Chapter 1: Exploring Methods in Managerial and Organizational Cognition: Advances, Controversies, and Contributions

Abstract

This book comprises the second volume in the recently launched New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition book series. Volume 1 (Sund, Galavan, & Huff, 2016), addressed the topic of strategic uncertainty. This second volume comprises a collection of contributions that variously report new methodological developments in managerial and organizational cognition (MOC), reflect critically on those developments, and consider the challenges that have yet to be confronted in order to further advance this exciting and dynamic interdisciplinary field. Contextualizing within an overarching framework the various contributions selected for inclusion in the present volume, in this opening chapter we reflect more broadly on what we consider the most significant developments that have occurred over recent years and the most significant challenges that lie ahead.

Reflections on the First Five Volumes of New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition

“…Vuori (2018) reflects on interview techniques that can be used to capture not just cognitions, but also emotions surrounding these cognitions. Capturing and theorizing about affective states have thus led to advances in the study of "hot" cognition (Hodgkinson et al, 2018;Hodgkinson & Healey, 2008), and how emotions may interfere with processes such as innovation (Bez & Chesbrough, 2021;Sund et al, 2019).…”

“…Not all published papers fall under these themes, and our attempt is thus not to outline every contribution but to consider a sample of the richness and breadth of contributions. For more details on the content of the previous volumes we would refer the reader to the introductory papers for each of these Hodgkinson, Sund, & Galavan, 2018;Sund, Galavan, & Brusoni, 2019;Sund, Galavan, & Bogers, 2021).…”

Chapter 1 Cognition and Innovation: A Framework and Invitation to Explore

“…Eden & Spender, 1998;Fiol & Huff, 1992;Huff, 1990;Hodgkinson & Healey, 2008;Walsh, 1995). Common to such methods is that they focus on what can be referred to as "conscious" and "cold" cognition (Hodgkinson and Healey, 2011;Hodgkinson, Sund, & Galavan, 2018), i.e. rational thoughts of which we are aware and can process in the absence of emotion.…”

“…Informed by dual-process theory we now see studies examining how the aspects of our thinking that we do not entirely control or are not entirely aware of, influence our decisions (e.g., Chaiken & Trope, 1999;Epstein, 1994;Kahneman, 2011;Sloman, 1996;Smith & DeCoster, 2000). Studies of, for example, subconscious goals, implicit attitudes, and implicit affect, have broadened our understanding of human decision-making and shown it to be more complicated than we previously imagined (Hodgkinson, Sund, & Galavan, 2018).…”

From Cooperation to Competition: Changing Dominant Logics and Legitimization in Liberalizing Industries

“…Studies of managerial and organizational cognition continue to be popular in the business and management literatures, not least thanks to a renewed interest in the micro-foundations of strategy and organizational behavior (Teece 2007). Interpretation theories dominated early studies, while more recently theories of sense-making, identity, and institutions appear to have come to the forefront (Hodgkinson et al 2017;Huff et al 2016;Sund et al 2016). The individual manager has thus been referred to as an information worker, and organization has been seen as a mechanism by which people collectively make sense of the world around them and act on their interpretations (Sund 2015;Weick 1995).…”