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In this chapter, the authors introduce Ludwik Fleck and his ideas of “thought style” and “thought collective” to suggest a re-thinking of the divide between “micro” and “macro” that has perhaps more inhibited than inspired organization studies in general, and institutional theory in particular. With Fleck, the authors argue that there is no such thing as thought style-neutral cognition or undirected perception: meaning, constituted through a specific thought style shared by a thought collective, permeates cognition, judgment, perception, and thought. The authors illustrate our argument with the longitudinal case study of Sydney 2030 (i.e., the strategy-making process of the City of Sydney, Australia). The case suggests that – regardless of its actual implementation – a strategy is successful to the extent to which it shapes the socio-cognitive infrastructure of a collective and enables those engaged in city-making to think and act collectively.

The effects of stigmatisation regarding sex abuse and rape crimes have rarely been studied. This present study explores the effects of social stigma by examining coping style, thought suppression, depression and anxiety in those falsely accused of sex crimes compared with those convicted of sex crimes. A total of 60 males volunteered to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaires were given to participants from organisations that support people falsely accused and people who have been found guilty of sexual offending. The findings indicate that falsely accused individuals employ an emotion‐focused coping strategy significantly more than convicted sex offenders.

Based on the work of leading French and emerging French social scientists, this paper attempts to reactivate the field of Consumer Culture Theory throughout the proposal of alternative notional tools.

This paper takes a conceptual orientation that is based on the selection and organization of concepts, methodologies, and insights borrowed from French philosophers and social scientists.

The paper first points out the various French thought styles. Next, it highlights key intellectual ideas in French intellectual tradition that have arisen over the last 30 years and promote their implications for possible future researches on consumption and for a better political activism which would give more voice to consumption studies.

The paper attempts to categorize with a semiotic methodology, the panorama of French thought styles and proposes new concepts and angles to refound the analysis of consumption. Based on the questioning on common categories of CCT, it proposes original ideas, methods, and concepts borrowed from the French tradition to break up conventional and ethnocentric approaches by considering consumption beyond the sheer notion of culture.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of a balanced or versatile linear and nonlinear pattern of thinking style in contributing to effective innovative capability of individuals and their organizations.

The relationship between these individual thinking style dimensions and the development of an innovative corporate culture that encourages linear/nonlinear thinking style balance and versatility, and how their mutual interaction may contribute to successful innovation management within organizations are considered.

The paper discusses how organizational leaders and other employees through collective development to a balanced linear/nonlinear thinking style can develop a corporate culture that in turn is supportive of organizational innovation.

Implications for future research on organizational innovation are discussed involving composition of organizational executives and work group members relative to linear/nonlinear thinking style.

Individual linear/nonlinear thinking style balanced skill development and the formation of a supportive and reinforcing organizational culture have important implications for developing organizational intrapreneurship and innovation in medium‐sized and larger organizations leading to increased productivity.

This paper explores how the collective development of individual linear/nonlinear thinking style balance can contribute to a more supportive corporate culture for organizational innovation.

The paper adopts an organizational perspective to explore the conditions of possibility of the recent re-emergence of overt class-based discourse on one hand, epitomized by the ‘We are the 99%’ movement, and the rise on the other hand of a populist, nativist and sometimes overtly fascist right. It is argued that these phenomena, reflecting the increasingly crisis-prone character of global capitalism, the growing gap between rich and poor and a generalized sense of insecurity, are rooted in the dismantling of socially embedded organizations through processes often described as ‘financialization’, driven by the taken-for-granted dominance of neoliberal ideology. The paper explores the rise to dominance of the neoliberal ‘thought style’ and its inherent logic in underpinning the dismantling and restructuring of capitalist organization. Its focus is upon transnational value chain capitalism which has rebalanced power relations in favour of a small elite that is able to operate and realize wealth in ways that defy and often succeed in escaping the regulation of nation states.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals' personal information organization reflects their social environments in order to understand social aspects of personal information organization.

By using a cognitive sociological approach and based on the personal information organization process (PIOP) model (Oh, 2019), this study investigates the social aspects of personal information organization by analyzing the pre-diary interview, a diary, and two post-diary interviews conducted with each of the 18 information users in social science academic environments.

Social dimensions of personal information organization were found in differences between organizing academic and non-academic files, the way participants identified and made distinctions among files, common folders they created, and with the impact of participants' professional age on personal information organization. This study shows that information organization is a process of construction and that the participants' social foundations are reflected in the way they view and organize their files.

This study makes a unique contribution to the field by explaining the social aspects of personal information organization. The findings of this study deepen our knowledge of personal information organization by providing different ways to understand how and why people organize their files in certain ways, and by showing that this is not just individual behavior. In practice, this study provides insight into the design of applications and tools that support personal information management of people in specific social environments.

Leadership and organisational change starts with thinking: thinking about problems, thinking about possibilities and thinking about capabilities. But thinking never occurs in a vacuum. Long gone are the days when a chief executive officer would disappear for weeks with a towel over their head only to reappear to announce ‘the strategy’ to the organisation. Thinking is of course a social activity that sees people coming together to develop and share ideas. The job of leadership is to exercise mastery over the process of social thinking in order to engage workers, to generate innovative ideas and to bring about change where needed. This paper considers the habits of social thinking, with reference to those found in the UK Civil Service, and proposes tools for leaders to significantly enhance their success.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the thought processes of financial auditors in order to offer additional information on factors affecting their decision behavior.

Using the psychology concept of cerebral dominance, two different instruments are used to measure the thinking styles of 20 auditors, at different stages of management. Prior research has indicated that “whole‐brain” thinkers (who do not exhibit dominance in either left‐ or right‐brain) may make better decisions, and thus, better managers.

The results of this study show partners in public accounting firms usually exhibiting a whole‐brain thinking style, while lower levels of management (staff auditors and managers) usually exhibit left‐brain thinking styles.

The findings have implications for training, education, communication, managerial styles, as well as the individual's position within the firm.

Integrating conceptual perspectives from social exclusion, thinking style and context effects, this study aims to examine how different types of social exclusion influence attraction and compromise effects.

Eight studies were conducted. To establish the causal relationship between social exclusion types and context effects, this study uses experimental designs in all studies.

The attraction effect is stronger when consumers feel rejected than ignored, whereas the compromise effect is stronger when they feel ignored than rejected. Consumers who feel rejected increase their propensity to think holistically, which in turn leads to their choice preferences for asymmetrically dominant options. Conversely, those who feel ignored increase their propensity to think analytically, which in turn leads to their choice preferences for compromise options.

The findings show that consumer preferences for one option over the other alternatives in choice contexts are susceptible to subtle differences in the manner that exclusion is communicated. The studies are limited to recall tasks and scenarios that previous research has shown to be effective. Future research may use actual exclusion to corroborate this study’s findings.

Marketing practitioners may benefit from this study’s findings when it comes to an increase in the relative share of their target brand against their competitor brands by introducing a third option.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to provide evidence that exclusion communicated in an explicit manner produces the attraction effect, whereas exclusion communicated in an implicit manner produces the compromise effect. Given that threatening situations often influence individuals’ preferences and choices, how social exclusion shapes cognitive processes is an empirical question worthy of investigation.

This paper aims to introduce an analytical focus on an individual’s integrative thinking capacity to further understand integrated thinking within the organisation. Integrated thinking is an elusive concept, gaining in prominence through its use by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), without specific guidance or a commonly understood framework. To date, the academic debate on integrated thinking addresses the organisational level only. However, thinking is a process occurring within the mind of an individual and therefore the prerequisites for integrated thinking at the individual level needs to be considered. Critical reflection is, therefore, provided on the interplay between integrative and integrated thinking.

This paper draws on conceptual systems theory and case site analysis to reflect how integrative thinking can be encouraged and supported within the individual and how integrated thinking can hence be fostered within organisations.

The paper analyses and discusses four sites of integrative thinking: the Athenian democracy; the Minangkabau community; the Quakers and consensus decision-making; and the Apis Mellifera and the hive mind. The findings from these different sites illustrate that integrative thinking can be supported by specific structural, organisational and individual contexts and stimuli.

Extending the context of integrated thinking analysis outside of the organisation and analysing these sites through components of integrative thought, this article provides further insights into how integrated thinking can be fostered within different organisations. The implications of these findings for accounting and professional institutions, organisations and the ongoing professional development of accountants are discussed.