MGE Papers

Yes, the competing thought or cognition can be a great learning opportunity, but It all depends on how deep the organization or individual’s beliefs are and willingness to change. A leader should spend a great deal of time understanding where their self-concept and perception lies, exploring what life events or influences that helped shape their beliefs.  After, the leader can help its organization try to understand its self-concept going through a similar process of self-reflection. During this process, it will be important for the leader to not ignore any cognitive perceptions that are different or competing.  Any blind spot or cognitive dissonance can be an opportunity for “transformational change,”(Cultural Intelligence For Leaders, 2012). Lastly, the leader should challenge their thoughts towards cognitive dissonance and possibly try to change their perception of the differing views. It is important to first realize that changing behavior is possible. It will also be impor

Cognitive dissonance refers to an inner discomfort that arises when an individual holds two contradicting thoughts in mind simultaneously (Festinger, 1957). It occurs in the conflicting instance between one’s belief, attitudes, assumptions which are perceived as the truth by far and the real evidence encountered. Mostly, cognitive dissonance is considered as the obstacles in the organizational operations as it entails stressors, damaging the team spirit and demotivating the employees’ enthusiasm for the best performance. However, it is not a unique aspect of the existence of the concept in life. Alternatively, cognitive dissonance could be beneficial for both the organization and the individual as well. It is the fact that the conflicts arise from the contradiction between beliefs, attitudes and the actual experiences on the issue while beliefs, attitudes are varied and not always accurate. Thanks to the practice evidence encountered, the organization or individuals recognize the c

Cognitive dissonance is defined as a “state of discomfort that humans experience when one of their beliefs, ideas, or their attitudes is contradicted by evidence or when two of their beliefs, ideas, or their attitudes come into conflict with each other.” There are many levels at which cognitive dissonance may occur that can affect an organization and its staff in different ways. I would categorize cognitive dissonance into three distinct sets of dynamics: perception of reality, perception of risk, and perception of morality (right or wrong). In the first set of dynamics, cognitive dissonance is an absolute hindrance to the proper functioning of an organization. The basis for any type of work or endeavor should always be a reality. One of the most interesting analyses of cognitive dissonance in this respect is a Woods, Lacey, and Murray (2006) piece about the world that was created by Saddam Hussein before his regime was ultimately overthrown by a foreign invasion. His generals an

Robert Thurman is credited with the saying, “wisdom (enlightenment) is tolerance of cognitive dissonance” (Wisdom Publications, Inc., 2018). Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012) defines cognitive dissonance as discomfort felt when either a belief, value, or idea is found to be invalid or two beliefs become contradictory. While the discomfort is undesirable, the effect of the dissonance can be detrimental or beneficial, dependent on the behaviors exhibited. Metin & Camgoz (2011) unfold that self-concept augments cognitive dissonance and people aim to alleviate the discomfort by changing behavior, cognition, or adding cognitive elements, effecting a collective change. They posit that cognitive dissonance can alert us to discard irrelevant ideas or beliefs that do not align with current situations. For example, an individual salesperson may overcharge customers to increase sales commissions, although it is against company policy.  The salesperson, changing behavior by charging

Cognitive dissonance is the uneasiness experienced when new verified information does not conform with one’s existing belief’s, ideas, attitudes or behavior. It is very important for leaders who are culturally intelligent to understand Cognitive dissonance and be prepared to tackle it. Culturally intelligent leaders who are unable to recognize and tackle dissonance in their beliefs, ideas, attitude or behavior are considered hypocrites (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). Cognitive dissonance results in stress, discomfort, and frustration for individuals and organizations especially for people in departments such as risk management and human resources. This is because such people are forced to go against their belief system in the course of their duty which makes them unfulfilled and unhappy. These feelings affect their performance and state of mind which is unhealthy (Prvulovic, 2015). An example is an experience in my previous workplace. The management of the company where

Cognitive dissonance is a psychology theory that describes the reason and behavior when human have inconsistence thoughts. According to Cooper & Fazio (1984): "Cognitive dissonance occurs when a cognition that a person holds follows from the obverse of another.". Personally, I understand it's like a conflict of interest with yourself. However, the theory goes further and describes that when we have cognitive dissonance implies two things: first, we are responsible for the conflict; second, that when an individual has cognitive dissonance, it causes physical implications, either pain or discomfort. An example of cognitive dissonance is when a smoker thinks: "Smoking is bad for me" yet "I smoke regularly", each though in physiology is known as cognition, the dilemma is known as dissonance. The essential of cognitive dissonance is two or more inconsistent cognitions. Furthermore, what physiology studies in cognitive dissonance is how people deal w

            Cognitive dissonance is the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information, the tension that the conflict arouses in people is relieved by one of the several defensive maneuvers; they reject, explain away, or avoid the new information, persuade themselves that no conflict really exists, reconcile the differences, or resort to any other defensive means of preserving stability or order in their conceptions of the world and of themselves.(Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d).             Cognitive dissonance is a stronger motivator which leads organizations and or people to change one or other conflicting beliefs, like mentioned before the conflicting belief feels like two opposing thoughts, in order to release the tension one of the following actions ca be considered. (Changing minds, n.d). ·       Change our behavior ·       Justify our behavior by changing the conflicting cognition ·       Justify our behavior by adding new co