CEOS COGNITIVE MAPS AND THE SCOPE OF THE ORGANIZATION

In this paper, CEOs are considered as 'cognizers' charged with integra ting views in the top management team; a role which should require hig h cognitive complexity especially in diversified multinational corpora tions. A methodology for studying top managers' cognitive complexity i s described and then applied to a sample of 26 CEOs. The CEOs' cogniti ve maps of the structure and of the dynamics of their industry are ana lyzed in terms of their degree of complexity, in relation to the bread th of the business portfolio of the firm, its geographic scope and the links the firm has with foreign parents. The results of this explorat ory test generally confirm the principle of requisite cognitive comple xity, and reveal a new set of more precise hypotheses linking particul ar dimensions of the scope of the firm with particular dimensions of C EOs' cognitive complexity.