ABSTRACT
Organizational intelligence is the intelligence achieved collectively by a group of people, by an organization. It is not the sum of all of the individuals' intelligences, but is the unique intelligence of the group as a whole. Individual ants are obviously rather limited in their problem-solving capabilities. Ant colonies, however, display impressive capabilities: locating and retrieving remote food in a complex environment; building, maintaining and defending the complicated nest structure; rapidly moving the entire community to a new location. Dictionaries offer quite a diverse range of definitions of intelligence, addressing different facets of the concept. Relative intelligence reflects success in achieving ends, interacting adaptively with a particular environment or niche. With expanding knowledge and the resulting increases in environmental complexity, business organizations at all levels will be pushed simultaneously toward increased adaptability and narrower specialization. The organizational intelligence model offers fundamental conceptual tools for considering just such forces and creative responses to them.
