Organization as Superorganism

This idea is re-introduced for the insect world in this interesting Wired blog.

In this artice, the authors point out that this thinking had fallen from grace for a period of time and we are now starting to see its resurgence. Talking about insect populations, Bert Holldobler, says "I work on communication mechanisms, what regulates division of labor among reproductive individuals -- and you cannot help but come back and see these highly evolved societies, like leafcutter ants, as an organism."

Before we fall in love with the notion of regarding the organisation as a superorganism we need to be careful of how we translate the metaphor into the human world. In looking at the application of complexity science (which has originated in the physical and natural sciences), Ralph Stacey issues a word of caution about simply using the language of one discipline in another discipline.

From our perspective, we would look firstly at the boundary of the organisation, then at the flow of information and material through the organisation.