Purpose: Seeks to explore the notion of organisational intelligence as a simple extension of the notion of the idea of collective intelligence. Design/methodology/approach: Discusses organisational intelligence using previous research, which includes the Purpose, Properties and Practice model of Dealtry, and the Viable Systems model. Findings: The notion of organisational intelligence requires a metaphorically defined psychological frame of reference. In trying to formulate this metaphor, there has been a need to explore the collective from a psychological perspective. Applications of the notion of organisational intelligence operate in a variety of areas, and two of these are in organisational learning and managerial cybernetics. In the latter an interest lies in dealing with organisational pathologies, resulting in viable systems. Originality/value: Addresses the need for developing organisational intelligence. (Contains 5 figures and 4 tables.)