Cognitive styles in business and management: a review of development over the past two decades

This paper considers the theory, measurement, and practical relevance of cognitive style for both management practice and organisational behaviour. We simplify matters by confining our discussions to cognitive style per se, deliberately excluding the construct of learning styles. We also confine our analysis to those constructs that have a strong conceptual and empirical foundation in business and management or organisational and occupational settings. We aim to examine ways in which these styles have influenced both management and organisational behaviour from multiple perspectives over the past two decades. To conclude, we draw reasoned and authoritative conclusions about the implications that research into cognitive style has for management practice and organisational behaviour, and ways in which the field needs to develop in order to successfully bridge the relevance gap between theory and practice.