Cognitive Mechanisms of Organizational in the Conditions of

Sustainable Development

Tatiana V. Korsakova

and Michail N. Korsakov

Institute of Management in Economic and Social Systems, Southern Federal University, 22 Chekhov street, Taganrog,

Russia

Keywords: Sustainable Development, Cognitive Construct, Focus of Applicability, Zones of Successful Actions.

Abstract: Cognitive mechanisms in management, aimed at the sustainable development of the company in accordance

with modern economic trends are considered. The managerial position based on the personal cognitive

construct used in the zone of successful actions is presented. The focuses of the applicability of the personal

cognitive construct are highlighted. Zones of successful actions such as Processes, Projects and Products are

considered a priority. Specific events of managerial reality for which the use of this construct would be most

useful are described. The need to consider the cognitive aspects of the formation of the corporate culture of

the organization is emphasized to ensure its development through the collective consciousness, the

identification of values, attributes and a common knowledge system, rules that determine the appropriate way

of the company to the sustainable development.

1 INTRODUCTION

Enterprises and organizations as socio-economic

systems a priori have such a systemic property as

stability. At the same time, major changes in the

landscape of economic activity in recent years are

large since the nature of business is in rapid dynamics

and development. In these conditions of constant

acceleration of changes, companies are forced to

solve the tasks of sustainable development, that is

maintaining both the balance of the external

environment and their competitiveness.

In other words, the puzzle lies in the fact that it is

necessary to rely on the analysis of sustainability

trends, understood as the ability to adapt to the

changing conditions of the external and internal

environment of the company - on one hand, and on

the other, to rely on the existing “window of

opportunity» to select management decisions

(Kleiner, 2013). The ideas of professionalism and the

content of the manager’s activities are also changing

while his individual cognitive foundations draw the

meaning of specific actions. The accumulation of new

breakthrough technologies is changing

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5319-2972

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4548-0154

communication, production, and exchange processes

in all areas of activity. At the same time, managers'

notions of administration do not include the

systematic management of processes by which

knowledge is identified, accumulated, distributed,

and applied in the organization for its sustainable

development (Vinokurov, 2006). “The end of the

twentieth century showed that in the context of the

cultural transformation of society into informational

one, the knowledge management is not just a central

task but the main mode of activity both at the level of

an individual manager and at the organization level”

(Kudryavtseva, 2013).

The ability to perceive mentally and process

quickly external information becomes the main

characteristic of a modern manager in these

conditions. The cognitive approach to team

management, to problem-solving in joint activities,

shows the logic of modern management development

(Petrova, 2010). Therefore, there is a need to identify

the cognitive mechanisms of sustainable

development.

Korsakova, T. and Korsakov, M.

Cognitive Mechanisms of Organizational in the Conditions of Sustainable Development.

DOI: 10.5220/0010587101230129

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 123-129

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

123

2 METHODOLOGY

At the period of the end of the 19th-century -

beginning of the 20th-century representatives of

cognitive sciences, such as G. Morgan, S. Tietze, L.

Cohen, G. Musson, P. Senge, G. Hodgkinson, P.

Sparrow, R. Axelrod, and F. Roberts and others

developed concepts of the “image of the

organization”, the “language of organization”, the

“self-learning enterprise”, and the “competent

organization”. It was the penetration of the science of

management into the cognitive approach and to the

study of semi-structured situations. Reynolds, M.,

Petrova G.I., Stakhovskaya Yu. M., Nobre, F.S.,

Davenport T., Prusak L. considered this phenomenon

as an innovative strategy of an organization, as a

systematic approach to change management, as a

cognitive view of an unstable situation, as a

management of the company's knowledge.

Peter Drucker substantiated the concept of

“knowledge worker”, which was not equivalent to the

notion of “mental labour worker”. The knowledge

worker was identified through the direct operation

with knowledge, and this was an integral part of his

work. (Drucker, 2002). These views force to rethink

and describe the activities of managers, not as

individual members in the process, not as typical

representatives of certain professional communities,

but as builders and participants in activities located in

the internal space of the organization. Moreover,

ensuring the sustainable development of a company

becomes possible only by considering the social

relations and cognitive characteristics of people,

which allows acting concertedly, sharing values,

thereby providing the organization with opportunities

for survival and adaptation in an unstable

environment.

But the speed of action depends not only on the

speed of thinking of the person who makes decisions

on adjustments to individual programs and changes in

technological processes but also on the reaction of the

economic environment. This contradiction between

the actions of people to coordinate strategic decisions

and the reaction of partners, markets, distribution

channels, etc. gives rise to a strategic paradox

(Raynor, 2016). One of the aspects of this paradox is

highlighted at the development of the strategy that

does not remain only the setting of long-term goals in

modern conditions but becomes the answer to the

question of how the company will achieve its goals.

Thus, the main management principle of a modern

organization’s sustainable development is not so

much setting goals that the company must achieve in

each period but determining the zones of successful

actions and developing mechanisms for achieving an

advance in them. The cognitive construct understood

as a special classification and assessment template

from the point of view of achieving the parameters of

sustainable development is applied in the area of

successful actions and has a focus on applicability.

The focus of the construct's applicability covers those

specific events for which the use of this construct

would be most beneficial (Kelly, 2000).

The focus of applicability is “proactivity” and

understanding that in the 21st century every employee

is an engineer of his processes, a product or customer

relationship designer, and the head is not the one who

oversees but also who works as a “designer” - a

designer of a business system, of communication

politics, etc. Leaders who understand the meaning of

proactivity purposefully seek to hire people who

possess this property. The ability to be proactive, to

understand the proactivity is included in the

competency profile of such companies and is

reflected in the package of accompanying corporate

documents.

We use the methodology of cognitive constructs

not only to establish the focus of applicability but also

to determine the tools with which this methodology

will be able to substantiate the mechanisms of

sustainable development of the socio-economic

system in a new turbulent environment.

An important focus of the application of the

manager’s cognitive construct is the use of

prototyping philosophies:

 The concept of Minimally Viable Product

(MVP) (Shestakov, 2016).

 The concept of Design Thinking (Shilekhina,

2013).

 The concept of HADI cycles (Deputatova,

2016).

These philosophies express the following

meanings: a proactive manager values time, the result

is important for him, he wants to be able to evaluate

whether he is moving in the right direction as soon as

possible and make the correction of the way.

Therefore, he works in short iterations where a result

appears quickly, albeit worked out with different

depths, but informative. If he is destined to make

mistakes it is better to make them as soon as possible,

while they are not much expensive. Cognitive

supports act as reference points when the manager

resolves the contradiction “differentiation -

integration” in the improvement of processes, team

building, product production.

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124

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

As for processes, the constant striving for expedient

simplification, reduction in cost, acceleration, and

increase in their transparency leads to the adaptation

of the organizational structure, tools, and resources to

support sustainable development. In this model, there

is an opportunity for the regular audit of internal

procedures and subsystems, finding "bottlenecks",

duplicating and inappropriate operations, for

reflection not only on what needs to be done but also

on how to implement it. There is an understanding

that a high rate of change (growth, opening branches,

introducing new products to the market, introducing

new IT systems) must be supported by a high rate of

adaptation to changes, which ensures the sustainable

development of the company. The development of an

adaptation mechanism allows reaching process

maturity which, in turn, contributes to the

development of certain unique properties of the

organization, ensures survival in the external

environment, resistance to the negative consequences

of the emerging gaps between expectation and reality,

and even success in competition in the market

(Tab.1).

Table 1: Characteristics of processes for achieving

sustainable development.

Qualit

Actions

Transparenc

Negotiate, commit

Habit Train performers and internal clients

Optimization Maintain high values for all metrics

As for the projects implemented in the company

the following markers of communications within

each of them become important for solving the

problem of sustainable development: prevalence;

multichannel; focus on the internal customer. And

here the focus of applicability is aimed at solving the

problems of building a complementary team, since

differentiation helps the company to be more

sensitive and discerning, develop innovative

thinking, and integration provides common goals and

expectations for the future.

Personnel management is also considered to be a

zone of successful actions, as it is associated with the

consciousness and knowledge of a person. The HR

department is still the “designer” of HR policy and

the “debugger” of HR tools, but the managers of all

functional services understand that most of their work

is to work with people. That is:

 To provide effective and accurate hiring: full

participation in conducting interviews,

preparing, and analyzing a test task,

formulating correct feedback for a recruiter.

 To ensure high-quality adaptation when the

leader does not only help the newcomer to

figure out his immediate work as quickly as

possible but also to establish productive social

ties; gives feedback that helps to develop;

corrects and interrupts the relationship "at an

early stage" if he sees any evidence to that.

 To procure the work with subordinates

according to the modern concept “70-20-10”,

which assumes that an employee receives 10%

of his experience through attending courses,

and masterclasses, 20% - of “social training”,

i.e., of communication with colleagues, and

70% of his experience is gained directly in the

performance of work, provided that it is

meaningful and structured. It is the support of

subordinates so that they comprehend their

working experience, analyzing it, synthesizing

new models from it as effective as possible. All

this is considered the main work of the leader

in the 21st century.

Thus, from the point of view of the cognitive

approach, the effectiveness of leaders, solving the

problem of a company’s sustainable development, is

determined by the choice of applying their own

cognitive constructs that determine one's

competitiveness, high efficiency, and effectiveness.

They are:

 The ability to remain proactive always, i.e., not

to stop in the “pumping” of work systems,

procedures, employees, even if the external

environment seems favorable.

 The skill of efficient management, constant

striving for expedient simplification,

cheapening, acceleration, increasing

transparency.

 The ability to think in prototypes, to move by

steps ( by iterations), sketching a solution as a

sketch, receiving feedback, and adjusting,

saving time and resources due to such

movement.

 The ability to build a complementary team of

people talented in different ways but sharing

common sustainable development values to

achieve common goals.

 The understanding that the main task of each

leader is to work with staff: information,

training, involvement, coaching, providing

feedback, support in socialization, etc.

 The understanding of the principles of

“composite management”, according to which

a strong organization must learn to combine

Cognitive Mechanisms of Organizational in the Conditions of Sustainable Development

125

spontaneity and coordination, performing

discipline and creativity, speed and

scrupulousness, transparency, and trust, etc.

(Korsakova, 2019).

Another area of application of the cognitive

construct is the corporate culture of any organization

- an important component of its holistic system, as

well as a condition for successful activity and

dynamic growth, which supports and provides

opportunities for increasing efficiency. The definition

of “corporate culture” has not changed too much over

the past thirty years. In the 1970-s it looked like "a set

of norms, values, beliefs, and patterns of behavior to

achieve the goals set for the organization" (Strakhov,

2015). In the 2000-s – it was as “a dynamic system of

rules including relationships, values, beliefs, norms,

and behavior” (Matsumoto, 2003). Most modern

researchers agree that corporate culture is more than

a set of elements or a set of rules (Abramova,

Kostenchuk, 2007). Culture is a unity of material and

mental (cognitive), individual and collective

consciousness (Odegov, 2012). Since there are no

organizations in which there is no culture, it is

necessary to solve the problems of the formation or

change the corporate culture by methods that consider

cognitive aspects, that include the processes of

perception, thinking, cognition, explanation, and

understanding, which, in fact, provide a cognitive

approach.

As the transition to an innovative economy is an

imperative of modern development, it must be stated

that knowledge becomes a key value of any business

entity and forms the prevailing organizational idea of

the values of corporate culture, as common directives,

and grounds for operational management (Spivak,

2001).

The formation of corporate culture is a complex

process that requires consciously coordinated

collective actions. All participants are involved in the

continuous creative process of generating the

subjective meanings of this process components

(Nonaka and Takeuchi, 2011). Cognitive approach to

the process of corporate culture formation and

development is due to the fact that the inconsistency

of the declared ideas and concepts with decisions

made in organizations brings the organization

significant harm (Myers, 2006). It manifests itself in

the divergence of personal beliefs of employees with

the adopted organizational rules, in the discrepancy of

the information received from the new situation, in

the contradictions of the formal and informal cultures,

in the replacement of the values of corporate culture

by its attributes. This does not allow making

corporate culture an effective, commercially viable

tool, but not an “expensive toy”.

A successful company should harmonize the

external and internal space of its employees and

ensure the integrity of its development in a variety of

actions in the unity of intellectual, emotional, social

experience. Corporate culture is one of the most

effective resources to solve this problem. In turn, the

emergence and development of cultural forms of

activity are determined by an adequate integrating

factor - the “foundation” of the company's social

space. To implement a system-cognitive approach to

the formation and change of the corporate culture of

an organization, it is necessary to consider its main

elements (Berkovskiy and Tronina, 2019).

Values are a system-forming element of the

corporate culture of organizations; they form a

complex world of meanings and symbols that

underlie individual or collective judgments and

actions. It is values that contribute to the stability of

the human world and organize targeted human

activities and are also criteria for evaluating any

cultural phenomenon. Thus, the value of knowledge

becomes a key element that affects employees, forms

a unity of views and actions, and helps to achieve the

goals of sustainable development (Thomsen, 2004).

At the stage of formalizing values, it is important to

understand that values cannot be “good” or “bad”,

and the worst that a company can do is to proclaim

the fake value “as it should,” but in fact not to reflect

it in daily work. The honest definition of values is the

“center” of the corporate culture. And the choice of

attributes of corporate culture - a variety of symbols,

ceremonies, myths, metaphorical stories, rituals, role

models - should also be consistent with the true values

of the organization.

The functioning of the organization as a complex

social phenomenon should be considered in the

context of the sustainable development of society.

The structure, dynamics and culture of modern

organizations, their interaction with the external

environment, as well as the interactions of

organizational structures, can and should change in

accordance with external realities and internal

strategic goals. The main thing is to maintain the

connection between the attributes of corporate culture

and its real values: if values are a declaration, then

rituals are an annoying burden. It is needed to attract

the right people and move away from casual people,

and thereby simplify communication between

employees, increase their comfort, and reduce staff

turnover. It is necessary to create a positive image of

the organization and broadcast it outside in order to

maintain continuity. It cannot be that there is not any

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

126

corporate culture, the only question is how formalized

it is and how synchronously formal and informal

flows are moving. Corporate culture, like all living

things, is described by a life cycle model (Tab. 2).

The main measure of the quantum of knowledge

and the degree of mastery at each corporate culture

stage is an increase in the level of the company's

competence. Precisely all activities are aimed at

managing the "knowledgeable" corporate culture.

With regard to the tasks and stages of managing the

corporate culture, the criteria for evaluating the

effectiveness of company management as a whole are

radically changing. They become, to a lesser extent,

evaluation of profit and, to a greater extent,

measuring the state of resources: intellectual capital;

investment activity; human resource development;

customer satisfaction; the completeness and

complexity of the use of information technology;

adaptability to a changing environment. It is

important to understand that there is not, and there

cannot be a uniform, standard approach to the

methods and processes of controlling the

knowledgeable corporate culture.

Any approach must consider the nature and

variety of the most important value - knowledge.

There is formalized and non-formalized knowledge,

explicit and implicit. There are many other

classifications by category of knowledge. In one case,

practical, theoretical, and strategic knowledge is

highlighted. In another, coded, familiar, scientific,

and another knowledge is distinguished.

Organizational development requires knowledge of

consumers, products, processes, technologies,

competitors, laws, finances, and so on. Knowledge

can be specific or general to a certain extent.

The perspective importance of the

"knowledgeable corporate culture" concept is

justified by the urgent need to search, preserve, and

stimulate talented people who could generate ideas

and bring them to life. If to summarize the

accumulated experience, the system of the

knowledgeable corporate culture includes such

elements as the identification of talents; attraction;

retention; organization of their use. Solving these

problems can be a huge strategic advantage. Modern

organizations are called upon to create a work

environment that is filled with creative

accomplishments and breakthroughs.

In the organizational space, where the creative

intentions of each participant are realized, the product

is the result "... containing knowledge ... for its

development and maintenance of life" (Raynor, et al,

2020). Christensen, K. M., Scott E., Roth E. Solving

the problem of innovation in Business: How to Create

a Growing Business and Successfully Maintain its

Growth, Alpina Publisher, 2020, 3rd ed., 290 pp.).

We highlight the following parameters for the

formation of a "knowledge" product:

 “Gathering” of new knowledge when using

non-standard processes to obtain new

knowledge (identifying and resolving the

contradictions underlying the new world; using

intuitive ways to find solutions).

 Management of existing knowledge

(transformation of explicit and implicit

knowledge of individual employees and the

dissemination of this changing knowledge

among all others.

 The combination of offline and online learning

formats, which allows you to get the necessary

knowledge at a crucial moment.

 Consolidation of the acquired knowledge into a

certain prototype of a product with sufficient

quality, testing, scaling.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A feature of a modern organization is

"incompleteness", openness of architecture for

possible restructuring in accordance with the

requirements of sustainable development.

Highlighting such areas of successful actions as

Processes, Projects, and Products, we proposed

certain tools that, in our opinion, form a focus of

applicability and help the company to be more

sensitive and discerning, develop innovative

thinking, integrate common goals and expectations

for the future.

At the same time, such systemic aspects as

awareness of the boundaries of each activity and their

identity, the nature of power and relations between

employees, communication between levels, the

distribution of powers, leadership style, etc. can

become sources of barriers for a company to achieve

a level of sustainable development:

 Slowing down the pace in the implementation

of the quantitative goals of the organization due

to the temporary priority of the qualitative

ones.

 Increased stress levels when dealing with

change.

 Difficulty developing skills for dealing with

change.

 Management turnover.

 Difficulty choosing a communication channel.

 Additional costs for training high-quality

communication.

Cognitive Mechanisms of Organizational in the Conditions of Sustainable Development

127

 Expensive work with mistrust and sabotage of

staff.

It is given that the speed of change in the modern

world has reached unprecedented values, the lifestyle

of consumers has changed dramatically, companies

are forced to change their programs, production

elements, processes, and taken earlier decisions. And

it all takes the company a lot of time and energy. And

the lack of an instant reaction from the external

environment does not make it clear whether they are

moving in the right direction. A contradiction arises

between the accelerating changes in the external

environment and the company's strategy aimed at

sustainable development. In order to assess the

general state of the company, which has developed as

a result of the use of a cognitive construct in the zones

of successful actions, a certain "Influence Map" is

suggested. In the absence of quantitative

relationships between the factors describing the

situation, such a map can serve as a starting point for

matching a group view of the situation, followed by a

qualitative analysis of important influencing factors

(Tab. 2).

With the help of this map, one can imagine on

what segment of the path towards sustainable

development the company is and consider all the

barriers (negative signs of influence), the overcoming

of which will determine further development.

Table 2: Influence Map.

Success Zones Consequences of

nitive construct a

lication

Influence

Processes Transparency +1

Habit +1

Internal customer satisfaction +1

Cost minimization +1

Slowin

the

ace -1

Projects Culture of change +1

Increased stress level -1

The difficulty of skills for working with changes - 1

Cor

orate culture +1

Flexibilit

Attractiveness +1

Business Goal Orientation +1

Balance +1

Management turnover -1

Communication +1

Prevalence +1

Multichannel +1

Internal customer orientation +1

Sufficiency +1

Channel selection com

lexit

-1

Additional trainin

costs -1

Culture of chan

e +1

Products

Gathering new knowledge +1

Lateral thinking +1

TRIZ +1

"External" knowled

e +1

anizational restructurin

-1

Knowled

e Mana

ement +1

Spiral Management +1

Fractional nutrition +1

Priorities of

ersonnel

olic

- 1

ensive work with staff mistrust and sabota

e - 1

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5 CONCLUSIONS

The sustainable development of the organization is a

holistic process the purpose of which is the

continuous improvement of its basic economic and

social indicators. The use of cognitive mechanisms is

due to the objective need to bring the social practice

to organizations with an established management

theory that has undergone global changes in modern

living conditions.

The methodological aspects of developing

cognitive mechanisms are still in the process of

formation. There is no clear conceptual framework

and specific implementation tools. However, the very

concept of a “focus of applicability” of cognitive

mechanisms has real prerequisites, and the need for

its development is obvious.

The managerial position based on the personal

cognitive construct is of particular importance when

it is used in the zone of successful actions. By

highlighting the applicability focuses of the personal

cognitive construct, the leader can ensure the

development of specific events of managerial reality

in the direction of increasing the stability of the

organization. Besides the cognitive mechanisms

allow creating the corporate culture of the

organization as a semantic system involving

employees by highlighting values and symbolic tools,

performing representative, directive, and emotional

functions that will contribute to sustainable

development in modern conditions.

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