Limits of a Second Language: Native and Second Languages in Management Team Communication

Cultural differences in speech acts are common challenges in management involving Chinese and Western managers. Comparing four groups – Native-speaking Chinese, English-speaking Chinese, Chinese-speaking Westerners, and non-Chinese- speaking Westerners, we assessed the effects of language and ethnicity on the ability to predict communication obstacles in a management team scenario. Bilingual subjects were less likely to be influenced by ethnic biases. Still, bilinguals were not more likely to adjust their metacognitions about communication toward those of the native speakers. The study creates a link between management, cognition and linguistics, as well as having consequences for the study of metacognition in cross-cultural management.

So far and yet so near: The emerging characteristics, forms and configurations of organizational proximity in the context of digitalization

BACKGROUND: The current pandemic crisis evidences the importance of questioning and reconsidering the evolution of organizational proximity and the crucial role of digitalization in the emergence of new characteristics, forms and configurations of organizational proximity. OBJECTIVE: This article presents a conceptual study aimed at analyzing the evolution of organizational proximity in the context of digitalization. METHODS: Adopting a systemic-cognitive approach inspired by existing studies on management cognition and the biology of cognition, this article first presents an analytical review of existing research in organizational studies and proposes a taxonomy of proximity based on the forms and characteristics identified in the organizational context. Second, it introduces the notion of a proximity unit, based on which a conceptual framework for analyzing organizational proximity is conceived. RESULTS: Based on the proposed framework, this article analyzes the new characteristics and forms of organizational proximity and identifies possible configurations of organizational proximity by pointing out the emergence of substituted proximity propelled by digitalization and formulating six propositions. CONCLUSIONS: The article ends by arguing that it is important for organizations to conceive a composite proximity strategy by taking into account the effect of substituted proximity, driven by digitalization, in the configuration of organizational proximity.

Collaborative Social Networks

This article investigates the relationships between the motivation, cognition, and behavior of knowledge management. It analyzes university students preparing to share content on the Tamshui Humanities Knowledge Collaboration System (hereafter referred to as the Tamshui Wiki) to determine whether different participation motivation dimensions (community motivation and personal motivation) affected their knowledge management cognition and behavior. The stimulus–organism–response theory is adopted to assess the relationships between several intrinsic cognition (knowledge management and community reputation) and behavior (attention, interest, action, and share) dimensions. A total of 364 valid samples are collected. Correlation analysis and regression analysis are adopted for statistical calculation. Findings reveal that the participation willingness and community motivation of the students had a greater effect on their knowledge management cognition than personal motivation. Frequent users of Wikipedia were approving of knowledge collaboration and able to link cognition with behavior.

The Theory of Entrepreneurial Rent

The theory of entrepreneurial rent posits that powerful incentives for managerial learning are provided by giving managers the opportunity to share the firm surplus, which further enhances the management cognition and situation awareness. These incentives enable management to seek cognitively distant opportunities that provide the firm entrepreneurial rent. Further, the greater the firm-specific risk, the greater the entrepreneurial rent. The source of entrepreneurial rent is the uncertainty associated with the firm’s value opportunities. Further, since managerial attentional resource is shared between the firm’s current operations and the exploitation of the value opportunities, the managerial attentional resources are greater when the firm has greater value opportunities.

Task and Institutional Influences on Managers' Mental Models of Competition

From institutional theory, we argue (a) that the competitive, or task environment may encourage divergence of management cognition between organizations, management functions and amongst senior managers, and (b) that the institutional environment may encourage cognitive convergence at the level of the industry, the strategic group and within institutionalized practices linked to management functions and level. Using management cognition of competition as a vehicle and two cognitive mapping methods, we test a series of competing propositions amongst 32 managers in the UK personal financial services industry, an industry that evidences both task and institutional characteristics. Our findings indicate neither the superiority of exclusively task nor institutional explanations of management cognition. However, the results do indicate some influence of the institutional environment, most noticeably through the convergence of mental models within middle managers across the industry. The results also indicate some influence of the task environment, through cognitive differences across organizations and greater differentiation amongst senior managers' mental models. We interpret our results by referring to the usefulness of distinguishing between task and institutional environments in management cognition and strategic management research.