Middle Managers’ Cognitive Styles, Capacity for Change, and Organizational Performance

Abstract

The last three decades have seen the public sector move from the traditional bureaucratic model to a modern one with better services, efficiency, and accountability. To succeed in making a change, public organizations must develop their capacity for change to improve performance. Middle managers have a central role in the change process, particularly their cognitive styles (knowing, planning, and creating). This study aims to analyze how middle managers’ cognitive style contributes to the organizational performance through organizational capacity for change (OCC). The study was conducted with 75 managers along with 238 subordinates from a public organization in Indonesia. The results revealed that the creating style and organizational performance are mediated by OCC. Only creating styles positively relate to OCC, while knowing and planning styles are not. This study extends prior studies on the link between cognitive style and organizational performance by introducing OCC as the mediator.