An analytic-intervention model of managerial intuition

Managerial intuition researchers have, understandably, made intuition the focal element of their attentions; however it is our contention that managerial intuition in organizational settings will only be imperfectly understood if intuition is considered in isolation from its contrastive, analysis. Hence in taking the intuition in management research agenda forward we propose in this theory paper a new model of how intuition and analysis are co-active in the accomplishment of intuitive decision making in organizational settings. The model is called the ‘Analytic-Intervention Model’ of managerial intuition (AIM). From the perspective of dual-processing theory we demonstrate how analysis intervenes in intuitive decision making in three distinct ways: ‘surface analytic-intervention’; ‘shallow analytic-intervention’; ‘deep analytic-intervention’. Furthermore, we specify how the co-action of intuition and analysis leads to adaptive or maladaptive outcomes contingent upon a range of individual and environmental factors. The model affords researchers novel insights into unresolved problems regarding intuition’s role in managerial decision making; it also offers practitioners guidance on if, when, and how intuition should be used.