Impact of AI technologies on organisational learning: proposing an organisation cognition schema

Purpose The work depicts an organizational learning schema, which reflects on the cognition structure of workplaces during the integration of AI-powered technologies. Design/methodology/approach This paper summarizes the most recent advances on organizational cognition from organizational studies. The article tries to capture how learning is impacted at the individual level and organization level, with incorporation of AI technologies. Findings The theoretical schema on organizational cognition could be studied and integrated to fill this gap and support an effective and smooth transition from electronic, computer-based industries (characteristics of the third industrial revolution) to AI powered enterprises. Originality/value It's one of the first works to discuss organization learning along with AI technologies.

Sustainability with (out) compromise: how companies perceive, manage, and communicate trade-off decisions in the practice of corporate sustainability

The practice of corporate sustainability is beset with compromise; it involves inevitable trade-offs across competing objectives and across a range of stakeholders and time horizons. These trade-offs create tension points that present the company with strategic choices that ultimately shape its overall approach to sustainability. Accordingly, trade-offs constitute a material aspect of a company’s sustainability practice, and ought to be disclosed in sustainability reports. The purpose of this research is therefore to understand how companies perceive, manage, and report on these critical trade-off decisions in the practice of sustainability. To achieve this objective, this dissertation conducted a study in three phases. In Phase I, this study conducted a review and content analysis of the trade-off literature through the lens of the natural resource-based view of the firm. Through this process, this study proposed a hierarchical framework for the analysis of trade-offs based on their root tensions, their interconnections, and their connection to sustainability synergies. In Phase II, this study used an organizational cognition perspective to posit that companies perceive and respond to these trade-off decisions in ways that reflect the company’s underlying sustainability logic. To explore this link, this study performed a content analysis of interviews with sustainability managers, as well as archival documents. This study found that companies with an instrumental logic saw trade-offs as binary and resolved them by counterbalancing the ‘lose’ dimension with ‘wins’ elsewhere. In contrast, companies with an integrative logic saw trade-offs as non-binary, and resolved them through an iterative, risk-based approach. Finally, in Phase III, this study used a legitimacy perspective to determine whether companies are disclosing these trade-offs in their sustainability reports. To do so, this study analyzed sustainability reports and interviews with sustainability managers using content analysis. This study found that 92% of all reporting companies had encountered sustainability trade-offs but had not disclosed them in their reports. Evidence of these accounts were nevertheless present in the implicit (or latent) content of the reports. These findings highlight the negative light in which many companies perceive trade-offs, and the legitimacy threat that their disclosure poses.

Sustainability with (out) compromise: how companies perceive, manage, and communicate trade-off decisions in the practice of corporate sustainability

The practice of corporate sustainability is beset with compromise; it involves inevitable trade-offs across competing objectives and across a range of stakeholders and time horizons. These trade-offs create tension points that present the company with strategic choices that ultimately shape its overall approach to sustainability. Accordingly, trade-offs constitute a material aspect of a company’s sustainability practice, and ought to be disclosed in sustainability reports. The purpose of this research is therefore to understand how companies perceive, manage, and report on these critical trade-off decisions in the practice of sustainability. To achieve this objective, this dissertation conducted a study in three phases. In Phase I, this study conducted a review and content analysis of the trade-off literature through the lens of the natural resource-based view of the firm. Through this process, this study proposed a hierarchical framework for the analysis of trade-offs based on their root tensions, their interconnections, and their connection to sustainability synergies. In Phase II, this study used an organizational cognition perspective to posit that companies perceive and respond to these trade-off decisions in ways that reflect the company’s underlying sustainability logic. To explore this link, this study performed a content analysis of interviews with sustainability managers, as well as archival documents. This study found that companies with an instrumental logic saw trade-offs as binary and resolved them by counterbalancing the ‘lose’ dimension with ‘wins’ elsewhere. In contrast, companies with an integrative logic saw trade-offs as non-binary, and resolved them through an iterative, risk-based approach. Finally, in Phase III, this study used a legitimacy perspective to determine whether companies are disclosing these trade-offs in their sustainability reports. To do so, this study analyzed sustainability reports and interviews with sustainability managers using content analysis. This study found that 92% of all reporting companies had encountered sustainability trade-offs but had not disclosed them in their reports. Evidence of these accounts were nevertheless present in the implicit (or latent) content of the reports. These findings highlight the negative light in which many companies perceive trade-offs, and the legitimacy threat that their disclosure poses.

Conceptualizing change in organizational cognition

PurposeSecchi and Cowley (2016, 2018) propose a Radical approach to Organizational Cognition (ROC) as a way of studying cognitive processes in organizations. What distinguishes ROC from the established research on Organizational Cognition is that it remains faithful to radical, anti-representationalist principles of contemporary cognitive science. However, it is imperative for proponents of ROC to legitimize their approach by considering how it differs from the established research approach of Distributed Cognition (DCog). DCog is a potential contender to ROC in that it not only counters classical approaches to cognition but also provides valuable insights into cognition in organizational settings.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a conceptual/theoretical approach that expands Secchi and Cowley's introduction of ROC.FindingsThe paper shows that DCog research presupposes a task-specification requirement, which entails that cognitive tasks are well-defined. Consequently, DCog research neglects cases of organizational becoming where tasks cannot be clearly demarcated for the or are well-known to the organization. This is the case with the introduction of novel tasks or technical devices. Moreover, the paper elaborates on ROC's 3M model by linking it with insights from the literature on organizational change. Thus, it explores how organizing can be explored as an emergent phenomenon that involves micro, meso and macro domain dynamics, which are shaped by synoptic and performative changes.Originality/valueThe present paper explores new grounds for ROC by not only expanding on its core model but also showing its potential for informing organizational theory and radical cognitive science research.

Cognitive attunement in the face of organizational plasticity

PurposeThe paper aims to use part of the distributed cognition literature to study how employees cope with organizational plasticity, in an attempt to identify the characteristics of cognitive plasticity.Design/methodology/approachEvidence is collected by designing and implementing an agent-based computational simulation model (the IOP 2.0) where employees have the option to use external resources and the social environment to perform tasks. As plasticity is more effective when change and uncertainty are high, the simulation features an increase in the difficulty and number of tasks to which employees need to cope.FindingsCooperation and sharing of competence and ability are key to cognitive plasticity. Being able to master the use of some resources, together with other employees’ competencies, make some achieve the most efficient task performance.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that under conditions of change and plasticity, human resource management (HRM) shall attempt to develop measures to support employees' cognitive skills necessary to cope with it, for example, mostly through diagnosis, training and facilitating on-the-job dialogue.Originality/valueThis is the first study that attempts a merger between organizational cognition and plasticity, and it is the first to match its results to HRM policy recommendations.

Opportunity/Threat Perception and Inertia in Response to Discontinuous Change: Replicating and Extending Gilbert (2005)

We use extensive longitudinal data from companies in the book retailing and telecommunication industries to replicate and extend Gilbert’s qualitative study on the influence of opportunity/threat perceptions on resource rigidity and routine rigidity in incumbents’ responses to discontinuous change. After discovering important anomalies in an empirical generalization study, we engage in a generalization and extension study to unbundle opportunity/threat perception into the dimensions of gain/loss framing and perceived control and induce a revised theory of the effect of such appraisals on incumbent inertia. Specifically, we induce that (a) imminent loss framing relaxes resource rigidity only when decision makers perceive a moderate level of control; (b) resource rigidity also relaxes in response to gain framing, at least when decision makers perceive the discontinuity as a particularly relevant strategic issue and strongly sense that they can control it; (c) loss framing and low perceived control can amplify routine rigidity by exacerbating resource rigidity; and (d) structural separation creates perceptions of gain and control by fostering the emergence of a local organizational identity in the unit implementing the discontinuous change. We resolve long-debated contradictions in studies on managerial and organizational cognition and discontinuous change, particularly between studies invoking threat rigidity theory and studies invoking prospect theory. We also demonstrate the usefulness of replicating qualitative research that is based on multiple case comparison.