Taking a style perspective to understand organizational behavior: a four-decade review

This paper aims at providing a summary of empirical insights about the impact of cognitive styles on organizational behavior and management. A two-part discussion on the applications of cognitive styles in the workplace is presented. The first part focuses on the implications of cognitive styles for organizations in general by looking at strategic and human resource management aspects, such as person-environment fit, entrepreneurship, and innovation. The second part elaborates specifically on the influence of cognitive styles on people’s day-to-day workplace behavior. The link between cognitive styles and task-oriented aspects (i.e., decision making) will be dealt with on the one hand and people-related aspects (implying teamwork and interpersonal relationships) on the other hand. Finally, conclusions will be drawn about the implications of the summarized studies for research and practice.