Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control, Third Edition

100 Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control

Figure 5.5

Cognitive styles

(Source: Adapted

from Hurst et al.,

1989)

Figure 5.6
The senior
management’s
cognitive
composition and its
likely relationship to
business strategy
(Source: Adapted
from Hurst et al.,
1989)

Cognitive Concerned Handles Tends

preference with... these with... to be...

Intuition Possibilities, Metaphors and Ingenious and

patternsideas symbols integrative

Feeling People and values Force of personality Enthusiastic and

insightful

Thinking Cause and effect things Regulations and Reliable and

language orderly

Sensation Activities, events Spontaneity and Adaptable and

action practical

Cognitive composition Time orientation Strategy orientation

Mainly intuitives with Future Prospecting

some feelers

Mainly thinkers with Near-term future Analytical

some sensors and past

Mainly sensors Current Reflective

Mostly feelers with some Past Preserving

intuitives

Mix of intuitives, feelers, Future through Renewing

thinkers and sensors to the past

The balance of the cognitive styles of the

senior management team

The final part of the innovation audit is to evaluate the cognitive prefer-

ence and behaviours of the management team. Although individuals have

the capacity to make use of all their cognitive functions, one area tends to

dominate. The four cognitive preferences are shown in Figure 5.5.

It is important to have a mix of cognitive styles in the senior manage-

ment team that will influence the business’s orientation towards creativity

and innovation. Researchers have hypothesised the likely influence of a

range of senior management team’s potential cognitive profiles as illus-

trated in Figure 5.6.

The whole issue of the nature of groups and the need for balanced

teams is considered further in Chapter 6.