Cognition in strategic decision making: A model of nonconventional thinking capacities for complex situations

Management Decision

Volumn 47, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 209-232

  Mckenzie, Jane ^a   Woolf, Nick ^a   Van Winkelen, Christine ^a   Morgan, Clare ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF READING   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Cognition; Decision making; Management strategy; Reasoning

Indexed keywords

EID: 68549139966     PISSN: 00251747     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/00251740910938885     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. Ackoff, R.L. (1999), Re-Creating the Corporation: A Design of Organizations for the Twenty-First Century, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
2. Ansoff, H.I. (1975), “Managing strategic surprise by response to weak signals”, California Management Review, Vol. 18, pp. 2-33.
3. April, K.A. and Hill, S. (2000), “The uncertainty and ambiguity of leadership in the 21st century”, South African Journal of Business Management, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 45-52.
4. Aram, E. and Noble, D. (1999), “Educating prospective managers in the complexity of organizational life”, Management Learning, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 321-342.
5. Argyris, C. (1977), “Double loop learning in organizations”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 55 No. 5, pp. 115-125.
6. Argyris, C. (1991), “Teaching smart people how to learn”, Harvard Business Review Classics, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 4-15.
7. Argyris, C. and Schön, D.A. (1974), Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
8. Ashmos, D.P., Duchon, D., Mc Daniel, R.R.J. and Huonker, J.W. (2002), “What a mess! Participation as a simple managerial rule to ‘complexify’ organisations”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 189-206.
9. Baker-Brown, G., Ballard, E.J., Bluck, S., De Vries, B., Suedfeld, P. and Tetlock, P.E. (1992), “The conceptual/integrative complexity scoring manual”, in Ed. Smith, C.P. (Ed.), Motivation and Personality: Handbook of Thematic Content Analysis, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.
10. Barnard, C. (1968), The Functions of the Executive, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
11. Bartunek, J.M. (1988), “The dynamics of personal and organizational reframing”, in Ed. Quinn, R.E. and Ed. Cameron, K.S. (Eds), Paradox and Transformation: Towards a Theory of Change in Organization and Management, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA.
12. Bartunek, J. and Mock, M.K. (1994), “Third-order organizational change and the Western mystical tradition”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 24-41.
13. Bartunek, J., Gordon, J.R. and Weathersby, R.P. (1983), “Developing ‘complicated’ understanding in administrators”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 8, pp. 273-284.
14. Basseches, M. (1984), Dialectical Thinking and Adult Development, Norwood, Ablex, NJ.
15. Bateson, G. (1972), Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Ballantyne Books, New York, NY.
16. Bereiter, C. and Scardamalia, M. (1993), Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry into the Nature and Implications of Expertise, Open Court, Chicago, IL.
17. Bogart, K., Geis, F., Levy, M. and Zimbardo, P. (1969), “No dissonance for Machiavellians?”, in Ed. Zimbardo, P. (Ed.), The Cognitive Control of Motivation, Scott Foresman, Glenview, IL.
18. Bourgeois, L.J. and Eisenhardt, K.M. (1988), “Strategic decision processes in high velocity environments. Four cases in the microcomputer industry”, Management Science, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 816-835.
19. Boyatzis, R.E. and Mc Kee, A. (2005), Resonant Leadership. Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others through Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
20. Buchanan, L. and O'Connell, A. (2006), “A brief history of decision making”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 84 No. 1, pp. 32-41.
21. Centre for the Study of Intelligence (1999), Keeping an Open Mind, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC.
22. Chanowitz, B. and Langer, E.J. (1981), “Premature cognitive commitment”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 41 No. 6, pp. 1051-63.
23. Churchman, C.W. (1967), “Wicked problems”, Management Science, Vol. 14, pp. B141-B142.
24. Clarke, I. and Mackaness, W. (2001), “Management ‘intuition’: an interpretive account of structure and content of decision schemas using cognitive maps”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 147-172.
25. Coff, R. (1997), “Human assets and management dilemmas: coping with hazards on the road to resource based theory”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 374-402.
26. Cohen, W.M. and Levinthal, D. (1990), “Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 128-153.
27. Coutu, D. (2006), “Ideas as art. The HBR interview with James G. March”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 84 No. 10, pp. 82-89.
28. Coyne, J.C. (1985), “Toward a theory of frames and reframing: the social nature of framing”, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 337-344.
29. Damasio, A. (2006), Descartes Error, Vintage books, London.
30. Day, G.S. and Schoemaker, P.J.H. (2004), “Driving through the fog: managing at the edge”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 127-142.
31. Day, G.S. and Schoemaker, P.J.H. (2005), “Scanning the periphery”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83 No. 11, pp. 135-148.
32. De Bono, E. (1990), I Am Right – You Are Wrong: From This to the New Renaissance: From Rock Logic to Water Logic, Viking, London.
33. De Geus, A. (1988), “Planning as learning”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 66 No. 2, pp. 70-75.
34. Dean, J.W. Jr and Shareman, M.P. (1996), “Does decision process matter? A study of strategic decision-making effectiveness”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 368-396.
35. Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989), “Making fast strategic decisions in high-velocity environments”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 543-576.
36. Eisenhardt, K.M. and Westcott, B.J. (1988), “Paradoxical demands and the creation of excellence: the case of just-in-time manufacturing”, in Ed. Quinn, R.E. and Ed. Cameron, K.S. (Eds), Paradox and Transformation: Towards a Theory of Change in Organization and Management, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA.
37. Elbow, P. (1986), Embracing Contraries, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
38. Ford, J.D. and Ford, L.W. (1994), “Logics of identity, contradiction, and attraction in change”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 756-785.
39. French, R. (2001), “‘Negative capability’: managing the confusing uncertainties of change”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 14 No. 5, pp. 480-492.
40. Friedman, V.J. and Lipshitz, R. (1992), “Teaching people to shift cognitive gears: overcoming resistance on the road to Model II”, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 118-136.
41. Fritz, R. (1994), The Path of Least Resistance, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
42. Goldman, E.F. (2006), “Strategic thinking at the top. What matters in developing experts”, Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, Atlanta, GA, 17-20 May, pp. F1-F6.
43. Hambrick, D.C., Finkelstein, S. and Mooney, A.C. (2005), “Executive job demands. New insights for explaining strategic decisions and leaders behaviour”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 472-491.
44. Hampden-Turner, C. (1990), Charting the Corporate Mind, Blackwell, Oxford.
45. Harmon-Jones, E. (1999), “Toward an understanding of the motivation underlying dissonance effects: is the production of aversive consequences necessary?”, in Ed. Harmon-Jones, E. and Ed. Mills, J. (Eds), Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
46. Harmon-Jones, E. and Harmon-Jones, C. (2002), “Testing the action-based model of cognitive dissonance: the effect of action orientation on post-decisional attitudes”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 711-723.
47. Harmon-Jones, E. and Mills, J. (1999), “An introduction to cognitive dissonance and an overview of current perspectives on the theory”, in Ed. Harmon-Jones, E. and Ed. Mills, J. (Eds), Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
48. Harrison, E.F. (1996), “A process perspective on strategic decision making”, Management Decision, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 46-53.
49. Horn, R.E. (Ed.) (1983), Trialectics: Towards a Practical Logic of Unity, Information Resources, Lexington, MA.
50. Huber, G.L. and Sorentino, R.M. (1996), “Uncertainty in interpersonal and intergroup relations. An individual differences perspective”, in Ed. Sorentino, R.M. and Ed. Higgins, E.T. (Eds), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition, Guilford Press, New York, NY.
51. Isenberg, D.J. (1986), “The structure and process of understanding”, in Ed. Sims, H.P. Jr and Ed. Gioia, D.A. (Eds), The Thinking Organization, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
52. Jang, S. and Chung, M.-H. (1997), “Discursive contradiction of tradition and modernity in Korean management practices”, in Ed. Sackmann, S.A. (Ed.), Cultural Complexity: Inherent Contrasts and Contradictions, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
53. Janis, I. and Mann, L. (1977), Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice and Commitment, The Free Press, New York, NY.
54. Johnson, L.K. (2006), “Boost your company's creativity”, Harvard Management Update, Vol. 11, pp. 3-4.
55. Jonassen, D.H. (1997), “Instructional design models for well-structured and ill-structured problem-solving learning outcomes”, Educational Technology Research & Development, Vol. 45 No. 1, pp. 65-94.
56. Jonassen, D.H. (2000), “Toward a design theory of problem solving”, Educational Technology Research & Development, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 63-85.
57. Jonassen, D.H. (2004), Learning to Solve Problems. An Instructional Design Guide, Pfeiffer, San Francisco, CA.
58. Kahn, W.A. (1990), “The psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33, pp. 692-724.
59. Kegan, R. (1994), In Over Our Heads; The Mental Demands of Modern Life, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
60. Kelso, A.S. (1995), Dynamic Patterns. The Self Organization of Brain and Behaviour, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
61. King, P.M. and Kitchener, K.S. (1994), Developing Reflective Judgment, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
62. Klein, G.A. (1993), “A recognition-primed decision (RPD) model of rapid decision making”, in Ed. Klein, G.A. (Ed.), Decision Making in Action: Models and Methods, Ablex, Norwood, NJ.
63. Klein, G. (1997), “Developing expertise in decision making”, Thinking and Reasoning, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 337-352.
64. Kramer, D.A. (1983), “Post-formal operations? A need for further conceptualization”, Human Development, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 91-105.
65. Kruglanski, A.W. and Webster, D.M. (1996), “Motivated closing of the mind: ‘seizing’ and ‘freezing’”, Psychological Review, Vol. 103 No. 2, pp. 263-283.
66. Kuhn, T.N. (1996), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL.
67. Langer, E.J. (1989), Mindfulness, Perseus, Reading, MA.
68. Langer, E.J. (1997), The Power of Mindful Learning, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
69. Langer, E.J. (2000), “The construct of mindfulness”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 56 No. 1, pp. 1-9.
70. Lerner, A. (1980), “Orientation to ambiguity”, in Ed. Fiddle, S. (Ed.), Uncertainty: Behavioral and Social Dimensions, Praeger, New York, NY.
71. Levine, D.N. (1985), The Flight from Ambiguity, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
72. Lewis, M. (2000), “Exploring paradox: toward a more comprehensive guide”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 760-776.
73. Lohman, D.F. (1993), “Teaching and testing to develop fluid abilities”, Educational Researcher, Vol. 22 No. 7, pp. 12-23.
74. Lohman, D.F. and Scheurman, G. (1992), “Fluid abilities and epistemic thinking: some prescriptions for adult education”, in Ed. Tuijnam, A.C. and Ed. Van Der Kamp, M. (Eds), Learning for Life: Theories, Research, Policies, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
75. Lundberg, O. and Richards, M.D. (1972), “A relationship between cognitive style and complex decision making: implications for business policy”, Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, St Louis, MO, April 20-2.
76. Lundy, R.M. and Berkowitz, B. (1957), “Cognitive complexity and assimilative projection in attitude change”, Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 34-37.
77. Mc Bain, R. (2007), “The practice of engagement”, Strategic HR Review, Vol. 6, pp. 16-17.
78. Mc Kenna, R.J. and Martin-Smith, B. (2005), “Decision making as a simplification process; new conceptual perspectives”, Management Decision, Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 821-836.
79. Mc Kenzie, J. (1996), Paradox – The Next Strategic Dimension, Mc Graw-Hill, Maidenhead and New York, NY.
80. Mc Kenzie, J. and Van Winkelen, C. (2004), Understanding the Knowledgeable Organization: Nurturing Knowledge Competence, International Thomson, London.
81. Mann, L., Burnett, P., Radford, M. and Ford, S. (1997), “The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire: an instrument for measuring patterns for coping with decisional conflict”, Journal of Behavioural Decision Making, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 1-19.
82. March, J. (1991), “Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning”, Organization Science, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 71-87.
83. Mason, R. and Mitroff, I. (1981), Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions, Wiley, New York, NY.
84. May, D.L., Gilson, R.L. and Harter, L.M. (2004), “The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work”, Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 77 No. 1, pp. 11-37.
85. Mead, G.H. (1934), Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
86. Morgan, G. (1986), Images of Organization, 1st ed., Sage, London.
87. Morgan, G. (1997), Images of Organization, 2nd ed., Sage, Thousands Oaks, CA.
88. Moses, J.L. and Lyness, K.S. (1988), “Individual and organizational responses to ambiguity”, in Ed. Schoorman, F.D. and Ed. Schneider, B. (Eds), Facilitating Work Effectiveness, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA.
89. Myeong-Gu, S. and Feldman Barret, L. (2007), “Being emotional during decision making – good or bad? An empirical investigation”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 50 No. 4, pp. 923-940.
90. Newby-Clark, I.R., Mc Gregor, I. and Zanna, M.P. (2002), “Thinking and caring about cognitive inconsistency: when and for whom does attitudinal ambivalence feel uncomfortable?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 82 No. 2, pp. 157-166.
91. Nonaka, I. (1994), “A dynamic theory of organisational knowledge creation”, Organization Science, Vol. 5, pp. 14-37.
92. Nutt, P.C. (2001), “Decision débâcles and how to avoid them”, Business Strategy Review, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 1-14.
93. Peng, K. and Nisbett, R.E. (1999), “Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradiction”, American Psychologist, Vol. 54 No. 9, pp. 741-754.
94. Powell, T.C., Lovallo, D. and Caringal, C. (2006), “Causal ambiguity, management perception, and firm performance”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 175-196.
95. Quinn, R.E. (1988), Beyond Rational Management: Mastering the Paradoxes and Competing Demands of High Performance, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
96. Quinn, R.E. and Cameron, K.S. (1988), “Paradox and transformation: a framework for viewing organization and management”, in Ed. Quinn, R.E. and Ed. Cameron, K.S. (Eds), Paradox and transformation: Towards a Theory of Change in Organization and Management, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA.
97. Quinn, R.E. and Mc Grath, M.R. (1985), “The transformation of organizational cultures: a competing values perspective”, in Ed. Frost, P.J., Ed. Moore, L.F., Ed. Louis, M.R., Ed. Lundberg, C.C. and Ed. Martin, J. (Eds), Organizational Culture, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
98. Rothenberg, A. (1979), The Emerging Goddess: The Creative Process in Art, Science, and Other Fields, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
99. Schön, D.A. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
100. Schweiger, D.M., Sandberg, W.R. and Ragan, J.W. (1986), “Group approaches for improving strategic decision making: a comparative analysis of dialectical inquiry, devil's advocacy, and consensus”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 29, pp. 51-71.
101. Schwenk, C.R. (1983), “Laboratory research on ill-structured decision aids: the case of dialectical inquiry”, Decision Sciences, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 140-4.
102. Seeley Brown, J. and Duguid, P. (2002), The Social Life of Information, Harvard Business Press, Boston, MA.
103. Sinclair, M. and Ashkanasy, N.M. (2005), “Intuition: myth or a decision-making tool?”, Management Learning, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 353-370.
104. Sinnott, J.D. (1989), “A model for solution of ill-structured problems: implications for everyday and abstract problem solving”, in Ed. Sinnott, J.D. (Ed.), Everyday Problem Solving: Theory and Applications, Praeger, New York, NY.
105. Sinnott, J.D. (1998), The Development of Logic in Adulthood: Post-Formal Thought and its Applications, Plenum Press, New York, NY.
106. Smith, W.K. and Tushman, M.L. (2005), “Managing strategic contradictions: a top management model for managing innovation streams”, Organization Science, Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 522-536.
107. Snowden, D. and Boone, M.E. (2007), “A leader's framework for decision making”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 85 No. 11, pp. 68-76.
108. Spiro, R.J. and Jehng, J.C. (1990), “Cognitive flexibility and hypertext: theory and technology for the non-linear and multi-dimensional traversal of complex subject matter”, in Ed. Nix, D. and Ed. Spiro, R.J. (Eds), Cognitive Education and Multimedia: Explorations in High Technology, Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
109. Spiro, R.J., Vispoel, W.L., Schmitz, J., Samarapungavan, A. and Boerger, A. (1987), “Knowledge acquisition for application: cognitive flexibility and transfer in complex content domains”, in Ed. Britton, B.C. and Ed. Glynn, S. (Eds), Executive Control Processes, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
110. Stacey, R.D. (1996), Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics, Pitman, London.
111. Stacey, R. (2006), “Learning: an activity of interdependent people”, in Ed. Mac Intosh, R., Ed. Mac Lean, D., Ed. Stacey, R. and Ed. Griffin, D. (Eds), Complexity and Organization. Readings and Conversations, Routledge, Abingdon.
112. Stacey, R. and Griffin, D. (Eds) (2005), A Complexity Perspective on Researching Organizations: Taking Experience Seriously, Routledge, London.
113. Streufert, S. and Nogami, G.Y. (Eds) (1989), Cognitive Style and Complexity. Implications for I/O Psychology, John Wiley, New York, NY.
114. Stroh, P. and Miller, W.W. (1994), “Learning to thrive on paradox”, Training and Development, Vol. 48 No. 9, pp. 28-39.
115. Thompson, J. (1967), Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, NY.
116. Toffler, A. (1990), Powershift; Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century, Bantam, New York, NY.
117. Tuckman, B. (1964), “Personality structure, group composition and group functioning”, Sociometry, Vol. 27, pp. 469-487.
118. Van de Ven, A.H. and Poole, M.S. (1998), “Paradoxical requirements for a theory of change”, in Ed. Cameron, K.S. and Ed. Quinn, R.E. (Eds), Paradox and Transformation, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA.
119. Van Hiel, A. and Mervielde, I. (2002), “Effects of ambiguity and need for closure on the acquisition of information”, Social Cognition, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 380-408.
120. Voss, J.F. and Post, T.A. (1988), “On the solving of ill-structured problems”, in Ed. Chi, M.T.H., Ed. Glaser, R. and Ed. Farr, M.J. (Eds), The Nature of Expertise, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
121. Weick, K.E. and Roberts, K.H. (2001), “Collective mind in organisations: heedful interrelating on flight decks”, in Ed. Weick, K.E. (Ed.), Making Sense of the Organization, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford.
122. Westenholtz, A. (1993), “Paradoxical thinking and change in the frames of reference”, Organization Studies, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 37-58.
123. Woolf, N.H. (2003), “Paradoxical thinking in managers of organizations”, doctoral dissertation, Dissertation Abstracts International, UMI No. 3114408, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
124. Ybema, S. (1996), “A duck-billed platypus in the theory and analysis of organizations: combinations of consensus and dissensus”, in Ed. Koot, W., Ed. Sabelis, I. and Ed. Ybema, S. (Eds), Contradictions in Context: Puzzling over Paradoxes in Contemporary Organizations, VU University Press, Amsterdam.
125. Schweiger, D.M., Sandberg, W.R. and Rechner, P.L. (1989), “Experiential effects of dialectical inquiry, devil's advocacy and consensus approaches to strategic decision making”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 32, pp. 745-772.