ANRV331-PS59-15 ARI 16 November 2007 14:57 Cognition in Organizations Gerard P. Hodgkinson and Mark P. Healey Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom; email: [email protected], [email protected] Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008. 59:387–417 Key Words First published online as a Review in Advance on managerial and organizational cognition, organizational behavior, June 4, 2007 information processing, decision making, cognitive engineering, The Annual Review of Psychology is online at shared cognition http://psych.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: Abstract 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093612 This article reviews major developments from 2000 to early 2007 by UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS on 01/03/08. For personal use only. Copyright c 2008 by Annual Reviews. in the psychological analysis of cognition in organizations. Our re- All rights reserved view, the first in this series to survey cognitive theory and research 0066-4308/08/0203-0387$20.00 spanning the entire field of industrial and organizational psychol- Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008.59:387-417. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org ogy, considers theoretical, empirical, and methodological advances across 10 substantive domains of application. Two major traditions, the human factors and organizational traditions, have dominated cognitively oriented research in this field. Our central message is that the technological and human systems underpinning contempo- rary organizational forms are evolving in ways that demand greater cooperation among researchers across both traditions. Such coop- eration is necessary in order to gain theoretical insights of sufficient depth and complexity to refine the explanation and prediction of be- havior in organizations and derive psychologically sound solutions to the unprecedented information-processing burdens confronting the twenty-first century workforce. 387 ANRV331-PS59-15 ARI 16 November 2007 14:57 cordingly, there has been a dramatic growth Contents in psychological research directed toward ad- vancing understanding of the cognitive capa- INTRODUCTION................. 388 bilities and limitations of managers and em- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ployees, with a view to enhancing productivity AND THEORETICAL and well-being in the workplace. FOUNDATIONS................ 389 Our article is the first in the The Human Factors Tradition .... 389 Annual Re- to cover advances in cogni- The Organizational Tradition ..... 389 view of Psychology tive theory and research across the industrial Computation and Interpretation: and organizational (I/O) psychology field as Metaphors Bridging the a whole. Hence, we commence with a brief Traditions..................... 391 overview of historical developments, includ- SUBSTANTIVE DOMAINS OF ing the principal theoretical advances in cog- APPLICATION ................. 391 nitive psychology and social cognition that Personnel Selection and have informed the contemporary cognitive Assessment.................... 391 analysis of behavior in organizations. We Work Groups and Teams ......... 392 then survey key developments across 10 ma- Training and Development........ 394 jor substantive domains of I/O psychology, Stress and Occupational Health . 395 namely, personnel selection and assessment, Work Motivation ................. 395 work groups and teams, training and devel- Work Design and Cognitive opment, stress and occupational health, work Ergonomics ................... 396 motivation, work design and cognitive er- Leadership ....................... 397 gonomics, leadership, organizational decision Organizational Decision Making . 398 making, organizational change and develop- Organizational Change and ment, and individual differences. Finally, we Development ................. 399 review recent methodological advances and Individual Differences ............ 401 highlight future directions for the field as a METHODOLOGICAL whole. DEVELOPMENTS ............. 402 For the purposes of this review, it is useful FUTURE CHALLENGES ......... 403 to conceive of psychological research on Crossing the Traditions ........... 403 cognition in organizations as falling into Crossing the Domains ............ 404 two major traditions: (a) the human factors by UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS on 01/03/08. For personal use only. Integrative Understanding Within tradition, and ( ) the organizational tradition. Domains ...................... 404 b Research in both traditions has important The Challenge of Emotion ....... 404 implications for the design of tasks, jobs, and Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008.59:387-417. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org Laboratory Versus Field .......... 405 new organizational forms, and for enriching CONCLUSIONS................... 405 the understanding of behavior both within and between organizations. As our review demonstrates, there are clear signs that in re- INTRODUCTION cent years human factors and organizational The study of cognition in organizations has researchers have begun to cooperate across been on the ascendancy for the past two these traditions. Our overarching conclusion, I/O: industrial and decades. This should come as no surprise, for however, is that such is the scale of the changes organizational the vast scale of political, economic, social, that have occurred in the world of work over and technological change confronting mod- recent decades that greater cooperation is ern organizations is placing unprecedented now required in order to advance theoretical information-processing burdens on the indi- understanding of sufficient sophistication to viduals and groups working within them. Ac- inform the development of psychologically 388 Hodgkinson · Healey ANRV331-PS59-15 ARI 16 November 2007 14:57 sound solutions to the increasingly complex and dials era gave way to the era of human- challenges confronting the contemporary computer interaction, informing the design workforce. of computer-based systems, from basic desk- top machines to modern-day flight decks. Al- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND though the mental models concept, coined AND THEORETICAL initially by Craik (1943), continues to play FOUNDATIONS a central role in this more recent work, it has been the subject of increasingly critical The purpose of this section is to outline, al- scrutiny amid debates concerning its defini- beit briefly, the history of work on cognition tion and usage, ranging from conceptions as in organizations, from its inception to the out- temporary dynamic models in working mem- set of the current review period, in order to ory, in similar vein to Johnson-Laird’s (1983) provide the necessary background to inform notion of mental models, to enduring knowl- a coherent and integrated review of contem- edge structures in long-term memory, akin to porary developments across the 10 main do- Bartlett’s (1932) notion of schema (see Rouse mains of application. & Morris 1986). As observed by Wickens & Carswell The Human Factors Tradition (2006), in addition to the staged-based The human factors tradition subsumes the approach enumerated above, two other fields of engineering psychology and human approaches to human information processing performance, including psychological aspects currently prevail within the human factors of ergonomics, which blossomed as behav- tradition. The first, known as the ecological iorism gave way to cognitivism. The human approach, emphasizes human interaction with information-processing approach to the anal- the environment and is characterized by the ysis of skilled performance rose to promi- study of expertise in naturalistic settings. The nence toward the end of the Second World second, the cognitive engineering approach, War. Researchers attempted to refine under- constitutes a hybrid approach bringing standing of the perceptual-motor tasks that together key elements of the stage-based predominated work in heavy industry at that and ecological approaches, in an attempt time through the detailed analysis and mod- to further understanding of the interactions eling of the human-machine interface. Draw- between task and environmental constraints ing on the computational metaphor that then and operators’ knowledge structures. Human by UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS on 01/03/08. For personal use only. predominated in cognitive experimental psy- factors researchers adopting the cognitive en- chology, researchers in this tradition con- gineering approach (e.g., Zhang & Norman ceptualized the execution of skilled perfor- 1994) are beginning to examine the role Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008.59:387-417. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org mance as a stage-based sequence of functions, of complex workplace technology as both including sensory and perceptual processes, a shaper and repository of knowledge (see memory, and decision making, culminating in also Hutchins 1995), a trend paralleled in the execution of skilled responses (see, e.g., the organizational tradition (cf. Walsh & Broadbent 1958). Ungson 1991). Salvendy (2006) provides As organizational technologies evolved, extensive coverage of work in the human researchers turned to investigate more di- factors tradition from its inception up to the rectly human operators’ mental representa- current review period. tions of complex industrial processes and systems in order to explore their nature and impact on system performance (see, e.g., The Organizational Tradition Edwards & Lees 1974). Following Card et al.’s Theory and research within this tradition (1983) seminal volume, the so-called knobs have gathered momentum over the past two