Cognitive assets

Last updated

Cognitive assets are tangible and intangible organizational assets that constitute sources of the cognition that is necessary for action coordination. These assets allow for the integrity and efficiency of the multiple conversions of individual knowledge into organizational knowledge. [1]

Contents

The idea of the cognitive assets was the first attempt to address the most relevant organizational assets to be exploited by cognition-driven businesses. The concept of cognitive assets is a reflection on the belief that it is sufficient the acquisition of software, such as for business intelligence or competitive intelligence to ensure that organizations make good decisions.

Organizational cognitive assets comprise four main dimensions: 1) the environmental mechanisms that foster the creation and sharing of explicit knowledge; 2) organizational members’ cognitive capacities; 3) organizational members´ transactional potential (defined as their ability to interact and share knowledge with co-workers); and 4) Analytics and computational methods used by the organization to support decision-making processes.

History

The term was first used in a paper presented in 2002 at the Twelfth International Conference on Management of Technology organized by the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT) and published in a collection of the best papers of the conference. [1] The paper refers to the ideas of a master's thesis presented in 2001 at Ibmec Business School, which was first used in this sense. [2]

Fundamentals of cognitive assets

Although most works assume that organizational knowledge exists and that it is more than simply the sum of individual knowledge, the important question of how it becomes “organizational” has not been addressed in much depth. Most authors refer to the work of Nonaka and his co-authors, which remains the sole comprehensive view on organizational knowledge formation. [3]

Although the idea of “collective cognition” has been contested by researchers on the grounds that “cognition belongs to individuals, not organizations”, [4] there is a growing number of studies in management that address this phenomenon at a group or organizational level. These studies concentrate on cognitive phenomena in and by organizations that impact the organization as a whole. Some conceptualizations stress that the field must embrace the complexities of the two levels (individual and group), which co-exist though interactive processes. [3] [5]

Cognition research in organizations has taken two main approaches: one computational and one interpretive. The computational stream examines the process by which managers and organizations process information and make decisions; the interpretive approach investigates how meaning is created around information in a social context. [5]

The concept of cognitive assets takes both perspectives into account; individuals´ cognitive capacities and organizational decision-making systems are linked to the computational view, whereas the environment and transactional elements are linked to interpretive efforts. As defended by Lant, putting together these two perspectives will deepen our understanding of organizational cognition.

Definition

Analogous to the process of individual knowledge creation, cognitive assets represent to organizations what cognition potential is to individuals. The process of new knowledge generation at the individual level can be seen as the systematic and efficient combination of the information available to the individual with her cognitive potential. Similarly, we can model organizational knowledge creation as the systematic and efficient combination of information-based assets with cognitive assets. [1]

Organizational cognitive assets comprise four main dimensions: 1) the environmental mechanisms that foster the creation and sharing of explicit knowledge; 2) organizational members’ cognitive capacities; 3) organizational members´ transactional potential (defined as their ability to interact and share knowledge with co-workers); and 4) Analytics and computational methods used by the organization to support decision-making processes. [1]

Environment

The most basic dimension of cognitive assets is the environment where cognition takes place. Differently from cognitive studies done in psychology, where laboratory experiments are used to address issues of individual cognition, researchers of cognition in management have stressed the role of the environment where decisions and actions are being taken and the interactions of people within this environment. Knowledge is seen as a function of the social and physical system in which it exists. [6]

The environment provides regulative (rules) and normative (values and norms) dimensions that govern organizational life. It sets the pre-conditions that allow for the transformation of individual knowledge into collective knowledge put into action. Following Orlikowski, [7] five sets of activities are important in the organizational environment: (1) sharing identity; (2) interacting face to face; (3) aligning effort; (4) learning by doing; and (5) supporting participation. Managers can increase the effectiveness of knowledge conversions by stimulating these five sets of activities in the areas under their control.

Individual cognitive capacity

The individual cognitive capacity of organizational members corresponds to their ability to process information efficiently and effectively to attain goals. That ability contributes to more and better conversions of information into collective knowledge.

Humans have a knowledge structure (or schema), which “represents organized knowledge about a given concept or type of stimulus”. [8] This knowledge structure is a mental template that individuals impose on an information environment to give it form and meaning and to enable subsequent action. That way, it has strong influence on the process of transforming information into action.

The two most commonly studied attributes of knowledge structures are differentiation (the number of dimensions within a knowledge structure) and integration (the degree of interconnectedness among the knowledge structure dimensions). [9] The higher the differentiation and integration, the more effective the knowledge structure is. Little differentiation leads to a narrow vision, which results in ineffective managerial behavior. [10] Differentiation and integration are influenced by personality variables (level of aspiration, job involvement, cognitive complexity) and organizational experience (position in hierarchy, work experience). [9]

Transactional capacity

Transactional capacity is ability individuals have to absorb, codify and share information and explicit knowledge in order to meet organizational objectives. Transactional capacity will be a function of personal and structural dimensions. For personal characteristics, Eric Berne's transactional analysis [11] in psychology studies three important dimensions: (1) learning; (2) rationality; and (3) emotions.

The structural dimension of transactional capacity is linked to the various networks within the organization. Social networks and the role of social capital have received an increasing attention in sociology studies over the past few years. There are two main approaches: one that follows the work of Coleman, [12] which defends that social capital occurs in networks with closure, where the value of social capital resource is communication among members; another approach, deriving from Granovetter and Burt, [13] [14] defends that social capital occurs in networks without closure where the value of social capital resource is derived from brokering information and exercising control. The seemingly conflicting predictions of these two approaches may be due to the fact that each one has analyzed different environments. [15] But regardless of the closure of social networks, the existence of a network and individuals willing to share information within it (and capture from outside it) is important. Dyer and Nobeoka, for example, defend that a highly interconnected network benefits all members by facilitating knowledge sharing and learning and increasing productivity of members. [16]

Decision-making support

Organizations use different tools and systems to help their decision-making processes. These tools and systems are broadly defined as any activity that, based on explicit (but not necessarily formalized) models, helps decision-making agents to obtain solutions to their problems given their preferences and the uncertainty of the environment. Together with individuals’ cognitive capacities, they define the organization's capacity to process information and make decisions. [1]

Operations research, management science and decision science methods can be seen as analytical cognitive processes that help decision-making. These methods serve to increase the efficiency of the knowledge conversion and mobilization processes, increasing managers´ ability to process information and make decisions. That way, they are also important constituents of cognitive assets. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive science</span> Interdisciplinary scientific study of cognitive processes

Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes with input from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, computer science/artificial intelligence, and anthropology. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition. Cognitive scientists study intelligence and behavior, with a focus on how nervous systems represent, process, and transform information. Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include language, perception, memory, attention, reasoning, and emotion; to understand these faculties, cognitive scientists borrow from fields such as linguistics, psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, and anthropology. The typical analysis of cognitive science spans many levels of organization, from learning and decision to logic and planning; from neural circuitry to modular brain organization. One of the fundamental concepts of cognitive science is that "thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and computational procedures that operate on those structures."

Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisfactory rather than optimal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knowledge management</span> Process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization

Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of methods relating to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieve organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.

Organizational learning is the process of creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge within an organization. An organization improves over time as it gains experience. From this experience, it is able to create knowledge. This knowledge is broad, covering any topic that could better an organization. Examples may include ways to increase production efficiency or to develop beneficial investor relations. Knowledge is created at four different units: individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decision-making</span> Cognitive process to choose a course of action or belief

In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rational or irrational. The decision-making process is a reasoning process based on assumptions of values, preferences and beliefs of the decision-maker. Every decision-making process produces a final choice, which may or may not prompt action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitivism (psychology)</span> Theoretical framework for understanding the mind

In psychology, cognitivism is a theoretical framework for understanding the mind that gained credence in the 1950s. The movement was a response to behaviorism, which cognitivists said neglected to explain cognition. Cognitive psychology derived its name from the Latin cognoscere, referring to knowing and information, thus cognitive psychology is an information-processing psychology derived in part from earlier traditions of the investigation of thought and problem solving.

Information processing is the change (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process that describes everything that happens (changes) in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system. In the latter case, an information processor is changing the form of presentation of that text file. The computers up to this period function on the basis of programs saved in the memory, having no intelligence of their own.

A cognitive model is an approximation of one or more cognitive processes in humans or other animals for the purposes of comprehension and prediction. There are many types of cognitive models, and they can range from box-and-arrow diagrams to a set of equations to software programs that interact with the same tools that humans use to complete tasks. In terms of information processing, cognitive modeling is modeling of human perception, reasoning, memory and action.

Agency is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. It is independent of the moral dimension, which is called moral agency.

Personal knowledge management (PKM) is a process of collecting information that a person uses to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve and share knowledge in their daily activities and the way in which these processes support work activities. It is a response to the idea that knowledge workers need to be responsible for their own growth and learning. It is a bottom-up approach to knowledge management (KM).

Distributed cognition is an approach to cognitive science research that was developed by cognitive anthropologist Edwin Hutchins during the 1990s.

Theories of technological change and innovation attempt to explain the factors that shape technological innovation as well as the impact of technology on society and culture. Some of the most contemporary theories of technological change reject two of the previous views: the linear model of technological innovation and other, the technological determinism. To challenge the linear model, some of today's theories of technological change and innovation point to the history of technology, where they find evidence that technological innovation often gives rise to new scientific fields, and emphasizes the important role that social networks and cultural values play in creating and shaping technological artifacts. To challenge the so-called "technological determinism", today's theories of technological change emphasize the scope of the need of technical choice, which they find to be greater than most laypeople can realize; as scientists in philosophy of science, and further science and technology often like to say about this "It could have been different." For this reason, theorists who take these positions often argue that a greater public involvement in technological decision-making is desired.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of thought</span> Overview of and topical guide to thought

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to thought (thinking):

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transactive memory</span>

Transactive memory is a psychological hypothesis first proposed by Daniel Wegner in 1985 as a response to earlier theories of "group mind" such as groupthink. A transactive memory system is a mechanism through which groups collectively encode, store, and retrieve knowledge. Transactive memory was initially studied in couples and families where individuals had close relationships but was later extended to teams, larger groups, and organizations to explain how they develop a "group mind", a memory system that is more complex and potentially more effective than that of any of its individual constituents. A transactive memory system includes memory stored in each individual, the interactions between memory within the individuals, as well as the processes that update this memory. Transactive memory, then, is the shared store of knowledge.

Domain-general learning theories of development suggest that humans are born with mechanisms in the brain that exist to support and guide learning on a broad level, regardless of the type of information being learned. Domain-general learning theories also recognize that although learning different types of new information may be processed in the same way and in the same areas of the brain, different domains also function interdependently. Because these generalized domains work together, skills developed from one learned activity may translate into benefits with skills not yet learned. Another facet of domain-general learning theories is that knowledge within domains is cumulative, and builds under these domains over time to contribute to our greater knowledge structure. Psychologists whose theories align with domain-general framework include developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized that people develop a global knowledge structure which contains cohesive, whole knowledge internalized from experience, and psychologist Charles Spearman, whose work led to a theory on the existence of a single factor accounting for all general cognitive ability.

A knowledge organization is a management idea, describing an organization in which people use systems and processes to generate, transform, manage, use, and transfer knowledge-based products and services to achieve organizational goals.

David Krackhardt is Professor of Organizations at Heinz College and the Tepper School of Business, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the Machine Learning Department, all at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, and he also serves a Fellow of CEDEP, the European Centre for Executive Education, in France. He is notable for being the author of KrackPlot, a network visualization software designed for social network analysis which is widely used in academic research. He is also the founder of the Journal of Social Structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collective intelligence</span> Group intelligence that emerges from collective efforts

Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence (GI) that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiology, political science and in context of mass peer review and crowdsourcing applications. It may involve consensus, social capital and formalisms such as voting systems, social media and other means of quantifying mass activity. Collective IQ is a measure of collective intelligence, although it is often used interchangeably with the term collective intelligence. Collective intelligence has also been attributed to bacteria and animals.

Cross-cultural psychology attempts to understand how individuals of different cultures interact with each other. Along these lines, cross-cultural leadership has developed as a way to understand leaders who work in the newly globalized market. Today's international organizations require leaders who can adjust to different environments quickly and work with partners and employees of other cultures. It cannot be assumed that a manager who is successful in one country will be successful in another.

The social sciences are the sciences concerned with societies, human behaviour, and social relationships.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cataldo, Jorge; Prochno, Paulo (2003) Cognitive assets: a model to understand the organizational appropriation of collective tacit knowledge. In Management of Technology Key Success Factors for Innovation and Sustainable Development. Editors: Morel-Guimaraes L Khalil T Hosni Y, 2005 pp: 123-133. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265406151
  2. ↑ Cataldo, Jorge (2001) Papel do Suporte Analítico à Tomada de Decisão na Gestão do Conhecimento Organizacional. Advised by Gomes, L. F. A. Ibmec Business School library.
  3. 1 2 Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995) The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York.
  4. ↑ Eden, C. and Spender, J. C. (1998) Managerial and organizational cognition, Sage, London.
  5. 1 2 Fiol, C. M. (2002). Intraorganizational Cognition. In: Companion to Organizations (Ed, Baum, J. A.) Blackwell, Oxford.
  6. ↑ Birkinshaw, J., Nobel, R. and Ridderstrale, J. (2002). Knowledge as a contingency variable: Do the characteristics of knowledge predict organization structure? Organization Science, 13, 274-289.
  7. ↑ Orlikowski, W. (2002). Knowing in Practice: Enacting a Collective Capability in Distributed Organizing. Organization Science, 13, 249-273.
  8. ↑ Fiske, S. T. and Taylor, S. E. (1991) Social Cognition, McGraw Hill, New York.
  9. 1 2 Walsh, J. P. (1995). Managerial and organizational cognition: Notes from a trip down memory lane. Organization Science, 6, 280-321.
  10. ↑ Bartunek, J., Gordon, R. and Weathersby, R. (1983). Developing 'complicated' understanding in administrators. Academy of Management Review, 8, 273-284.
  11. ↑ Berne, E. (1973) Analisis transaccional en psicoterapia, Psique, Buenos Aires.
  12. ↑ Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95 - S120.
  13. ↑ Burt, R. S. (1992) Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition, Harvard University Press, Boston.
  14. ↑ Granovetter, M. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360-1380.
  15. ↑ Raider, H. and Krackhardt, D. (2002). Intraorganizational Networks. In: Companion to Organizations (Ed, Baum, J. A.) Blackwell, Oxford.
  16. ↑ Dyer, J. H. and Nobeoka, K. (2000). Creating and maintaining a high performance knowledge-sharing network: The Toyota Case. Strategic Management Journal, 21, 345-367.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.