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Adopting a dual processing cognitive perspective, this study explores the decision-making processes past the start-up stage that small entrepreneurial businesses employ to grow. The author examines how entrepreneurs evaluate and make decisions on growth opportunities in their business environment. The author uses cognitive style as a theoretical lens to capture differences in information processing, combining interviews and psychometric questionnaires to analyse cognitive styles. The longitudinal mixed methods approach illustrates the richness of the entrepreneur’s decision-making process, which the author tracks over a two-year period. The author determines how intuitive and analytical cognitive styles are used by entrepreneurs and the contribution these styles make to decision-making. The findings show that the two cognitive styles are versatile as entrepreneurs adjust and adapt their cognitive style over time, in keeping with the situational factors of their business environment. The author also finds marked differences between novice and mature entrepreneurs and that experienced entrepreneurs exhibited greater levels of cognitive versatility, which was directly linked to their prior experience. The study has significant implications for future research, which should consider the question how an entrepreneur’s cognitive style is dependent on the business context and their prior experience.

Against a backdrop of only 337 black chartered accountants in a total of approximately 20 000 in South Africa in 2003, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) is reviewing its current transformation targets for 2005. Information was required to review the obstacles that black trainees in general and accountants in particular experience en route to qualifying. Accounting as a career was investigated from a theoretical point of view. A questionnaire was designed, which focused mainly on problems and barriers in respect of career guidance; funding and bursaries; role models in the profession; knowledge of the profession; and exposure to business. The questionnaire was distributed to all 755 black trainee accountants that were registered with SAICA. A total of 313 questionnaires were returned, representing a response rate of 41,45%. A lack of knowledge about the chartered accountancy profession and careers related to the profession was identified as one of the main reasons for the small number of blacks in the profession. Career guidance at school was stated as the main contributing factor in this regard. A lack of funding and of bursaries was stated as the second most important reason why students do not choose a career in accounting. Other important barriers identified include the limited nature of the work given to trainee accountants to do and the resulting limited work experience that they gain; a lack of black mentors in firms; racial bias on the part of supervisors; and a lack of recognition of and respect for the work completed. Black trainee accountants suggest that academic support programmes should be introduced to assist them to prepare for examinations, a forum should be established for students of Accounting in which they can interact with accounting professionals through workshops; a network group of professional black mentors in the business sector should be formed; and the advancement and retention of black members within the profession should be encouraged. Awareness programmes should be accorded a high priority in the short term.

The purpose of this paper is to examine conceptual and theoretical links between intuition and coaching; investigate accomplished coaches' practical experiences of intuition; identify skill set of an intuitive coach; discuss implications of findings for coaches', HRD professionals', and line managers' learning and development.

In‐depth, semi‐structured, individual interviews with 14 accomplished experienced executive coaches (eight males and six females) averaging 14.5 years as a coach.

Outline of core attributes of an intuitive coach.

Immersion in experience, a reflective approach to practice, effective feedback and supervision, and attending to personal well‐being are likely to enable coaches, HRD practitioners and line managers to take a more informed and intelligent approach to “going with their gut” in coaching and other situations where inter‐ and intra‐personal awareness are important.

The dynamism of competition in international markets requires managers to react accordingly and ensure the firm's survival and competitiveness. This study examines the impact of cognitive styles and dynamic managerial capabilities (DMC) on a firm's international performance and the mediating role of these capabilities in the relationship between cognitive styles and international performance.

This study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional research design, employing a sample of 306 firm owner-managers from exporting companies in Kosovo.

The findings suggest that managers' cognitive styles positively influence firm international performance, including their impact on DMC. Results also indicate that only managerial cognition mediates cognitive styles' effects on a firm's international performance, compared to managers' social capital.

In this study, the authors contribute to the literature by integrating cognitive styles with DMC in a transition country. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that DMC mediate the impact of cognitive styles on the firm international performance.

This qualitative study of managers’ use of intuition in the selection process aimed to understand if and how managers use intuition in employee hiring decisions and suggest ways in which the use of intuition might be improved. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with managers from a range of backgrounds, and with varying experience of recruitment and selection.

Findings revealed that reasons for the use of intuition included personal preferences, resource constraints and recognition of the limitations of more structured approaches. Intuition was used an indicator for performance, personality and person-environment fit. Intuition tended to be used with requisite caution; participants were aware of its limits, the potential for bias and the difficulties in justifying its use; several participants used their intuitions in concert with more structured, non-intuition based approaches.

The small-scale investigative study has limited generalisability. The paper concludes with five specific recommendations on how to improve managers’ understanding and use of intuition in employee selection.

Despite increased interest in intuition in management there is a paucity of qualitative studies of intuition-in-use in management in general and in personnel in particular. This research helps to fill this gap.

In recent years there has been a growth of interest in the role played by intuition in entrepreneurial cognition and behavior. However, the significance of the role of affect in intuitive judgment has been underplayed by entrepreneurship researchers. In response to this theoretical and empirical shortcoming we propose recognition-primed decision-making (RPD), the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH), and dual-process theories (in particular Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: CEST) as complementary frameworks for advancing understanding of the dynamic interplay of cognition and affect in entrepreneurial judgment and decision-making.

The role of organisational learning in knowledge acquisition for competitive advantage is increasingly found in the literature. Various researchers have used qualitative, single firm case studies to validate a relationship between learning, knowledge and firms exhibiting strong market performance. There is, however, limited empirical evidence on the relative importance of the learning style and management systems required to support the effective marketing of knowledge‐based services. The Internet is an excellent research tool to empirically assess the possible relationships between learning style, knowledge systems and revisions in operational practices. A survey of small UK accountancy practices was undertaken to acquire data on learning style, knowledge systems and market performance. The results and their implications in relation to organisations’ use of the Internet are discussed and proposals are presented for further research.

The concept of fit is central to theories in both the fields of strategic management and organizational behavior. It is our contention that many key questions in the field of entrepreneurship might also be successfully addressed through a fit approach. For instance, why do entrepreneurs often make poor managers? And why must founders often be replaced by professional managers as their firms grow? The idea of misfit is implicit in both of these questions. A fit perspective may also be beneficial in better understanding specific entrepreneurial behaviors. For example, why does one entrepreneur start and grow multiple businesses over his or her career (serial) while another might be content with starting only one business (novice)? or Why does one entrepreneur continually strive to grow his or her firm while another is content to arrest development (lifestyle) at a certain level? All of these questions, and obviously many more, can be viewed and examined as questions of fit.

Dominance complementarity, which is the tendency for people to respond oppositely to others along the control dimension of interpersonal behavior, is a means by which people create and perpetuate informal forms of interpersonal hierarchy within social relationships (Tiedens, Unzueta, & Young, 2007b). In the present chapter, I explore the likely effects of such complementarity on group creativity. I propose specifically that expressions of dominance, even those borne not out of formal hierarchy but rather out of such factors as expertise and enthusiasm for the task, are likely to elicit submissive responses from fellow group members when the group is trying to generate creative ideas. As group members behaving submissively are likely to contribute fewer ideas to group discussion, I argue that group members who behave dominantly may, through their influence on other group members, reduce both the number and diversity of ideas generated within the group. I, therefore, propose that dominance complementarity may impair groups' abilities to generate creative ideas.

The purpose of this research is to show that a key aspect of learning and development of individual employees is that of self‐directedness. This paper will consider the role of the leader in facilitating workforce development in terms of employees' self‐directedness for learning. The research was designed to investigate the views that “learning leaders” in organizations have towards the development of self‐directedness in employees; and to identify strategies that are feasible in developing self‐directedness in operating organizations.

This paper draws on a national research project undertaken in 12 organizations in Australia, representing a range of sizes and a number of industry sectors. Data collection involved interviewing learning and development managers in each organization to gauge the relative feasibility of the implementation of a number of pre‐identified strategies designed to develop self‐directedness among employees within operating work environments.

The research showed that: learning managers and leaders were generally well disposed towards the development of self‐directedness, and some had already moved to do so; and identified a number of possible strategies for implementation of varying degrees of feasibility. The paper will consider these findings in relation to the concept of a “learning leader”.

Although the research was conducted in a diverse set of 12 enterprises, applicability of the results across an even wider set of enterprises would need to be tested.

The findings of this research provide guidance to learning and development personnel on feasible strategies to use within their own organization to assist with the development of self‐directed learning among employees.