Forum: Other Discussion Groups?: Is there such a thing as organizational wisdom?

My work in organizational development has lead me to have a keen interest in the concept of organizational wisdom.  From the perspective of our global need to develop responsible organizations that can help to solve some of society's most pressing challenges including the sustainability of our planet I am interested in exploring topics regarding wise leadership and how we might facilitate the conscious development of group wisdom within organizational systems.  If you are interested in this topic I would like to share ideas and listen  to yours.  Perhaps we could  develop a forum on this matter?

This is indeed an interesting and important issue. I have been looking for literature on wise leadership and could not find much work on the topic. I would be interested to get any relevant references you might have.

One of the things that strike me as odd is the apparent disconnect between what is commonly considered a wise behavior (i.e., prudent, calculated and operating towards the common good) and what is commonly considered as indicators of successful leadership in  many organization (i.e., high-risk and high-yield approach, operating towards the good of the company). In recent years it seems like some companies are taking a step forward to better integrate with the community they are located in. But often, this attempt seems to be motivated by appeasing the opposition, rather than being driven by real sense of the common good.

Thanks for your response. I have found a few things written about organizational wisdom.  Organizational Wisdom: Human, Managerial, and Strategic Implications by Eric H. Kessler appears in the Journal of Group Organization Management 2006 and can be found on line at http://gom.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/3/296.  He apparently has also written a book which I hope to soon read.

I would appreciate hearing any thoughts you might have about creating a typology for defining organizational wisdom. I beleive that leadership practices would be an element as would organizational culture.   

pbennett@resourcedevelopment.net:

I would appreciate hearing any thoughts you might have about creating a typology for defining organizational wisdom. I beleive that leadership practices would be an element as would organizational culture.   

A search on "organisational wisdom", "organisational experience", "organisational knowledge" and "organisational intelligence" shows little agreement and much overlap in how these terms are used.

Perhaps a typology for defining organisational wisdom could use the DIKW (or DIKEW) hierarchy to locate organisational wisdom within a larger context and so contrast it with those properties of organisations also praised by management consultants that you do not actually consider to be wise in themselves.

 I have found a very good paper on the topic, with many references:

- Rooney, David and McKenna, Bernard (2007) 'Wisdom in Organizations: Whence and Whither', Social Epistemology, 21:2, 113 - 138

 some other papers related to this topic:

- Sosik, J. & Lee, D. (2002). Mentoring in organizations: A social judgment perspective for developing tomorrow’s leaders. The Journal of Leadership Studies, 8 (4).

- Limas, M.J., Hansson, R.O. (2004). Organizational Wisdom. Aging and Human Development, Vol. 59(2) 85-103.

- Bierly, P.E., Kessler, E.H., & Christensen, E.W. (2000). Organizational learning, knowledge and wisdom.  Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13(6), pp. 595-618.