Methodological Challenges and Advances in Managerial and Organization Cognition

This book explores the methodological frontiers of managerial and organizational cognition (MOC), an exciting and diverse interdisciplinary body of work that began some six decades ago with the publication in 1958 of James G. March and Herbert A. Simon’s classic work Organizations. Entering its fourth decade, the field gained significant momentum following the appearance of Anne S. Huff’s (1990) book Mapping Strategic Thought, an edited collection of chapters which explored the (then) methodological frontiers of MOC.

However, the world has changed markedly over the years that have elapsed since the publication of these important works and so, too, have the methods available to MOC researchers. Much of the early work in MOC was predicated on bounded rationality conceptions of actors as limited capacity information processing systems. These models of human cognition predated the rise of dual-process theories, implicit attitude tests, and the growing recognition of the significant role that affect – or hot cognition – plays in the workplace.

It is timely, therefore, to examine the extent to which methods that were foundational to the development of MOC are still fit for purpose. To that end, the chapters assembled in this book were commissioned from scholars who are working at the cutting edge of the field’s methodological advances, each of whom in varying ways are calling into question a number of its cherished assumptions and research practices. Some chapters revisit and update methods that were foundational to the development of the field, such as causal mapping and the repertory grid. Other chapters explore emerging techniques utilising fMRI and related advances in social neuroscience that were unheard of in the formative period of MOC.

Taking stock of MOC’s many methodological accomplishments, the thought-provoking chapters comprising this second volume of the New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition book series set the agenda for the next phase of the field’s development.