World Institute of Scientology Enterprises

World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) is a Church of Scientology organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It states that it is an "international membership organization whose members use both L. Ron Hubbard management technology and embrace the responsibilities and ethical standards of WISE membership."

In the history of Scientology, Hubbard said about the early Churches of Scientology: "They are not business and so fail when they try to operate like one". He then began creating a new system of organizing these churches with the stated purpose of "Disseminating Scientology to the world." This new system was modified continually until circa 1980. In the late 60s, a project began compiling his notes into hard bound volumes that later became known as the Organization Executive Course or OEC. Originally intended as a training program for church executives (hence the name), Hubbard later made them available to all church staff and stated that all staff should train on them.

However the OEC was stated to work for any kind of organization if understood. Business not connected to the church wishing to improve their own success reportedly began hiring trained church staff in the 70s causing problems in the church. In the 1980s Hubbard created WISE with the intention of giving any non-church related organization a means to train their own staff so that Scientology churches and missions could train their staff without fear of losing them to other groups.

WISE was officially incorporated in 1979.

Membership in WISE means that the owner(s) of the firm have embraced Hubbard's administrative ideas such as management by statistics and the Org board and have agreed to abide by a certain Code of Ethics which includes arbitration by a WISE mediator of any disputes with another WISE member. That is the basic company membership. If the firm also wants to train its employees in the Hubbard administrative technology using WISE materials then they become a higher-level member by paying a pre-determined amount of money to WISE. Some employees and prospective employees have objected to this formal training in that it is something that is also a part of Scientology and a number have filed discrimination lawsuits with mixed results.

WISE Members include e-Republic, which publishes Government Technology and Converge magazines and coordinates the Center for Digital Government. Other affiliated firms include various "alternative health" centers including "The Natural Health Centre" in Redondo Beach, CA which is owned and operated by Dr. Grace Syn. WISE ANZO members include Gallop Solutions based in Sydney, Australia.

...
Wikipedia