Cognitive representations of institutional change

• Published in: Journal of organizational change management Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 9 - 28
• Main Authors: C t lina Iederan, Oana, Lucian Cur eu, Petru, Vermeulen, Patrick A.M, Geurts, Jac L.A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 15.02.2011
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive models; Communism; Decision making; Entrepreneurs; EU membership; Organization theory; Organizational change; Studies; Romania; Cognition; Romania; Decision making; Organizational change; Entrepreneurs; Strategic choices
• ISSN: 0953-4814; 1758-7816
• DOI: 10.1108/09534811111102265

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the cognitive factors explaining how exogenous institutional change (IC) impacts on organizational actions.Design methodology approach - The authors interviewed 121 Romanian entrepreneurs, 69 before and 52 after Romania's ascension to the EU and used cognitive mapping to elicit their cognitive schemas about this macro-IC. Similarities and differences between cognitive structures are explored and the aggregated cognitive maps before and after the IC are created, in order to understand how managerial cognition changed following IC.Findings - The results show that the richness of the cognitive schemas before the IC is lower than after the IC took place. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs who framed the IC as a threat adopted isomorphic actions and reported less positive organizational outcomes as compared to the entrepreneurs that represented the IC as an opportunity.Research limitations implications - The research described is exploratory in nature and opens new interesting research directions in the cognitive pillar of institutional theory. Moreover, a cognitive mapping technique is used to elicit and represent managerial cognition and in this way adds to the methods used in institutional research.Practical implications - The results presented in this paper help policy makers to understand that the impact of exogenous IC on organizational actions is not direct, but mediated by the cognitive representations developed by strategic decision makers.Originality value - The paper integrates institutional theory with the work on cognition and explores how cognitive representations affect the relation between environmental pressures and organizational responses.