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Cognition and Management Managerial Cognition and Organisational Performance Cognition and Management Managerial Cognition and Organisational Performance Geoffrey Goodhew December 1998 Submitted to the University of Canterbury for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. HF lowe so much to so many people who have contributed to this thesis - both directly and indirectly. First and foremost are my family - Cara, Bill, and Claire. I really can't think of anything to say that can express my gratitude to them. Without their love and almost unquestioning support, this would have been impossible. Thank you. My supervisors at University - Peter Cammack, Bob Hamilton and Stephen Dakin have all given me invaluable advice and support. On the many times when I felt I was in over my head, they provided the clarity I needed. All of the staff in the department of management both academic and secretarial- have been supportive and helpful. In particular I have to mention Ian Brooks who has always been willing to stop and have a chat. I have learned so much from all of you. I have also had the fortune of sharing an office with two other Ph.D stUdents - Mark Fox and Jo Berg. Aside from the fact that they have both finished before me, they made the daily grind bearable. I consider all of the other Ph.D students in the department to be friends who have helped me: Mike, Callum, Gavin, Oily, Thomas, Andrew, Steve and Ashley. The two names missing from that list are Tristram and Toby. They have both gone out of their way to help me by either reading drafts or figuring out how to make this computer work or just talking to me. All of you have made this a fun place to work. Finally, I have to mention some friends. Andrew and Nigel developed the vel}' good habit of dragging me out of the office - usually in search of coffee. I am not sure either of you realise how glad I was to see a friendly face. There are days when I think you saved what little sanity I have left. All of these people have contributed to this thesis and I have learnt from them all. Without their support, it may never have been finished. With them, the experience has been an enjoyable one. Thank you. nts Section Introduction 1 Chapter One: Chapter Summary 2 Section One: Introduction 2 Chapter Two: Management _________________ 2 Chapter Three: Cognition 3 Chapter Four: The Research Approach 3 Section Two: Theory 3 Chapter Five: Cognition in Organisations 4 Chapter Six: Cognition Causes Behaviour 4 Chapter Seven: Cognition and the Organisation 4 Chapter Eight: Performance in Organisation Theory 5 Chapter Nine: Some Empirical Literature: Cognition and Performance· 5 Chapter Ten: Review and Research Questions 5 Section Three: Methodology 6 Chapter Eleven: Cognitive Mapping 6 Chapter Twelve: Interviewing 6 Chapter Thirteen: Research Process 7 Chapter Fourteen: Research Site 7 Section Four: Empirical Analyses 7 Chapter Fifteen: Cognition and Performance 8 Chapter Sixteen: Managing Poor Performance 8 Chapter Seventeen: The Script and The Organisation 8 Section Five: Discussion 9 Chapter Eighteen: Recapitulation 9 Chapter Nineteen: Discussion 9 Chapter Two: Management 10 Introducing Management 10 What Management v ___. _________________ 12 Agents and 13 What is Management? 14 Studying Management 14 Studies of Management 15 Themes from this Research 15 Future Research 17 The Manager and Their Performance 18 Cognitively Flavoured Comments on Management 19 Chapter Cognition 22 The Rise of Cognition 22 Managerial and Organisational Cognition 24 Things that are cognition ___________________ 26 Chapter Four: The Research Approach 27 Research Question 27 The Nature of the Research 28 Key .v ___________________________________ 29 Ontology 29 Epistemology 30 Methodology 31 The Type of Research _____________________ 32 Inductive and Deductive Research 32 Idiographic Research 34 Qualitative Research 34 Conclusion 35 Section Two: Chapter Five: Cognition in Management and Organisations 37 Managerial and Organisational Cognition 39 The Relationship between Cognition and the Organisation 41 Cognition Causes Behaviour _________________ 41 Cognition and the Organisation 42 Discussion 43 Chapter Six: Cognition Causes Behaviour 44 Defining Cognition ______________________ 45 The Nature of Cognition 46 Cognitive Maps 49 Definition: Cognitive 49 Concepts and Relationships 50 Cognitive Maps as Representations of Meaning 52 Cognitive Maps in Management and Organisation 53 Cognitive Scripts 54 The Script Concept 54 The Components of Scripts 56 Discussion and Research Questions 57 Chapter Seven: Cognition and The Process View of Organising 60 Management and the Process of .~ _________________________ 63 Cognition, Management, and the Organisation 65 Discussion and Research Questions 66 Chapter Eight: Performance in Organisational Theory 67 Managerial and Organisation Performance 68 Meanings of Performance ___________________ 69 Themes of Organisational Effectiveness Research 70 Conceptualising Effectiveness 71 Multi-Dimensionality of Effectiveness and Performance 72 Performance Stories 74 Why Measure Performance? 75 Performance in Organisations and Performance Appraisal 76 Job Evaluation and Management 77 Performance Appraisal and the Organisation 77 Conclusions about Performance 78 Nine: Empirical Literature: Cognition and Performance 80 Cognition and Organisational Performance 81 Thomasetaf(1993) 81 Jenkins and Johnson 81 Laukkanen (1993) 82 Strategy Facilitation 82 Discussion ______________________ 82 Cognition and Performance Appraisal 83 Gioia, Sims and Donnellon 83 Foti and Lord 84 ~~an M Discussion 85 Cognition and the Organisation 85 Cognition in Crisis Situations 86 Cognition and the Performance of the Organisation 86 Discussion 87 Discussion 88 Chapter Questions 89 Cognition Causes Behaviour 89 Cognition and the Organisation 91 Conclusion 92 Section Methodology 93 Chapter Eleven: Cognitive Mapping 95 Cognitive Mapping Approaches 95 Cognitive Mapping in Management ______________~ 96 Document Coding 97 Problem Structuring 98 Multi-Stage Mapping Techniques 101 Comparing Cognitive Maps 104 Selecting an Approach 105 Chapter Twelve: Interviews 107 The Interview 108 The Interview as a Conversation 108 The Interview as Knowledge Construction 109 Doing the Interview ___________________ 110 Understanding the Data: Analysis 112 The Interview 112 Coding and Categorisation 115 Narrative 115 Theorising 116 Data Quality 117 Criteria for Data Quality in Qualitative Research 119 Ensuring Data Quality 120 Study Design and Interviews 120 Analytic Induction 121 Triangulation 122 Data and Audit Trails 123 Conclusion 125 Chapter Thirteen: The Research Process 127 A Single Research Site ___-'--- ______________ 128 Initial Contact and Access 129 Questionnaire 130 The ,Interviews 133 The Interview 133 Recording and Transcription of the 135 Interview One 136 Cognitive Mapping 137 The Managers' Accounts 139 Second 140 Confirming the Maps 140 Further Exploration 141 Performance 142 Analysis 144 Conclusion 144 Chapter Fourteen: The Research Site 146 The Organisation 146 Change _____________________ 147 Ownership 150 The Managers 151 Their Role 151 Demographics 151 The Performance Management Process and Coaching 153 The Performance Management Process 153 Coaching 155 Discussion 156 Section Four: Emph'ical Results 157 Chapter Fifteen: Cognition and Performance 159 Performance and Management ________________ 160 Cognition and Management 161 Representing Cognitive Maps 162 Features on the Cognitive Landscape 165 Simple Features 165 Emergent Features 166 Comparative Measures 167 Performance 169 The Performance Categories 170 Combining the Categories 170 Structural Analysis 171 ANOVA 171 Groups 171 Variables 172 Regression 174 Group Maps 177 Discussion 182 Similarity 183 Sparsity 184 Financial Performance Focused 185 The Role and Importance of Staff 185 Locus of Control 186 Leadership and Attribution 186 Contextual ising the Findings 188 Empirical Context 188 Theoretical Context 189 Future Research 191 General Propositions 191 Specific Propositions 191 Chapter Sixteen: Managing Poor Performance 203 Performance Management as a Domain 204 Data and Analysis 206 Narratives and Scripts ___________________ 206 Finding the 207 The Interviews 207 Coding the Data 207 Producing the Narrative 208 Checking the Stories 210 The Script for Poor Performance 210 Antecedent 211 A Script for Poor Performance 212 Talking to the Staff 212 Addressing the Problem 213 Letting them Perform 214 Variations on the Script 216 The Script and Managing Poor Performance 217 The Script Influences the Manager's 218 Partial Scripts 219 Scripts as a Template to Interpret the Situation 220 Scripts are Modified on the Basis of Managing Poor Performance 221 Discussion and Conclusion 222 The Importance of Common Routines 223 Why Poor Performance 224 Abstract Scripts 226 Enacted Scripts 227 Chapter Seventeen: The Script and the Organisation 230 The Organisation and the Script 231 Using Institutional Theory 232 Coercive Isomorphism ___________________ 233 Evidence 01 Coercive Isomorphism 233 Mimetic 234 Evidence Mimetic Isomorphism 235 Normative Isomorphism 236 Evidence of Normative Isomorphism 236 ._________________________________________ 237 Creating Organisations 238 Mutual Influence: Giddens' Structuration Theory 242 Agency and ___________________ 243 Structure and System 244 Structure 244 System 245 Duality of Structure 245 Society and The Organisation 246 Cognition, Performance, and Management 247 Managing Poor Performance and The Organisation 249 Discussion: Cognition, Performance and 250 Discussion and Conclusion 252 254 Chapter : Recapitulation
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