds to the individual psychology of the persona .

The bodies responsible for this public relations work must be able to quickly access the relevant knowledge and wishes of the organization via knowledge management and information management . They are increasingly using methods of pattern recognition in order to derive adequate statements and other publicly effective measures from the analysis of the attack patterns .

In addition to these official public relation image (can image ) of the Organization are also influenced by the occurrence of individual members, which is why more and more often a corporate behavior is cultivated and demanded.

Goals and motivation as a prerequisite for intelligent behavior

Intelligent action is goal-oriented. Knowledge of the goals of an organization and also the motivation of its members to achieve these goals are therefore the primary prerequisites for intelligent behavior.
' Example from the individual sphere:'
An IQ test can only correctly measure intelligence if the subject is motivated to pass the test and does not pursue goals that would be difficult to achieve if the test was passed.

Effective consensus on the best way to achieve a goal presupposes that there is a common goal of the organization.
' Example:'
The lack of direction in the current debate on education policy is (partly) due to the fact that the primary goal is only vaguely discussed: Should education be promoted primarily as a means of personal freedom or primarily as a competitive factor in increasing globalization ?

Final remark

From the conceptual concept of the term organizational intelligence it follows that in this respect every (sufficiently complex) individual as an organization and, on the other hand, every organization as an organism (ultimately as an individual) can be correctly described: both conceptions transform into one another, since they ultimately only depend on depend on the choice of observation plane.

This is perhaps particularly clear when the concept is applied to Artificial Intelligence : as explained in this article, the demarcation of human intelligence (the intelligence of the team that programs the AI ​​system and, in doing so, of others in many generations Teams developed algorithms ) and the learning ability of the developed algorithms themselves extremely difficult and ultimately arbitrary. See for example: Deep Blue , Jabberwacky (and many other articles). The biological swarm intelligence is simulated in algorithms such as the ant algorithm, which is then referred to as distributed artificial intelligence .

See also

Web links