Complex Decision-Making in Economy and Finance

5Complexity and the Theory of Organizations: Implementation of Collective Intelligence

After discussing the role of agents in the previous chapter, we now consider the ways to build collective intelligence from them.

5.1. Introducing the notion of collective intelligence

Collective intelligence involves placing actors or agents in a situation where they are engaged in joint action [PEN 03]. The focus is on agents capable of receiving, processing and transmitting messages. Their actions can be totally determined (if a project) or only determined by their aims (if a program or a coalition of interest) or even determined by circumstances (in the case of a crisis).

Depending on the agents’ nature, we will speak of collective intelligence in a natural form (insect groupings, for example), artificial form (multi-agent systems) or, of course, in the most complex case, human collective intelligence. In the latter case, collaborative work is a “genotype” of situations where a collective of human beings aims to achieve a common goal by combining the efforts of each contributor. The term collaborative work covers very different realities and typologies can be proposed: group work, community work, networking, etc.

To achieve the desired level of effectiveness, the dominant paradigm in previous years was the “organizational standard” composed of predetermined strategic principles, procedures and instructions. The currents of thought of knowledge management or knowledge innovation have ...