Cognitive Style and its Relevance for Management Practice

Abstract

This review paper addresses some of the semantic issues associated with the nature of cognitive style, identifies some of the most often cited dimensions of cognitive style, examines ways in which these styles can be classified and considers the implications of cognitive style for management practice.

Thinking Styles, Perceived Stress and Life Satisfaction

“…Sternberg & Zhang (2001) have reported their predictive power for academic achievement and multiple studies have found them to be fundamental factors determining individual and organizational behavior (e.g., Sadler-Smith & Badger, 1998;Streufert & Nogami, 1989). Moreover, cognitive styles are a critical variable in personnel selection, internal communication, career guidance, counselling, and conflict management (Hayes & Allinson, 1994). While the preference for intuitive processing has been found in some contexts (Agor, 1989;Simon, 1987), Baron (1998) has emphasized the role of analytical processes, or their combinations have been recommended (Hatsopoulos & Hatsopoulos, 1999).…”

Making Sense of a Most Popular Metaphor in Management: Towards a HedgeFox Scale for Cognitive Styles

“…Cognitive styles exert a fundamental influence on individual and organizational behavior (Hayes and Allinson 1994;Sadler-Smith and Badger 1998) and research has revealed that cognitive styles help explain individual distinctions in human behaviors and performance (Riding 2011). A review of several studies concludes that the relationship between cognitive styles and abilities is complex, that styles explain additional variance in human performance above intelligence and personality, and that abilities and styles are related (Zhang and Sternberg 2012).…”

“…Besides cognitive style, labels include learning style, thinking style, and the more general intellectual style (Zhang et al 2011). In addition, a variety of style dimensions have been introduced (Hayes and Allinson 1994), pointing to the complexity and vastness of cognitive style research.…”

Exploring Relationships Between Thinking Style and Sex, Age, Academic Major, Occupation, and Levels of Arts Engagement Among Professionals Working in Museums

“…The analytical style is often described in the literature as convergent, differentiated, sequential, reflective, and deductive, while the holistic style has been described as divergent, global, impulsive, intuitive, inductive, and creative (Kozhevnikov, 2007). Leonard et al (1999) Guilford's (1967) theory of convergent and divergent thinking styles, De Bono's (1970) lateral and vertical thinking styles, Kolb's (1984) learning style inventory theory, and Sternberg's (2003) triarchic theory of intelligence, but also Allinson and Hayes' (1996) and Hayes and Allinson's (1994) unified structure based on an analytical -holistic (or analyticalintuitive) style.…”

“…Allinson and Hayes (1996) and Hayes and Allinson (1994) developed a unified structure based on an analytical -holistic (or analytical-intuitive) style. The analytical style is often described in the literature as convergent, differentiated, sequential, reflective, and deductive, while the holistic style has been described as divergent, global, impulsive, intuitive, inductive, and creative (Kozhevnikov, 2007).…”