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How Do Managers Really Think? Using Think Aloud and fMRI to Take a Closer Look at Managerial Cognition

Methodological Challenges and Advances in Managerial and Organizational Cognition

ISBN: 978-1-78743-677-0, eISBN: 978-1-78743-676-3

Publication date: 5 December 2017

Abstract

If we want to improve managerial cognition, we need to capture the full spectrum of cognitive functions and the complex processes through which they unfold. I propose two very different methods (one older and low-tech, one newer and high-tech) that allow us to observe cognitive functions and processes directly in real time.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Sen Fang, Gerard Hodgkinson, Charlotte Reypens, Timo Vuori, and the book co-authors and editors who provided feedback on an earlier draft.

Some of the ideas set out in this chapter come from my application of the methods to various ongoing, published or unpublished projects involving many people to whom I am grateful – two groups in particular. Firstly, the participants who lent their time for research, sharing their brains and words so we could study their cognition. Secondly, my generous colleagues: Nicola Canessa, who allowed me my first research experiences with fMRI, and Anna Deréky and Todd Hare for continuing those experiences. To Nadia Neytcheva, Laura Strada, and Elisa Bosio, for sharing your devotion to TA as a way to understand managers and entrepreneurs. Finally, to Stefano Brusoni and Maurizio Zollo, for your openness to exploring the two methods in our research, and for your eternal curiosity.

Citation

Laureiro-Martinez, D. (2017), "How Do Managers Really Think? Using Think Aloud and fMRI to Take a Closer Look at Managerial Cognition", Galavan, R.J., Sund, K.J. and Hodgkinson, G.P. (Ed.) Methodological Challenges and Advances in Managerial and Organizational Cognition (New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition, Vol. 2), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 279-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2397-52102017011

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited