Objective environmental conditions and perceived environmental uncertainty
Weiss, Martin Wittmann, Christina
Weiss, Martin
Wittmann, Christina
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Publication Type
Journal article
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2018-03-05
Journal
Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change
Book
Publication Volume
14
Publication Issue
1
Publication Begin page
33
Publication End page
60
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
Purpose It appears as if a gap exists between objective environmental conditions and the respective managerial perception of those conditions. This situation poses severe problems for executives deriving effective strategies and initiating successful organizational change. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and provide a deeper understanding of the factors that lead to such a gap. Design/methodology/approach On the basis of the literature from psychology and strategic management, this paper develops a conceptual framework of the cognitive model with the perception process and potentially moderating factors. Furthermore, more precise mechanisms and relationships within the perception of environmental conditions are proposed. Findings The perception process consists of three stages, attention, encoding and storage/retrieval, which all may explain variations in how individuals interpret the environment. Moreover, dispositional factors (such as cognitive styles, cognitive structures, intelligence and motivation) as well as situational factors (such as emotion and stress) further cause variations between and within individuals, which ultimately leads to a gap between objective and perceived environmental conditions. Originality/value This study not only highlights the existence and the severe consequence of a misperception of environmental conditions, but also offers a variety of factors that could lead to this undesirable effect. Furthermore, while previous research has typically focused on single factors that might influence the perception process, this study assumes a holistic view on the cognitive model and provides more detailed and specific mechanisms on a perceptual gap.
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Keywords
35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour, Basic Behavioral and Social Science, Behavioral and Social Science, Clinical Research