Modeling organizational cognition: The case of impact factor

Abstract

This article offers an alternative perspective on organizational cognition based on e-cognition whereby appeal to systemic cognition replaces the traditional computational model of the mind that is still extremely popular in organizational research. It uses information processing, not to explore inner processes, but as the basis for pursuing organizational matters. To develop a theory of organizational cognition, the current work presents an agent-based simulation model based on the case of how individual perception of scientific value is affected by and affects organizational intelligence units’ (e.g., research groups’, departmental) framing of the notorious impact factor. Results show that organizational cognition cannot be described without an intermediate meso scale – called here social organizing – that both filters and enables the many kinds of socially enabled perception, action and behavior that are so characteristic of human cognition.