Exploring Knowledge Processing in a Social Complex Adaptive Organization : Wikipedia through the Lens of the LIFE Model

A deeper understanding of how organizations behave as social complex adaptive systems is needed. In this paper we demonstrate how the Leadership Invigorating Flows of Energies model can help with this understanding. The model highlights the role of emergent leadership as a force encouraging the creation, diffusion, and utilization of knowledge through self-organizing mechanisms. We illustrate our approach by examining Wikipedia and show how it can be described as a social CAS. Our analysis of Wikipedia describes how emerging intrapreneurship behaviors result in dynamic flows of knowledge and self-organizing feedback mechanisms across the organization. We provide implications for organization studies and present evidence to support claims made by advocates of complexity theory. We conclude by proposing that Wikipedia can be seen as a new form of organization, and finish with a brief note highlighting a possible way forward.