Strategic Management

The Cognitive School

 The man Behind the Business
Schools Of Thought
• Henry Mintzberg
Henry Mintzberg is known for his
pioneering work in the field of
strategic management in
organizations. Born in Montreal,
he earned his BA from Sir George
Williams University in 1962,
BEng from McGill University, and
his Master’s and PhD degrees
from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology.
• Since 1968, he has been a
professor in the Management
Faculty at McGill, where he
holds the Cleghorn Chair in
Management Studies. He is an
Officer of the Order of Canada
and recipient of the 1996 Léon-
Gérin Prix du Québec. In
addition to outdoor sports, Dr.
Mintzberg enjoys short story
writing.
 The Cognitive School:
Strategy Systems as Mental Processes
• It analyzes how people perceive patterns and
process information.
• Concentrates on what is happening in the mind
of the strategist, and how it processes the
information.
• Strategies emerge as concepts, maps, schemas
and frames of reality.
• Stresses the creative side of the strategy
process. Strong at the level of an individual
strategist. very useful to explain why our minds
are imperfect
Understanding The Mind
People have different
thinking preferences which
they bring into their
business interactions and
decisions.
The Whole Brain Model is
used to determine those
thinking preferences.
Each individual falls under
one of four categories

Figure illustrates the preferred thinking styles for each

quadrant of Herrmann’s Brain Dominance Model.

 The Four Thinking Styles in the
Whole Brain Model
• Logician
• Organizer
• Communicator
• Visionary

Whole Brain Model Commnunication

Style - How Do We Commnunidate? 】
 Cognitive School Limitations
• Not very practical beyond the conceptual
stage.
• Not very practical to conceive great ideas
or strategies.
• Currently not very useful to guide
collective strategy processes.
• Errors in judgement stemming from
cognitive factors (also known as cognitive
bias)
 Cognitive Bias
• Examples of individual cognitive biases that would
negatively affect organisations and business decisions.

• Bandwagon effect: the tendency to do and believe

things because many other people do and believe the
same.

• Expectation Bias: the tendency for experimenters to

believe, certify, and publish data that agree with their
expectations for the outcome of an experiment.
• Illusion Of Control: the tendency for human
beings to believe they can control or at least
influence outcomes that they clearly cannot.

• Information Bias: the tendency to seek

information even when it cannot affect action.

• Outcome Bias: the tendency to judge a decision

by its eventual outcome instead of based on the
quality of the decision at the time it was made.
• Planning Fallacy: the tendency to
underestimate task-completion times.

• Semmelweis reflex: the tendency to reject new

evidence that contradicts an established
paradigm.

• Deformation Professionnelle: the tendency to

look at things according to the conventions of
one's own profession, forgetting any broader
point of view.
 Discussion
• As future business leaders and decision
makers, would you or your organization
rely on the Cognitive school in your
strategy planning?