Shared Cognitions Research Articles

Correction to: How do TMT shared cognitions shape firm performance? The roles of collective efficacy, trust, and competitive aggressiveness

Correction to: How do TMT shared cognitions shape firm performance? The roles of collective efficacy, trust, and competitive aggressiveness

The importance of shared cognitions of team member expertise when building a high-performing team

PurposeOrganizations are increasingly using team-based work structures to solve complex challenges and issues. Such teams require team members to have shared cognitions – a shared, accurate and complimentary understanding of team processes – to enhance team performance. The purpose of the current research is to explore the impact of shared cognitions on team processes and team performance.Design/methodology/approachThe current research focused on shared cognitions of teammate knowledge and expertise while working in a team environment. Using an experimental design with 20 teams collaborating on six problem-solving questions, the authors test hypotheses pertaining to the relationship between shared cognitions about team member expertise and team processes and team performance.FindingsAnalysis of variance finds that teams with a greater level of shared cognitions of team member expertise have enhanced team process and greater team performance than teams without shared cognitions.Originality/valueRecommendations are made for future research and practice based on such findings. The authors discuss ways in which the findings of this study can contribute to greater team process and performance in schools, organizations and athletic teams, noting the additional ability to apply such findings in virtual settings.

A leader–network exchange theory

PurposeWe propose an integrative model of how leaders (individual level) effectively relate to their social networks as a whole (network level). Additionally, we focus both on the leader constructs and the followers shared constructs about those networks.Design/methodology/approachOur conceptual paper uses the integration of literature from two main bodies of knowledge: individual and shared cognitions, fundamentally from psychology, and a structural perspective, mainly from sociology, organisational studies and social network analysis. We take a psycho-structural approach which allows the emergence of new perspectives on the study of leadership and more specifically on the study of relational leadership.FindingsWe propose a leader-network exchange (LNX) theory focussed on the behaviours and cognitions of leaders and followers as well as the relations between them.Research limitations/implicationsOur model represents a new perspective on leader–followers relationship by stressing the importance of both followers and leaders' cognitions. We highlight the importance of the relationships between followers on the creation of shared meaning about the leader.Practical implicationsOur model helps leaders and managers make sense of the cognitions and behaviours of their teams. By considering the teams characteristics, i.e. cognitions and network structure, it allows leaders to adopt the most appropriate behaviours for effective leadership. Leadership and management development programmes designed around our model will enhance the use of networking skills.Originality/valueContrary to the traditional view of LMX, our approach considers the social context of leaders and followers. It also adds a new layer of knowledge going beyond what members think of their leaders by considering the social networks of leaders and followers.

How do TMT shared cognitions shape firm performance? The roles of collective efficacy, trust, and competitive aggressiveness

This study examines the role of competitive aggressiveness in the relationship between top management team (TMT) collective efficacy and firm performance under the contextual influence of TMT trust. Based on a sample obtained from 376 top executives in 147 firms in Taiwan, we find that competitive aggressiveness is a key mediator in converting TMT collective efficacy into advantageous performance. Moderated-mediation analyses further show that the mediating effect of competitive aggressiveness is more prominent under lower level of TMT trust, a finding that is contrary with our prediction. Our research contributes to the upper echelons and competitive dynamics theories by identifying the interplay of TMT shared cognitions and socio-behavioral processes as critical drivers of firm initiatives and outcomes in the rivalrous contexts.

Does Hub‐and‐Spoke organization of healthcare system promote workers' satisfaction?

AbstractThe healthcare services network is a recent organizational structure of healthcare services that are interdependent and organized as a network on the basis of the Hub‐and‐Spoke model. This questionnaire‐based study analyzed socio‐psychological well‐being of health workers both in terms of team‐related experience and individual satisfaction and engagement with one's work in a Hub‐and‐Spoke healthcare service in comparison to non‐network healthcare service. Workers from two different public healthcare services involved in the treatment of the same skeletal rare diseases participated in the Study. We expected that working under a Hub‐and‐Spoke healthcare service—involving teamwork and cooperation among different healthcare services within the units, as well as among workers belonging to different units—would lead to greater psychological team‐related and individual benefits. In line with predictions, the findings showed that under a Hub‐and‐Spoke healthcare service, health workers felt highly interdependent by their team fellows and developed shared cognitions (i.e., team mental models) about their integration and their tasks to a higher extent than non‐network ones. They were also individually more satisfied of their job and displayed higher work engagement than non‐network workers. Beneficial team‐related dynamics, such as perceived interdependence, were responsible for the differences between the Hub‐and‐Spoke workers and non‐network ones. The implications of the present findings were discussed in terms of promotion of health workers' satisfaction and well‐being.

Le regard paranoïaque à l’épreuve du visage neutre

ObjectivesFor paranoid patients, the confrontation with a neutral face is a perceptual and interpretative challenge. Since birth, faces seem to be the favorite visual stimulus of humans, and unexpressive faces tend to provoke discomfort (according to the still face paradigm). Considering their symptoms, this discomfort might be particularly strong for paranoid adult patients. Images of neutral faces are often used in eye-tracking studies to mesure scanpath impairments, but almost only draw a comparison with expressive faces. A short review of eye-tracking studies, in which neutral faces are presented to paranoid patients, could allow a first interpretation of visual exploration impairments and their relational consequences, through the prism of the paranoid symptoms revealed by the unexpressivity of the face. Materials and methodsStudies focusing on the relationship between delusional symptomatology (in schizophrenia or in the general population) and visual exploration of neutral faces, seem to offer an interesting area of research. According to those studies, and to others showing the existence of varying degrees of delusional paranoid thoughts in healthy subjects, we have selected eye-tracking studies including clinical (schizophrenic) and non clinical subjects with paranoid delusions, looking at images of neutral faces. Those eye-tracking data were then confronted with clinical elements of paranoia, such as threat anticipation, or jumping to conclusion biais. ResultsThe confrontation with a neutral face begins with hypervigilance toward ambiguity (extensive visual scanning style to the neutral face features). Then the pattern becomes similar to a visual exploration of a threatening face, to end up with a gaze avoidance. The need to avoid ambiguity, which is unbearable for paranoid patients, is influenced by a hasty and conclusive information processing, focused on proattitudinal, threat-related informations. Contradictory results concerning the extent of the exploration, the duration or the number of fixations could be related to a fluctuating dimension of the paranoid clinic. The gaze on a neutral face seems to represent, at a basic level, the frequent failure of relational interactions of those patients. The visual exploration of healthy patient's first degree relatives is similarly impaired, which might show pathological shared cognitions on which the attention of patients and their relatives risk to rely. ConclusionSocial isolation due to those interactional failures is a major problem for paranoid patients. Building a therapeutic relationship represents the possibility of a gaze change, that might help those patients to stay in a relational world.

Information Processing Approach in Organisational Cognitive Structures

Despite of increasing interest in social cognitive research in strategic management during recent years, few studies have examined the relationship between cognitive structures of top management and middle management. This study represents the information processing approach in managerial cognition research assuming that top management communicate their shared cognitions into the organization reducing ambiguity of operative environment faced by the other levels of organization shaping the operations of the organizations. The authors' empirical study examines managerial cognitive maps collected with a cognitive mapping method in a transportation company. In the study, top managers and middle managers separately evaluated sustainability management issues and their relevance for the company providing 75 individual cognitive maps. Based on this, the authors' study aims to fill the gap in research of relationship between top management and middle management cognitive structures and increase understanding on role of managerial cognition in strategic management research.

It's All in the Timing: The Benefits of Early Diverse and Later Shared Task Cognitions on Team Performance Trajectories

To perform well over time teams must balance competing needs — the need for quality decisions and the need to coordinate action. However, these elements are paradoxically related because the processes that increase one can inhibit the other. The present article examines the role of team developmental phases as moderating the value of cognitive structures on performance trajectories and end-state performance. Using a longitudinal sample of student teams engaged in a business simulation course, we find that diverse cognitions are beneficial early on, in the strategizing phase; but that this effect reverses in the implementation phase, when homogeneous cognitions become more useful. In addition, we explore the implications of having certain patterns of cognition across phases. We discuss the practical takeaways of our research in terms of what is important for long-term performance.

Cognitive Vulnerabilities for Depression and Anxiety in Childhood: Specificity of Anxiety Sensitivity and Rumination.

Childhood anxiety and depression frequently co-occur. Exploring specificity in cognitive processes for anxiety and depression in childhood can provide insight into cognitive vulnerabilities contributing to the development of anxiety and depressive disorders and inform targeted psychological interventions. Anxiety sensitivity and rumination are robust cognitive vulnerabilities for anxiety and depression, respectively. However, despite conceptual similarities, they are rarely considered together within a single study. The current study explored specific and shared associations between anxiety sensitivity subscales and rumination and anxiety and depressive symptoms in unselected children. Multiple regression analyses explored to what extent specific self-reported anxiety sensitivity subscales (physical, social and mental concerns) and rumination predicted anxiety and depressive symptoms in 147 unselected children, aged 7-11 years. Physical and social concern subscales of anxiety sensitivity were specifically associated with anxiety, whilst rumination was specifically associated with depressive symptoms. The mental concerns subscale of anxiety sensitivity was independently associated with both anxiety and depressive symptoms. These associations were only partially mediated by rumination. Anxiety and depression in young people are characterized by specific and shared cognitions. Evidence for shared and specific associations between the cognitive vulnerabilities of anxiety sensitivity and rumination, and anxiety and depression highlight the utility of transdiagnostic research and confirm that cognitive therapies may benefit from targeting cognitive concerns relating specifically to the patient's presenting symptoms.

"More than words": social validation in close relationships.

Conversations are susceptible to many disturbances: A speaker's hesitations, distractions, or, when communicating online, technical hiccups that may cause brief delays. Research among previously unacquainted individuals revealed that brief disruptions in conversational flow can have profound social consequences: Silences or delays in mediated communication threaten the need to belong and validate one's ideas. The present research, however, shows that when occurring in close relationships, flow disruptions may be ironically beneficial. We hypothesized that when flow disruptions occur, partners fall back on their relationship beliefs to infer mutual agreement and the existence of a shared reality. When a relationship is perceived as secure, partners may believe that "no words are needed" to understand each other. Flow disruptions can thus paradoxically make shared cognitions accessible and foster feelings of social validation. Data from two experiments, using partners in different types of relationships, supported this hypothesis.

Cross-Understanding in Groups: How to “Cross Over” Without “Dying”

Academy of Management ReviewVol. 36, No. 2 DialogueCross-Understanding in Groups: How to “Cross Over” Without “Dying”Brandon Randolph-Seng and J. Ian NorrisBrandon Randolph-SengTexas Tech UniversityMurray State University and J. Ian NorrisTexas Tech UniversityMurray State UniversityPublished Online:1 Apr 2011https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0177AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail View articleREFERENCESHogg M. A., Terry D. J. 2000. Social identity and self-categorization processes in organizational contexts. Academy of Management Review, 25: 121–140.Link , Google ScholarHogg M. A., Turner J. C., Davidson B. 1990. Polarized norms and social frames of reference: A test of the self-categorization theory of group polarization. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 11: 77–100. Google ScholarHuber G. P., Lewis K. 2010. Cross-understanding: Implications for group cognition and performance. Academy of Management Review, 35: 6–26.Link , Google ScholarMiller D. T., Prentice D. A. 1994. Collective errors and errors about the collective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20: 541–550. Google ScholarNeilson G. L., Martin K. L., Powers E. 2009. The secrets to successful strategy execution. Harvard Business Review, 87(2): 60–70. Google ScholarRandolph-Seng B., Casa De Calvo M. P., Zacchilli T. L., Cottle J. L. 2010. Shared cognitions and shared theories: Telling more than we can know by ourselves? Journal of Scientific Psychology, December: 25–35. Google ScholarRoss L., Greene D., House P. 1977. The false consensus effect: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13: 279–301. Google ScholarUleman J. S., Saribay S. A., Gonzalez C. M. 2008. Spontaneous inferences, implicit impressions, and implicit theories. Annual Review of Psychology, 59: 329–360. Google ScholarWilson T. D., Lindsey S., Schooler T. Y. 2000. A model of dual attitudes. Psychological Review, 107: 101–126. Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byBreakdowns in Implementing Models of Organization ChangeAndrew H. Van de Ven and Kangyong Sun30 November 2017 | Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 25, No. 3 Vol. 36, No. 2 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 1 April 2011 Published in print 1 April 2011 Information© Academy of Management ReviewKeywordsGROUP decision makingCOGNITION -- ResearchCOMPREHENSIONORGANIZATIONAL behaviorDECISION making -- ResearchMENTAL models theory (Communication)MANAGEMENTWe thank Darcy A. Reich for helpful comments on an earlier draft of these remarks.Download PDF

Speaking up in groups: A cross-level study of group voice climate and voice.

Despite a growing body of research on employee voice—defined as the discretionary communication of ideas, suggestions, or opinions intended to improve organizational or unit functioning—the effects of shared or collective-level cognitions have received scant attention. There has also been relatively little research on voice within work groups. Our goal in this study was to address these important gaps by focusing on the effects of group-level beliefs about voice (i.e., group voice climate) on individual voice behavior within work groups. We conducted a cross-level investigation of voice behavior within 42 groups of engineers from a large chemical company. Consistent with our hypotheses, group voice climate was highly predictive of voice and explained variance beyond the effects of individual-level identification and satisfaction, and procedural justice climate. Also consistent with predictions, the effect of identification on voice was stronger in groups with favorable voice climates. These findings provide evidence that voice is shaped not just by individual attitudes and perceptions of the work context, as past research has shown, but also by group-level beliefs. The results also highlight the importance of broadening our conceptual models of voice to include shared cognitions and of conducting additional cross-level research on voice.

Using Field‐Configuring Events for Sense‐Making: A Cognitive Network Approach

abstract We explore the usefulness of network analytical techniques to reveal the structure of shared cognitions among participants at a field‐configuring event. Using transcripts from a professional conference at a pivotal moment in the emergence of the Jewish lawyers group in pre‐state Israel, we analyse the relationships of actors and topics raised at the 1944 meeting. Our analysis demonstrates the underlying centrality of a subset of topics and actors that facilitated shared cognitive sense‐making. Subsequent events are consistent with our interpretation that the revealed shared cognitions helped mobilize changes in the organizational field and its institutional logic, including growth in the Jewish legal profession and Jewish judges, use of Hebrew in courts, and establishment of an Israeli bar.

Sexual Peak: Socially Shared Cognitions About Desire, Frequency, and Satisfaction in Men and Women

Is a man’s sexual peak earlier than a woman’s? Three studies were conducted to examine (a) whether the perception that men achieve their sexual peak at a younger age than do women is shared across individuals of different ages and sexes, (b) whether sexual peak is defined differently for men and women, and (c) whether differences between definitions contribute to differences in the age at which men and women are perceived to reach sexual peak. Study 1 suggested that participants believed that females reach their sexual peak at an older age than do males. Study 2 indicated that the defining feature of sexual peak for males was sexual desire and for females was sexual satisfaction. Study 3 suggested that predictions of male sexual peak coincided with participants’ predictions of male age of highest desire and frequency, but not satisfaction, and that female sexual peak coincided with participants' predictions of female age of highest satisfaction but not frequency or desire. Discussion focuses on potential reasons for differences between the perception of male and female sexuality, as well as the social and evolutionary importance of each of the dimensions of sexuality for both males and females.

Politics and the Pendulum: An Alternative Understanding of the Case of Whole Language as Educational Innovation

McAdam’s (1999) political process model describes the generation and decline of social movements. According to McAdam (1999), the generation of a social movement involves the confluence of four factors: the expansion of political opportunities, the presence of certain shared cognitions within the community; the mobilization of indigenous organizational resources (p. 61), and the shifting response of other organized groups to the movement (p. 231). In the space of this commentary it is not possible (or appropriate) to provide a complete detailed analysis of whole language as a sociopolitical movement, but it is possible to present provocative evidence of an alternative characterization of the process of innovation. In the following sections we will discuss each of the above four factors of the political process model with respect to the whole language movement and the clear challenge these factors offer to the characterization of innovation as swings of the pendulum.

Exploring temporal aspects of social identity: the concept of possible social identities

In the social identity model of reactions to negative social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986), the concept of cognitive alternatives focuses on individual and group perceptions of the possibility of changing group memberships or improving existing ones. In the current paper, the under-researched concept of cognitive alternatives is expanded so as to better encompass issues relating to the temporal dimension of social identity maintenance. Markus and Nurius' (1986) possible selves perspective is used as a starting point for exploring the manner in which social identity maintenance is influenced by cognitions about, and social representations of, a group's past and possible future. It is proposed that the concept of cognitive alternatives be expanded to incorporate possible social identities, which represent individual and shared cognitions about possible past group memberships, possible future group memberships, and perceptions of the possible past and future for current group memberships. The consequences of perceiving positive and negative possible social identities are examined, and methodological issues which might facilitate their empirical study addressed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.