The thinking styles of managers: Dimensionality, profiles and motivational antecedents

Amirali Minbashian, Damian P Birney and David B Bowman
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Amirali Minbashian: School of Management, UNSW Business School, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Damian P Birney: School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
David B Bowman: YSC, The Rocks, NSW, Australia

Australian Journal of Management, 2019, vol. 44, issue 1, 70-90

Abstract: Despite its widespread application in the educational field, little research has applied thinking style constructs from Sternberg’s (1988) theory of mental self-government to management. The present study examines the dimensionality, profile scores and motivational antecedents of thinking styles among a sample of 256 managers from large organisations. The findings confirm the four-factor structure of thinking styles that has been observed in the education field, albeit with slightly altered meanings. With respect to their profiles, managers displayed a preference for Type I styles (generative processes that are cognitively complex) over Type II styles (cognitively simple processes that involve adhering to norms), an external style over an internal style, and a global style over a local style. As predicted, learning orientation was positively related to Type I styles, and performance-prove orientation was positively related to Type II styles. A performance-avoid orientation was not related to either style type.

Keywords: Goal orientation; managers; personality; thinking styles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ausman:v:44:y:2019:i:1:p:70-90

DOI: 10.1177/0312896218775150

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