The collective intelligence of work teams: support for developing the organization’s capacity for innovation

Abstract

The acceleration of environmental changes and the change in consumer habits require the organization to have an increased capacity to develop innovations. This capacity is essential insofar as it allows it to maintain its market share and continue to offer quality products and services that perfectly meet customer requirements. Developing the capacity for innovation is not an easy thing: it is based on the creation, acquisition and recombination of several resources. In this context, collective intelligence is an effective collective solution for mobilizing, recombining and developing a team's resources. It is a collaborative capacity to produce exceptional results far beyond those that the organization can achieve if it organizes work individually. It reflects the transition from a culture based on individuality to one based on collaboration, interdependence, exchange and sharing of resources. As a result, collective intelligence is a source of innovative ideas, which stimulates the creativity of the team based on a diversity of knowledge, skills and perspectives of each other. The objective of this manuscript is to explain the role that the collective intelligence of work teams can play in the development of the organization's capacity for innovation. To do this, a conceptual precision of our basic concepts is necessary before placing our problem in the chosen theoretical current, namely: the resource-based perspective (RBV) and its subsequent developments, in particular the knowledge-based perspective, on skills and dynamic capabilities.

Keywords : collective intelligence, innovation, collaboration, work team

JEL Classification : O3

Paper type : Theoretical Research