Wilensky on Organizational Intelligence

Have finally got hold of a library copy of the original book on Organizational Intelligence by Harold Wilensky, published in 1967. Some of Wilensky's assumptions look a little dated now, but there's a wealth of great ideas and examples.

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One of the problems talking about intelligence is that people may use the word to refer to a number of different concepts.

• Signals and their content - intelligence as raw material for sense-making and decision making
  

• Expertise - intelligence as the individual and collective ability to reason efficiently about significant questions - Wilensky discusses several different types of expertise, which may be mobilized in an intelligent organization

• Function - a set of processes for acquiring and deploying intelligence as required across the organization, typically operated by a specialist organization unit
  

• Strategic capability - intelligence as a property of an organization, enabling it to operate effectively in volatile environments

Wilensky himself defines intelligence as "information - questions, insights, hypotheses, evidence - relevant to policy" (p viii), and mostly uses the word to refer to the content rather than the process or capability. But the book is largely about the intelligence function, and how this function is supported by relevant skills, capabilities, doctrines and organizational structures.

Value of intelligence

In Chapter Two, Wilensky argues that an intelligence function has particular value and relevance for large organizations in complex environments. He identifies three key specialist roles, contributing to his notion of organizational intelligence, and identifies three factors creating particular need for these three roles.

Contact men, responsible for liaison and communication with the external environment, This role is similar to the "Resource Investigator" team role identified by Belbin.	Especially needed when an organization is in conflict with its social environment or depends on it for the achievement of its central goals (p10).
Internal communications specialist, responsible for liaison and coordination inside the organization.	Especially needed when an organization depends on the unity and support of persons, groups, factions or parties within its membership for the achievement of its central goals (p13).
Facts and figures men. These are responsible for building and deploying analytic models and methods. More recently known as quants or wonks.	Especially needed when an organization sees its external environment and internal operations as rationalized - that is, as subject to discernible, predictable uniformities in relationships among significant objects (p14).

Wilensky's argument now looks dated, not only because of his assumption that these roles would be filled by men, but also because of his trust in rational and predictable analytical models, which would now be seen as unrealistic and simplistic. However, it seems like a good historical starting point for starting to think about a division of labour / expertise within the intelligence function and beyond

Richard Veryard talking about Organizational Intelligence with Matt Deacon

http://demandingchange.blogspot.com/2010/04/wilensky-on-organizational-intelligence.html

Towards a New Approach of the Economic Intelligence Process

One of the obvious trends in current business environment is the increased competition. In this context, organizations are becoming more and more aware of the importance of knowledge as a key factor in obtaining competitive advantage. A possible solution in knowledge management is Economic Intelligence (EI) that involves the collection, evaluation, processing, analysis, and dissemination of economic data (about products, clients, competitors, etc.) inside organizations. The availability of massive quantities of data correlated with advances in information and communication technology allowing for the filtering and processing of these data provide new tools for the production of economic intelligence.

The research is focused on innovative aspects of economic intelligence process (models of analysis, activities, methods and informational tools) and is providing practical guidelines for initiating this process. In this paper, we try:

(a) to contribute to a coherent view on economic intelligence process (approaches, stages, fields of application);

b) to describe the most important models of analysis related to this process;

c) to analyze the activities, methods and tools associated with each stage of an EI process.

Sorin Briciu

Marinela Vrîncianu

Florin Mihai

The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies

http://www.ectap.ro/articole/379.pdf

L'éducation à la culture informationnelle

L'éducation à la culture informationnelle pour répondre au défi de la société de la connaissance, la dynamique de production de savoirs et leur gestion pour un apprentissage tout au long de la vie sont désormais les moteurs de l'éducation du XXI° siècle. Cet extrait de la thèse de Jean-Pinte soutenue en décembre 2006 et ce blog sont dédiés aux enseignants, aux chercheurs, aux professionnels documentalistes s'intéressant à l'évolution de la culture informationnelle et aux habiletés nécessaires pour sortir du flux de la surcharge informationnelle.

http://veillepedagogique.blog.lemonde.fr/

Metamodeling Knowledge: Developing Students’ Understanding of Scientific Modeling

We argue that learning about the nature and utility of scientific models and engaging

in the process of creating and testing models should be a central focus of science education.

To realize this vision, we created and evaluated the Model-Enhanced

ThinkerTools (METT) Curriculum, which is an inquiry-oriented physics curriculum

for middle school students in which they learn about the nature of scientific models

and engage in the process of modeling.

Christina V. Schwarz

http://depts.washington.edu/edtech/SchwarzWhite-2005.pdf