Strategy and Cognition: Understanding the Role of Management Knowledge Structures, Organizational Memory and Information Overload

The nature of our thinking about strategic management changed throughout the 1990s, highlighting a number of psychological issues associated with the pursuit of effective strategy. This paper draws attention to new academic thinking from the fields of organizational and cognitive psychology and is intended to bring insights for the reflective practitioner. It is argued that we must think differently about what it means to be intelligent in a modern organization and what it takes to be an effective implementer of strategic change. In the first of two papers, the role of managerial knowledge structures is considered. The strategic risks are problems created by information overload. The need to consider cognitive styles, intuition, creativity and emotional intelligence is highlighted.