On the relevance of Cognitive Continuum Theory and quasirationality for understanding management judgment and decision making

Mandeep K. Dhami and Mary E. Thomson

European Management Journal, 2012, vol. 30, issue 4, 316-326

Abstract: ‘Quasirationality’ (i.e., the combination of intuitive and analytic thought) is increasingly considered to be widespread and beneficial in management. This paper provides an overview of this concept as it is defined by Cognitive Continuum Theory (Hammond, 1996, 2000), and highlights the relevance of the theory for studying managerial judgment and decision making. According to Cognitive Continuum Theory, there are multiple modes of cognition that lie on a continuum between intuition and analysis. Quasirationality is the prevalent mode of cognition. Cognitive (managerial) tasks vary in their ability to induce intuition, quasirationality or analysis, and performance is contingent on the correspondence between task properties and cognitive mode. Using Cognitive Continuum Theory, management researchers can identify tasks requiring different modes of thought, and recognize when quasirationality may outperform analysis and intuition. Researchers can also utilize Cognitive Continuum Theory to iron out some identified anomalies in the strategic management literature and to provide a more refined theoretical framework in this context.

Keywords: Management judgment and decision making; Cognitive Continuum Theory; Intuition; Analysis; Quasirationality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237312000047
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:30:y:2012:i:4:p:316-326

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2012.02.002

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().