The question of organizational consciousness: Can organizations have values, virtues and visions?

It is common for organizational theorists as well as business practitioners to speak of an organization's visions, strategies, goals and responsibilit ies. This implies that collectivities have competencies normally attributed to individuals, i.e. to reflect, evaluate, learn and make considered choic es. The article provides a series of reflections on the concept of consciou sness in an organizational context. It is argued that, under certain condit ions, it is both meaningful and efficacious to ascribe the competency for c onscious and intentional behavior to organizations. The arguments provided are based on empirical observations, common sense and deductive reasoning.