Decision and intuition during organizational change : an evolutionary critique of dual process theory

Talat, U; Chang, K; Nguyen, B

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review intuition in the context of organizational change. We argue that intuition as a concept requires attention and its formulation is necessary prior to its application in organizations. The paper provides a critique of Dual Process Theory and highlights shortcomings in organization theorizing of intuition.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual and provides in-depth theoretical discussions by drawing from the literature on decision and intuition in the context of organizational change.
Findings: Investigating whether Dual Process Theory is sufficiently clear, we found ambiguity. Specifically, the current definition provided by Dane and Pratt is not clear in terms of its four sections: (1) The consciousness of non-conscious processing, (2) involving holistic associations, (3) that are produced rapidly, which (4) result in affectively charged judgments. Finally, we note that the Evolutionary perspective is missing and we provide foundational concepts for such a perspective, including the discussion of information templates, memes and genes, as argued by research, condition intuition.
Originality/value: The paper finds that an evolutionary perspective develops a picture of intuition as an adaptive resource. This evolutionary perspective is currently absent in research and we provide foundational concepts for such a perspective. We propose specific arguments to highlight the evolutionary perspective.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 25, 2017
• Publication Date: Sep 25, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 28, 2017
• Journal: The Bottom Line
• Print ISSN: 0888-045X
• Publisher: Emerald
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 236-254
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/BL-08-2017-0016
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BL-08-2017-0016
• Related Public URLs: http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=bl