As with most highly complex terms, everyone is right and everyone is wrong. Many people see organizations as machines, organisms, persons, groups, families, family dynasties . Organizations, like people, have life cycles . Many people view organizational learning much like we view organisms to be learning.
Organizations can accumulate and manage knowledge as well.
There are a variety of books that describe other traits of organizations much like traits of people, e.g., depressed organizations, addictive organizations, etc. One of the most common ways to look at organizations is as organizational systems . This view is becoming common among professionals who study, teach and write about organizations. Practitioners who work with organizational management to improve organizations also tend to view organizations as systems. Note that machines, organisms, persons, groups, families, family dynasties are all systems, too.