What is the The Cognitive School of Strategy?

The Cognitive School focuses on the creative processes that take place in the mind of the strategist. It is very individualistic, in that that strategist creates a strategy based upon her personal knowledge, experiences, and perceptions. 

Under this perspective, understanding the human mind and the human brain is important to comprehend strategy formation.

What are the Premises of the Cognitive School of Strategy? 

The main premises of the Cognitive School include:

• Strategy formation is a cognitive process that takes place in the mind of the strategist.
• Strategies become perspectives that influence (or drive) the way people deal with their environment.
• The inputs from the environment are mere interpretations in the mind of the strategist according to her/his perspective or perception
• As concepts, strategies are difficult to accomplish in the beginning,  suboptimal when they are finally attained, and are difficult to change once they are no longer necessary.

What is the Process or Model for Strategic Decision Making? 

Information processing follows the following pattern: 

• Attention, 
• Encoding, 
• Storage and retrieval, and 
• Choice for Action, and
• Assessment of results

What is Attention? 

Attention determines what information will be processed and what will be ignored. 

What is Encoding? 

During the encoding stage, we give meaning to the information according to a sort of classification, in which we find a match between the information and any existing category. 

What is Storage or Retrieval? 

In individuals, memory is what provided the storage for information, meanwhile in organizations is the formalization of information through rules, forms, procedures, etc. The availability of information at any time allows its retrieval. 

What is Choice for Action? 

In firms, the memory of individuals and the formalization of information are linked through a process called socialization (when an employee memorizes a rule, a routine is established and the information is not lost and can be retrieved, since it has been embodied).

What is Outcome? 

Once a choice for action has been made, the impact of the results (outcome) will initiate a new wave of information that needs to be processed into a new cycle (it goes back to attention). 

What is human cognition as a process of mapping. 

This line of research focuses upon the need of mental structures to organize knowledge (any concept, scheme, plan or mental model conceived in the mind of the strategist), 

Maps add structure to the process of cognition and strategic decision making. Managers employ mental models (casual maps) that suggest actions under certain circumstances. Mental models allow for the interpretation of relationship between many variables such as supply, demand, cost, price, time, etc.

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