The study of cognition in organizations has burgeoned in recent years. Top-down information processing theory suggests that individuals create knowledge structures to help them process information and make decisions. While the benefits of employing such knowledge structures are widely noted, there is a growing concern that they can limit decision makers' abilities to understand their information environments and thus, compromise their decision making. This issue has captured the imagination of managerial and organizational cognition researchers. To date, their inquiry has been eclectic in focus and method. To order and advance this work, the author reviews extant research on the developmental origins and decision consequences of both the content and structure of knowledge structures at multiple levels of analysis. A host of research challenges are identified to help develop a better understanding of knowledge structure representation, development, and use in organizations.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2635252.pdf

Managerial and Organizational Cognition: Notes from a Trip Down Memory Lane

It is nowadays generally agreed that a person's information seeking depends on his or her tasks and the problems encountered in performing them. The relationships of broad job types and information-seeking characteristics have been analyzed both conceptually and empirically, mostly through questionnaires after task performance rather than during task performance. In this article, the relationships of task complexity, necessary information types, information channels, and sources are analyzed at the task level on the basis of a qualitative investigation. Tasks were categorized in five complexity classes and information into problem information, domain information, and problem-solving information. Moreover, several classifications of information channels and sources were utilized. The data were collected in a public administration setting through diaries, which were written during task performance, and questionnaires. The findings were structured into work charts for each task and summarized in qualitative process description tables for each task complexity category. Quantitative indices further summarizing the results were also computed. The findings indicate systematic and logical relationships among task complexity, types of information, information channels, and sources.

Task complexity affects information seeking and use

Although information-seeking efforts during organisational entry are of critical importance to newcomers' successful organisational assimilation, the means by which new hires seek information has received scant research attention. Consequently, in this article we develop a theoretical model depicting factors that may affect newcomers' information-seeking behaviors, examine the means or tactics by which they seek information, and present a series of heuristically-oriented propositions concerning newcomers' use of these tactics.

Information seeking during organizational entry: influences, tactics, and a model of the process

Corporate sustainability confronts managers with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames—a business case frame and a paradoxical frame—and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process—that is, managerial scanning, interpreting, and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, and different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues, and it develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation for why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects.

/pdf/cognitive-frames-in-corporate-sustainability-managerial-c4dv19obam.pdf

Cognitive Frames in Corporate Sustainability: Managerial Sensemaking with Paradoxical and Business Case Frames

We examine the moderating effect of industry clockspeed on the relationship between strategic schemas, strategic flexibility and firm performance. We employ two key properties of strategic schemas: complexity and focus. Using a sample of 225 firms from 14 industries, we show that the pattern of relationships among the theoretical constructs is different in fast- and slow-clockspeed industries. The results suggest that complexity of strategic schemas promotes strategic flexibility and success in fast clockspeed industries, whereas focus of strategic schemas fosters strategic persistence, which is effective in slow-clockspeed industries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic schemas, strategic flexibility, and firm performance: the moderating role of industry clockspeed

Integrative complexity of information environment perception and information use. An empirical investigation

The work presented in this paper concerns the decision-making process in complex organizational systems. It investigates decision-making rules which seem plausible in that they are consistent with assumptions concerning limits on a decision maker's information-processing capacity. The structure and relationship between decision environment, manager, and decision strategies are modeled in stochastic terms and resulting performance is studied using, Monte Carlo simulation. The basic analytical framework, initially developed by Radner and Rothschild, considers a manager who is responsible for n activities. At the beginning of each time period the manager must decide how to allocate his time among competing activities. If at time t the manager devotes all effort to activity i, its performance will improve or remain unchanged according to a stochastic rule. Likewise, if no time is allocated to an activity, its performance deteriorates or remains unchanged. Different decision strategies are investigated including putting out fires, adaptive random selection, and constant proportions. The goal is to gain insights which are useful in both describing and prescribing managerial behavior in organizations. Limitations of the model and future work are discussed.

Charles B. Stabell

Papers

Integrative complexity of information environment perception and information use. An empirical investigation

Allocation of managerial effort: An investigation of the relationship between decision strategies, environment, and performance