Foundations of Knowledge and Professional Skills on New Workplaces

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Table of Contents

The Core Research Question
Theoretical Framework
Methodology
Results
Critical Analysis
Reference List

The Core Research Question

This study was based on the fact that new employees often face some uncertainties regarding the operations of their new work places. The main question studied here was, therefore, “to investigate how different companies managed this cognitive uncertainty period” (Michel, 2007, p.507). The companies in question here were, the Red Bank and the Amp Bank, which employed different strategies of managing the cognitive uncertainty, but both outcomes led to distinctive individual cognitive change, which benefited the entire organization (Michel, 2007, p.518).

Conventionally, the Red Bank employed a strategy where it attempted to reduce the cognitive uncertainty among newcomers so that it would only last transiently. The bankers were presented with abstract concepts so that they could deduce how to solve problems independently (Michel, 2007, p.518). Amp Bank, however, amplified the uncertainty to that it would last longer or be persistent. Individual could not deduce what to do as this need superseded their individual cognitive capacity hence requiring the entire organization to be involved in solving the problem inductively (Michel, 2007, p.513).

The study, therefore, sought to describe these different uncertainty management strategies and assess how working under different durations of cognitive uncertainty changed people’s cognition over time, and how the different cognition in individuals in turn affected the organizational cognition (Packer, & Goicoechea, 2000, p.231). The study, therefore, sought to build a theory to help explain the different strategies (transient and persistent) and their similar outcomes on the organizational cognition.

Theoretical Framework

In any organization, the newcomers always have knowledge or information gaps, and they, therefore, have a lot to learn. As such, they suffer a terrific deal of cognitive uncertainty at their new working station. Simply explained, cognitive uncertainty is the situation where individuals instinctively feel less confident regarding the relevance of their knowledge and accuracy of their judgment or decisions in a new situation (Trope & Liberman, 1996, p.256). The object of this doubt is not the environment in the new company or the duty requirements but the experience and expertise of the new worker in relation to the day-to-day problem solving needs.

For quite some time, Organizations have deduced strategies to reduce the cognitive uncertainty (Colvin, 2006, p.77). However, some organizations, on the other hand, have not attempted to set up strategies to reduce this uncertainty. Instead, these organizations have heightened it and in some cases intentionally created it. This is a unique trend that has been noted by business analysts (Schwartz, 2005, p.12; Colvin, 2006, p.77).there are a number of organizations that have been deemed notorious of creating cognitive uncertainty, like Google which has the ‘Chaos by design’ slogan (Lashinsky, 2006, p.86). The United States military combat training also has a way of creating ‘ambiguity and uncertainty’ (Wong, 2004, p.17).

The companies named above show that, uncertainty is created and retained on purpose. However, the literature of these organizations is not enough to help scholars understand why organizations choose not to Reduce cognitive uncertainty for new employees or even to make matter worse try and Amplify it for the newcomers who seem to be clueless. This study endeavours to provide these answers by studying Red Bank, which had strategies to reduce uncertainty; vis-à-vis, Amp Bank, which amplified it and made it persistent so that the employees experienced it throughout their term at the bank (Michel, 2007, p.513).

Methodology

For such fine-grained procedures where cognition of individual changes, the most appropriate methodology for study ideally suited is ethnography (Engeström and Middleton, 1998, p.45) and grounded theory (Locke, 2001, p.41). The investigator, therefore, studied two banks over a period of one year and report on an ethnographic study of two years in other companies. The preliminary study conducted 84 interviews for professional in all levels plus a 48 day observational study. A number of informants were also set up to make comments on how and why Amp Bank created and amplified cognition uncertainty (Michel, 2007, p.513). In contrast, the informants were also to discuss why Red Bank attempted to reduce uncertainty.

The researcher used semi-structured formal interviews on a sample of 108 personnel and 136 interviews. The interviews lasted 30 to 45 minutes. The researcher also interviewed the bankers formally during the time observation was being conducted. The interviews were done during the second year of study when the researcher had developed clear themes. Sample from Amp Bank was 60, while at Red Bank was 48 senior employee including associates (Michel, 2007, p.514). The rest of interviews (28), were repeat interviews with some bankers whom the researcher ‘followed up’ to investigate them during free time, so that deal with the banks may not be breached.

There were also some informal interviews where over 120 informants were interviewed. They included Red and Amp Bank employees, customers, and workers from other banks who were experts in the banking industry (Michel, 2007, p.513). The selection of the informants was based on the developing needs of the research.

Results

The findings from the study can be summarized as follows. Both banks believed that, it was necessary for them to manage the cognitive uncertainty. However, they had different ways of managing the uncertainty. Red Bank employed strategies that included duty description, training, feedback and communication, and staffing to Reduce cognitive uncertainty (Michel, 2007, p.517). Therefore, its employees only experienced it as transient encounter. The bank portrayed abstract concepts to its employee enabling them to classify circumstances into general groups by use of deductive cognition (Stanovich, & West, 2000, p.648). Bankers could be able to work independently because of expert knowledge hence causing an individual-centric organizational cognition. Amp Bank, on the other hand, used same practices to create more uncertainties hence, making it persistent. The employees are hence unsure of how their experience, existing knowledge applies to new situations (Packer, & Goicoechea, 2000, p.231). Because of that, Amp Bank is forced to use inductive cognition and exploit organizational resources to find solutions to problems. The result of this strategy is that, the company hence uses collective-centric form of organizational cognition.

The two banks have noticeably different approaches of managing cognitive uncertainty but both were successful. This is because the different strategies capitalized on their strengths and compensated on their weaknesses (Michel, 2007, p.518).

Critical Analysis

The questions of the study were original and captivating. Considering that, for decades, many organizations have been trying to employ different ways of managing cognitive uncertainty, all which seem to have worked best, there was a need to find and explanation to this. However, many of the organizations that have employed these strategies do not provide literature analysis of how and why they employed certain types of strategies (Stanovich, & West, 2000, p.648). This study helped to explore this information and contribute to the literature on management of uncertainty for newcomers hence effectively answering the question.

The grounded theory could have been used maximally to explore the mutual constitution of the individualistic and organizational cognition (Locke, 2001, p.41). This could have provided more information on how individual cognitive process worked differently in different situational context. Distributed cognition would be well explained for use in theory development as well as describe how cognition is diversified or specialized (Molden et al. 2006).

Limitations to the study included the researcher not being able to rule out self-selection of bankers to these different banking systems (individual- versus collective-centric), even though recruitment criteria were similar. Dependence on ethnographic notes could have resulted in recall biases (Hammersley, & Atkinson, 1997, p.45). The relationship between the researcher and the informants could have affected how informants regarded themselves and their duty to the companies they worked for.

Reference List

Colvin, G. (2006). Managing Chaos. Fortune, 154(7), 76–82.

Engeström, Y., & Middleton, D. (1998). Cognition and Communication at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (1997). Ethnography, 2^nd Ed. New York: Routledge.

Lashinsky, A. (2006). Chaos by Design. Fortune, 154(7), 86–98.

Locke, K. (2001). Grounded Theory in Management Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Michel, A. A., (2007). A Distributed Cognition Perspective on Newcomers’ Change Processes: The Management of Cognitive Uncertainty in Two Investment Banks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(4), 507-557.

Molden, D. C., Plaks, J. E., & Dweck, C. S. (2006). Meaningful’ Social Inferences: Effects of Implicit Theories on Inferential Processes. Working Paper: North-western University: Department Of Psychology.

Packer, M. J., & Goicoechea, J. (2000). Socio-cultural And Constructivist Theories of Learning: Ontology, Not Just Epistemology. Educational Psychologist, 35, 227–241.

Schwartz, J. (2005) Thinking May Not Be All It’s Thought out to be.” New York Times, pp.12, 4A.

Stanovich, K. W., & West, F. (2000). Individual Differences in Reasoning: Implications for the Rationality Debate. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 645–665.

Trope, Y., & Liberman, A. (1996). Social hypothesis testing: Cognitive and motivational mechanisms. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles (pp. 239–270). New York: Guilford Press.

Wong, L. (2004). Developing Adaptive Leaders: The Crucible Experience of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Web.

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