What is Nesting

This chapter is based on a design-based research study of organizational learning and on a subsequent integral analysis of how and why organizational learning did, and did not, occur in the study. Integral theory is applied to deepen the understanding of how human organizations learn and adapt as complex adaptive systems made up of nested, operationally closed groups and individuals. The level of development and learning potential of an organization, as holon, can be understood as an emergent property resulting from the coordination of function and action of the unities that make up the system, even given that the levels of development and learning potentials of the groups and individuals in an organization are not consistent across the organization. The advantages of combining complexity and integral theory are explored, as both are understood to provide different, complementary interpretations of whole human systems.