Are Organizations Alive? LO16280

Fred Nickols (nickols@worldnet.att.net)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 11:21:57 +0000

Metaphor, simile, and analogy are powerful tools; language shapes thought
and thought shapes behavior. To ask if organizations are "alive" is only
part of the issue and not necessarily the interesting part. Far more
interesting, to me, is whether or not organizations can be said to possess
qualities such as self-awareness, intelligence, and the ability to learn.
This, in turn, drives eventually to the mind-body split. That split lies
at the heart of the command-and-control model of organization (it is why
we have the word "headquarters"). It lies also, or so I believe, at the
root of the split between those who believe strongly that organizations
can learn and those, like me, who have strong reservations about that
assertion if meant literally and in the same sense as it applies to
people. So, rather than arguing more about that matter, which in my case
is really just an argument against anthropomorphizing, let me take the
proponent's stance.

Organizations can learn. They have a central intelligence, a "brain," if
you will (or a "mind" if you prefer). The cells in this brain consist of
the individual members of the organization. These, of course, come and
go, much as we lose brain cells, and thus the organization "forgets" or
"grows rusty." It also acquires new capabilities through the joining up of
new members and the learning that takes place on the part of existing
members (although I'm not at all certain if a real brain generates new
cells). Synapses and neurons take the form of communications, etcetera,
etcetera, etcetera.

What's wrong with that picture?

Regards,

Fred Nickols
nickols@worldnet.att.net

-- 

Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net>

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