Cognitive Factions in a Top Management Team: Surfacing and Analyzing Cognitive Diversity using Causal Maps

Cognitive diversity has been shown to positively affect team performance, especially in the early stages of strategic planning. We report on a process that explicitly identifies cognitive factions; sub-groups of individuals with diverse views and beliefs within a top management team (TMT). Our group-driven causal mapping process provides greater clarity to understanding the underlying belief structures of the cognitive factions through the adoption of givens-means-ends (GME) and casual path analysis. We achieve this clarity by having members of the TMT define and agree on the strategic factors before they construct their individual cause maps. Through this process, based on the relationships shared among the team members, we can readily merge individual cause maps into cognitive faction maps. By employing GME and casual path analysis to the cognitive faction maps, we can surface the differences in beliefs among the different cognitive factions within the TMT. We demonstrate our process using a 13-person TMT from an information technology services firm. The cause maps of the cognitive factions directly represent some of the issues and assumptions that need to be discussed and debated among the members of the TMT, thus increasing the potential for cognitive faction beliefs to enhance decision-making. We also find that cognitive factions relate to task roles of the team members, providing further evidence that different beliefs develop in different areas of the organization.     

Cognitive Mapping: A Process to Support Strategic Planning in an Academic Department

Cognitive mapping has been used to support strategic planning in business. However, the process has seldom been utilized to support strategic planning in nonprofit public organizations, where many reporting lines are less clear. This paper describes how the cognitive mapping process was designed and implemented to help a large academic department identify and merge the individual goals of faculty members as a first step in creating a strategic plan. Each map was created using the Decision Explorer^TM software during individual interviews, as opposed to using paper and pencil. An action case approach was used to plan and evaluate individual mapping sessions. Eliciting individual cognitive maps led to greater engagement by faculty in the strategic planning process. Nearly all of the participating faculty members believed that the cognitive mapping process was helpful and insightful and the resulting map was accurate and complete.     

Cognitive Maps and a Hyperknowledge Support System in Strategic Management

Strategic management is defined as the system of action programs which form sustainable competitive advantages for a corporation, its divisions, and its business units in a strategic planning period.We have developed a system called Woodstrat to serve as a support system for these action program activities on both the corporate, the divisional, and the business unit levels. The system is modular and is built around the logic of strategic management, i.e., the main modules cover the market position; the competitive position; the production position; and the profitability, investment, and financing positions. The innovation in Woodstrat is that these modules are linked together, i.e., when a strong market position is built into some market segment, it will have an immediate impact on profitability through links running from the assumptions on an expected development to the projected profit/loss statement. There are similar links making the competitive position interact with the market position, and the production position interact with both the market and the competitive positions, and with the profitability and financing positions.The intermodular links are based on expert knowledge of strategic management; expert knowledge is also worked into the modules such that the logic of strategic management guides the user through the process of working out sustainable competitive advantages. The process is made user-supportive with a hyperknowledge user interface. The support is made intuitive and effective with the use of object-oriented expert system technology. The basis for this is rather unusual: the Woodstrat system was built with Visual Basic, in which the objects to create a hyperknowledge environment were built.It is shown that the conceptual constructs which form strategic management can be described with cognitive maps, and that these can be adequately represented with our hyperknowledge objects. It is also shown that the knowledge formation which takes place in a management team when strategic plans are formed can be described and validated with a hyperknowledge support system. It is finally shown that a support system with hyperknowledge features, which are close to the cognitive maps of a management team, will have a profound impact on the depth and the structure of its strategic management processes.     

A Multi-Agent View of Strategic Planning Using Group Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence

The strategic planning process is dynamic and complex. Including a Group Support System (GSS) in the problem-solving process can improve the content quality of the strategic plan by allowing increased participation by more members of the organization. However, it can also add to the complexity of the problem by increasing the quantity of textual information that can result from group activity. Added complexity increases cognitive overload and frustrations of those participants negotiating the contents of the strategic plan. This article takes a multi-agent view of the strategic planning process. It considers group participants as multiple agents concerned with the content quality of the strategic plan. The facilitator agent is responsible for guiding groups in the strategic plan construction process as well as for solving process problems such as cognitive overload. We introduce an AI Concept Categorizer agent, a software tool that supports the facilitator in addressing the process problem of cognitive overload associated with convergent group activities by synthesizing group textual output into conceptual clusters. The implementation of this tool reduces frustrations which groups encounter in the process of classifying textual output and provides more time for discussion of the concepts themselves. Because of the large amount of convergent activity necessary for strategic planning, the addition of the AI Concept Categorizer to the strategic planning process should increase the quality of the strategic plan and the buy-in of the participants in the strategic planning process.     

Setting Standards: Strategic Advantages in International Trade

Among the most important technical barriers to trade are the different standards, testing and certification measures for products and services. Efforts to co-ordinate these within Europe - including the EU's increasing reliance on private sector standards bodies - are now underway. The EU's single market has not only integrated national markets, but has also shaped trading principles at the international level. The EU has exported its trade principles to third country markets and European companies have gained strategic advantages in influencing standards both internally within Europe and externally at the international and transatlantic level. Firms should invest resources and actively participate in setting standards to protect and increase their competitive advantage.     

优先领域/问题确定及其在计划生育服务中的应用

优先领域/问题的确定,作为一种全新的工作思路与工作方法,在发展领域正在得到越来越广泛的应用.本文探讨了优先领域/问题的概念、确定系统和方法以及具体操作步骤,提出了在优先领域遴选过程中应当考虑的若干问题以及在计划生育服务中的应用.     

优先领域/问题确定及其在计划生育服务中的应用

优先领域/问题的确定,作为一种全新的工作思路与工作方法,在发展领域正在得到越来越广泛的应用.本文探讨了优先领域/问题的概念、确定系统和方法以及具体操作步骤,提出了在优先领域遴选过程中应当考虑的若干问题以及在计划生育服务中的应用.     

The Emergence of Individual Knowledge in a Group Setting: Mitigating Cognitive Fallacies

Research in psychology has found that subjects regularly exhibit a conjunction fallacy in probability judgments. Additional research has led to the finding of other fallacies in probability judgment, including disjunction and conditional fallacies. Such analyses of judgments are critical because of the substantial amount of probability judgment done in accounting, business and organizational settings. However, most previous research has been conducted in the environment of a single decision maker. Since business and other organizational environments also employ groups, it is important to determine the impact of groups on such cognitive fallacies. This paper finds that groups substantially mitigate the impact of probability judgment fallacies among the sample of subjects investigated. The key finding of this paper is the analysis of the apparent manner in which groups make such decisions. A statistical analysis, based on a binomial distribution, suggests that groups investigated here did not use consensus. Instead, if any one member of the group has correct knowledge about the probability relationships, then the group uses that knowledge and does not exhibit fallacy in probability judgment. Having a computational model of the group decision making process provides a basis for developing computational models that can be used to simulate “mirror worlds” of reality or model decision making in real world settings.     

中国经济型饭店的发展机遇与成长战略规划

经济型饭店正在成为受我国消费者青睐、投资者追捧以及饭店业调整的热点.我国饭店业应及时把握经济型饭店成长的市场机遇、行业机遇和资本机遇,进行正确的成长战略规划.通过准确的市场定位和区位布局,建立具有比较优势的产品体系,控制关键环节,实现经济型饭店连锁在规模、品质和品牌等方面的健康成长.     

优先领域确定及参与性规划操作指南

从理论与实践的结合上,分别介绍了优先领域确定与参与性规划制定在中国中西部地区计划生育优质服务项目中的应用步骤、方法及注意事项.     

Appreciating Anonymity: An Exploration of Embarrassing Products and the Power of Blending In

While most research suggests using ostentatious packaging as a strategy to increase sales, using such packaging for embarrassing products can actually decrease purchase intentions. Five studies explore two components of packaging that influence product anonymity and the relationship between anonymity, embarrassment, and purchase intentions. The studies use a variety of methods including one field study, three scenario-based experiments, and one virtual reality video study with a behavioral component. This research contributes to retailing literature by examining the effect of packaging dimensions on product anonymity and the subsequent impact on embarrassment and purchase intentions. We consistently show more anonymously packaged products are perceived as less embarrassing and are more likely to be purchased than less anonymously packaged products. Consumers are able to circumvent undesirable stigmas associated with embarrassing products by selecting products that are more anonymously packaged and positioned in the store. Additionally, increased sales due to product packaging differences are more likely when an embarrassing product is positioned in an aisle versus on an endcap. Promotional incentives, such as coupons, in-store discounts, or bonus buys, can mitigate the negative effect of embarrassment onto purchase intentions. These findings have important implications to our understanding of shopper behavior when threatened with embarrassment.     

Using Trade Incentives to Promote Customer Relationships in a Retail Setting

Suppliers and retailers use a variety of techniques designed to motivate salespeople to engage in specific selling behaviors that will provide results that will assist in achieving either the supplier's or retailer's goals. One method that is commonly applied is the sales incentive. This research examines popular forms of incentives to assess the relationships that exist between the incentives offered and salesperson behaviors. The study also examines the types of incentives commonly used by both suppliers and retailers and salesperson perceptions of these incentives. To accomplish this, 95 salespeople working for a major automotive parts company responded to questions designed to assess their attitudes and behaviors toward incentives. The results provide information which may be valuable to manufacturers, retailers, and academicians as they investigate the use of incentive based compensation programs and sales force behavior.     

The Impact of Organizational and Environmental Variables on Strategic Market Orientation

Abstract

This paper offers a new look at market orientation by conceptualizing it from a strategic perspective. It differs from the current literature in that it develops a measure that emphasizes managerial attitudes and strategic intent. The new measure is empirically scrutinized by an investigation of its relationship with pertinent organizational and environmental variables, as well as company performance. Based on a survey of nearly 400 companies operating in the U.S., significant relationships emerged between Strategic Market Orientation and three organizational variables, namely strategic priorities, inter-departmental coordination and ownership nationality. Two of the environmental variables, namely intensity of competition and rate of technological change were also significantly related to Strategic Market Orientation. The relationship between Strategic Market Orientation and company performance remained inconclusive.     

Hierarchies, Power Inequalities, and Organizational Corruption

This article uses social dominance theory (SDT) to explore the dynamic and systemic nature of the initiation and maintenance of organizational corruption. Rooted in the definition of organizational corruption as misuse of power or position for personal or organizational gain, this work suggests that organizational corruption is driven by the individual and institutional tendency to structure societies as group-based social hierarchies. SDT describes a series of factors and processes across multiple levels of analysis that systemically contribute to the initiation and maintenance of social hierarchies and associated power inequalities, favoritism, and discrimination. I posit that the same factors and processes also contribute to individuals?? lower awareness of the misuse of power and position within the social hierarchies, leading to the initiation and maintenance of organizational corruption. Specifically, individuals high in social dominance orientation, believing that they belong to superior groups, are likely to be less aware of corruption because of their feeling of entitlement to greater power and their desire to maintain dominance even if that requires exploiting others. Members of subordinate groups are also likely to have lower awareness of corruption if they show more favoritism toward dominant group members to enhance their sense of worth and preserve social order. Institutions contribute to lower awareness of corruption by developing and enforcing structures, norms, and practices that promote informational ambiguity and maximize focus on dominance and promotion. Dynamic coordination among individuals and institutions is ensured through the processes of person-environment fit and legitimizing beliefs, ideologies, or rationalizations.     

颠覆性环境下的组织身份变革与战略变革——比较研究及整合框架构建

在数字经济时代,组织所处的外部环境越发呈现高度动态性、不确定性甚至颠覆性特征,"变革"越来越成为组织应对颠覆性环境、保持竞争优势的重要途径。组织身份是组织成员关于"作为组织,我们是谁"的集体认知和共同信念,也是指导组织战略决策与实施的认知模式和行为准则(即"我是谁"决定"我应该做什么"),改变组织身份是实现很多重要战略变革的前提条件。通过构建组织身份变革与战略变革的整合性理论框架,本文对组织身份变革与战略变革进行系统比较,分析两者的差异性与内在逻辑关系,并从两者的整合视角探究传统企业转型升级、企业跨界经营、破坏性创新技术采纳等现象,发现跨界经营已成为数字经济时代企业经营战略的显著特征和普遍现象,传统企业转型升级应深入到组织身份层面,只有变革组织身份才能"抛弃"过去的认知模式和行为准则,真正将自己融入到数字经济时代。     

A Study of Deviance as a Retaliatory Response to Organizational Power

In a time when ethical scandals are commonplace in the media, one begins to wonder just what organizations are doing wrong. This article analyzes the Fall 2006 boardroom spying scandal at Hewlett–Packard to determine whether the workplace deviance observed can be linked to a retaliatory response to organizational power. A summary of the events leading up to, during, and the fall-out of the scandal is reported.     

黑龙江省文化创意产业战略规划研究

随着全球化进程的加快和知识经济的发展,文化创意产业在全球蓬勃兴起,并已成为国际大都市产业发展的新趋势。黑龙江省在动漫产业快速发展的同时,存在着文化产业挖掘深度不够、专业的创意人才和品牌优势缺乏、知识产权保护不完善等问题。黑龙江省发展文化创意产业的战略规划是：充分利用地理优势,深度挖掘龙江文化;实施品牌战略,加强品牌保护;实施“人才兴文”战略,培养出既立足本土又有国际视野的创意产业人才。