Organizational intelligence in the digital age

Abstract

In this chapter we investigate the taken-for-granted assumption that the use of analytics makes organizations more intelligent. We discuss how analytics influences learning from experience, one of the processes of organizational intelligence that informs rational choice. In particular, we revisit the cycle of choice, a fundamental framework in the field of organization theory, according to which organizations learn by making choices following a closed cycle of connections between the beliefs held by individuals, the individual behavior, the organizational choices and the responses from the environment. We examine each case of possible breakdown in the cycle of choice and analyze whether the use of analytics could help avoid the breakdown. We conclude that while analytics may support learning from experience and avoid certain types of breakdowns, relying too much on analytics can also trigger new breakdowns in the cycle. We close the chapter with a reminder that while organizations indeed need to use tools that make them smarter, they also need technologies of foolishness.

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