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Title:
"They're Making All The Wrong Decisions" - Unintended Consequences of Empowerment
Resulting From Individual Situated Cognition
Creator:
Coleman, Jonathan
Date:
2007-01
Subject:
Organizational behavior.
Format:
application/pdf
47 p
Title:
"They're Making All The Wrong Decisions" - Unintended Consequences of Empowerment
Resulting From Individual Situated Cognition
Creator:
Coleman, Jonathan
Date:
2007-01
Subject:
Organizational behavior.
Format:
application/pdf
47 p
Description:
This paper describes how organizational culture affects individual level
decision-making processes in large organizations. This is particularly notable in the
effect on the relative communication of qualitative versus quantitative information.
Different levels of success in communicating these two kinds of information affect the
development of the situated cognition prior to making a particular decision. We present
the findings of a qualitative research study of thirteen executive level decision makers
representing four Fortune 100 companies from four diverse industries. These executives
were involved in strategic decisions in the normal course of business and also had
particular experience in decisions involving socially responsible actions. A grounded
theory analysis revealed that the different visibility of quantitative and qualitative
information affects the strategic decision making process by shaping the situated
cognition of the decision maker. Visibility of quantitative information is perceived as
consistent at all levels, but the visibility of qualitative information that influences
the context of decisions deteriorates as it filters down through an organization. This
“downward invisibility” of qualitative information was apparent in the discourse about
any strategic decision making, but was most readily apparent in the discussion about
values and principles surrounding socially responsible actions. Based on this finding,
we introduce a “situated cognition continuum” to depict the range of situated cognition
displayed by the decision makers in this study. As an organization empowers decision
makers at lower and lower levels, the deterioration of qualitative information exposes
that organization to variance in the situated cognition of individuals. This variance
can lead to decisions that are misaligned with organizational strategy. In the worst
cases, this misalignment becomes embedded through reinforcement of quantitative metrics
without understanding the underlying qualitative mechanisms that are
misaligned.
Type:
text
Identifier:
ksl:weaedm063
http://hdl.handle.net/2186/ksl:weaedm063
Language:
eng
Relation:
Doctorate of Management Programs
Rights:
Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, provides
the information contained in Digital Case, including reproductions of items from its
collections, for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use,
including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution,
publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior
written permission is strictly prohibited. For more information contact Digital Case at
digitalcase@case.edu.
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title: weaedm063.pdf
Date Added: 3/30/2010 6:22:35 PM
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2186/ksl:weaedm063/weaedm063.pdf
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