Attentional Control: Institutions,Management,Organizations,and Algorithms

Abstract

This paper presents my development of an integrated, cross-level theory of attentional control in macro-organizational behavior. Viewing organizations as complex adaptive systems of joint and distributed attention, the paper highlights the importance of attention in facilitating joint attention, collective intentionality, coordinated action, and adaptation. The theory posits that intentional organizational behavior is shaped by top-down attentional control mechanisms: institutions and institutional logics, organizational structures and processes, managers and management, and, in the digital age, algorithms. I trace the theory's roots to my personal, educational, and professional experiences, emphasizing the need for integration across perspectives, interdisciplinary and multilevel research, and connecting research to practitioners’ needs. I conclude by calling for a more unified understanding of organizational phenomena through a theory of attentional control and encourage dialogue across scholarly communities to build a more integrative and impactful organizational science.

Keywords

attention based-view behavioral strategy institutional logics institutions managerial and organizational cognition organization theory power and politics strategic manage

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arrow

K. J.

(1974). The limits of organization. W.W. Norton.

Asch

S. E.

(1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70(9), 1.

Awh

Vogel

E. K.

S.-H.

(2006). Interactions between attention and working memory. Neuroscience, 139(1), 201–208.

Baddeley

(2012). Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100422

Barley

S. R.

(1986). Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31(1), 78. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392767

Barley

S. R.

(1990). The alignment of technology and structure through roles and networks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(1), 61. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393551

Berger

P. L.

Luckmann

(1967). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. American Sociological Review, 32(1), 137. https://doi.org/10.2307/2091739

Brielmaier

Friesl

(2023). The attention-based view: Review and conceptual extension towards situated attention. International Journal of Management Reviews, 25(1), 99–129. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12306

Carpenter

Nagell

Tomasello

, & Butterworth

(1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 63, i–174.

10.

Cho

T. S.

Hambrick

D. C.

(2006). Attention as the mediator between top management team characteristics and strategic change: The case of airline deregulation. Organization Science, 17(4), 453–469. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1060.0192

11.

Cohen

M. D.

March

J. G.

Olsen

J. P.

(1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392088

12.

Collins

(2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton University Press.

13.

Corbetta

Shulman

G. L.

(2002). Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 3(3), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn755

14.

Cyert

R. M.

March

J. G.

(1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. Prentice-Hall.

15.

Diamond

(2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750

16.

Dimaggio

P. J.

Powell

W. W.

(1991). Introduction, 1-38. In Powell

W. W.

DiMaggio

P. J.

(Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago Press.

17.

Dunn

M. B.

Jones

(2010). Institutional logics and institutional pluralism: The contestation of care and science logics in medical education, 1967–2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55(1), 114–149. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2010.55.1.114

18.

Dutton

J. E.

Ashford

S. J.

(1993). Selling issues to top management. The Academy of Management Review, 18(3), 397–428. https://doi.org/10.2307/258903

19.

Dutton

J. E.

Ashford

S. J.

O'Neill

R. M.

Lawrence

K. A.

(2001). Moves that matter: Issue selling and organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 716–736. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069412

20.

Eggers

J. P.

Kaplan

(2009). Cognition and renewal: Comparing CEO and organizational effects on incumbent adaptation to technical change. Organization Science, 20(2), 461–477. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1080.0401

21.

Faraj

Pachidi

Sayegh

(2018). Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm. Information and Organization, 28(1), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2018.02.005

22.

Gavetti

Greve

H. R.

Levinthal

D. A.

Ocasio

(2012). The behavioral theory of the firm: Assessment and prospects. The Academy of Management Annals, 6(1), 1–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2012.656841

23.

Gavetti

Levinthal

Ocasio

(2007). Perspective-Neo-Carnegies: The Carnegie school’s past, present, and reconstructing for the future. Organization Science, 18(3), 523–536.

24.

Gazzaley

Nobre

A. C.

(2012). Top-down modulation: Bridging selective attention and working memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(2), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.11.014

25.

Hoffman

A. J.

Ocasio

(2001). Not all events are attended equally: Toward a middle-range theory of industry attention to external events. Organization Science, 12(4), 414–434. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.12.4.414.10639

26.

Jackall

(1988). Moral mazes: The world of corporate managers. Oxford University Press.

27.

Jackall

(1989). Moral mazes: The world of corporate managers. Oxford University Press.

28.

Joseph

Laureiro-Martinez

Nigam

Ocasio

Rerup

(2024). Research frontiers on the attention-based view of the firm. Strategic Organization, 22, 6–17.

29.

Joseph

Ocasio

(2012). Architecture, attention, and adaptation in the multibusiness firm: General electric from 1951 to 2001. Strategic Management Journal, 33(6), 633–660. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.1971

30.

Kaplan

(2008). Framing contests: Strategy making under uncertainty. Organization Science, 19(5), 729–752. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0340

31.

Kellogg

K. C.

Valentine

Christin

(2020). Algorithms at work: The new contested terrain of control. The Academy of Management Annals, 14(1), 366–410. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0174

32.

King

B. G.

Felin

Whetten

D. A.

(2010). Finding the organization in organizational theory: A meta-theory of the organization as a social actor. Organization Science, 21(1), 290–305. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1090.0443

33.

Klein

K. J.

Kozlowski

S. W. J.

(2000). From micro to meso: Critical steps in conceptualizing and conducting multilevel research. Organizational Research Methods, 3(3), 211–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442810033001

34.

Koffka

(1935). Principles of Gestalt psychology. Brace.

35.

Laureiro-Martínez

Brusoni

Canessa

Zollo

(2015). Understanding the exploration-exploitation dilemma: An fMRI study of attention control and decision-making performance. Strategic Management Journal, 36(3), 319–338. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2221

36.

Lawrence

P. R.

Lorsch

J. W.

(1967). Differentiation and integration in Complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 12(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391211

37.

Linden

L. H.

Bottaro

Moskowitz

Ocasio

(1977). The Solar Photovoltaics Industry: The Status and Evolution of the Technology and the Institutions, MIT Energy Laboratory Report No. MIT-EL-77-021.

38.

Loewenstein

Ocasio

Jones

(2012). Vocabularies and vocabulary structure: A new approach linking categories, practices, and institutions. The Academy of Management Annals, 6(1), 41–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2012.660763

39.

Lounsbury

(2007). A tale of two cities: Competing logics and practice variation in the professionalizing of mutual funds. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 289–307. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.24634436

40.

Lubars

Tan

(2019). Advances in neural information processing systems. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 32. (NeurIPS 2019).

41.

March

J. G.

Olsen

J. P.

(1976). Ambiguity and choice in organizations. Universitetsforlaget Press.

42.

March

J. G.

Olsen

J. P.

(1989). Rediscovering institutions. Free Press.

43.

March

J. G.

Simon

(1958). Organizations. John Wiley & Sons.

44.

March

J. G.

Simon

(1993). Organizations (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

45.

Mead

G. H.

(1956). The social psychology of George Herbert Mead. University of Chicago Press.

46.

Miller

E. K.

Cohen

J. D.

(2001). An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24(1), 167–202. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167

47.

Most

S. B.

Scholl

B. J.

Clifford

E. R.

Simons

D. J.

(2005). What you see is what you set: Sustained inattentional blindness and the capture of awareness. Psychological Review, 112(1), 217–242. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.112.1.217

48.

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. (2004). In the 9/11 Commission report: Final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. 9-11 Commission. https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/index.htm

49.

Nelson

R. R.

Winter

S. G.

(1973). Toward an evolutionary theory of economic capabilities. American Economic Review, 63(2), 440–449. https://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:63:y:1973:i:2:p:440-49

50.

Nelson

R. R.

Winter

S. G.

(1977). In search of useful theory of innovation. Research Policy, 6(1), 36–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333(77)90029-4

51.

Nicolini

Korica

(2021). Attentional engagement as practice: A study of the attentional infrastructure of healthcare chief executive officers. Organization Science, 32(5), 1273–1299.

52.

Ocasio

(1992). The structural determination of inertia and adaptation: CEO succession in the higher education publishing Industry, 1958–1990 [Doctoral dissertation]. Stanford University.

53.

Ocasio

(1994). Political dynamics and the circulation of power: CEO succession in U.S. Industrial corporations, 1960-1990. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(2), 285. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393237

54.

Ocasio

(1995). The enactment of economic adversity: A reconciliation of theories of failure-induced change and threat-rigidity. Research in Organizational Behavior, 17, 287–331.

55.

Ocasio

(1997). Towards an attention-based view of the firm on JSTOR. Strategic Management Journal, 18(Special Issue: Organizational and Competitive Interactions), 187–206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3088216. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199707)18:1+<187::AID-SMJ936>3.0.CO;2-K

56.

Ocasio

(1999). Institutionalized action and corporate governance: The reliance on rules of CEO succession. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 384–416.

57.

Ocasio

(2001). How do organizations think. InOrganizational cognition: Computation and interpretation (pp. 39–60). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

58.

Ocasio

(2002). Organizational power and dependence. In J. A. C. Baum (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to organizations (pp. 363–385). Blackwell Publishing.

59.

Ocasio

(2005). The opacity of risk: Language and the culture of safety in NASA's space shuttle program: Organization at the limit: Lessons from the Columbia disaster. In Starbuck

Farjoun

(Eds.), Organizations at the limit (pp. 101–121). Wiley-Blackwell.

60.

Ocasio

(2011). Attention to attention. Organization Science, 22(5), 1286–1296. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0602

61.

Ocasio

(2012). The garbage can model of organizational choice: Looking forward at forty. In A. Lomi, & J. R. Harrison (Eds.), The garbage can model of organizational choice: Looking forward at forty (pp. 293–317). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

62.

Ocasio

(2023). Institutions and their social construction: A cross-level perspective. Organization Theory, 4(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877231194368

63.

Ocasio

Gai

S. L.

(2020). Institutions: Everywhere but not everything. Journal of Management Inquiry, 29(3), 262–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492619899331

64.

Ocasio

Joseph

(2005). An attention-based theory of strategy formulation: Linking micro- and macroperspectives in strategy processes. Advances in Strategic Management, 22, 39–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-3322(05)22002-8

65.

Ocasio

Joseph

(2006). Governance channels and organizational design at general electric: 1950–2001. In Organization design (pp. 267–284). Springer US.

66.

Ocasio

Joseph

(2008). Rise and fall-or transformation? The evolution of strategic planning at the General Electric Company 1940–2006. Long Range Planning, (3), 248–272.

67.

Ocasio

Joseph

(2018). The attention-based view of great strategies. Strategy Science, 3(1), 289–294. https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2017.0042

68.

Ocasio

Kim

(1999). The circulation of corporate control: Selection of functional backgrounds of new CEOs in large US manufacturing firms, 1981–1992. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(3), 532–562.

69.

Ocasio

Kraatz

Chandler

(2023). Making sense of corporate purpose. Strategy Science, 8(2), 123–138. https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2023.0054

70.

Ocasio

Laamanen

Vaara

(2018). Communication and attention dynamics: An attention-based view of strategic change. Strategic Management Journal, 39(1), 155–167. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2702

71.

Ocasio

Loewenstein

Nigam

(2015). How streams of communication reproduce and change institutional logics: The role of categories. The Academy of Management Review, 40(1), 28–48. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0274

72.

Ocasio

Loewenstein

Nigam

Jones

(2017). Keeping categories, preserving practice: The micro-foundations of institutional endurance (Working paper).

73.

Ocasio

Mauskapf

Steele

(2016). History, society, and institutions: The role of collective memory in the emergence and evolution of societal logics. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), 676–699.

74.

Ocasio

Pozner

J. E.

Milner

(2020a). Varieties of political capital and power in organizations: A review and integrative framework. Academy of Management Annals, 14(1), 303–338. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0062

75.

Ocasio

Radoynovska

(2016). Strategy and commitments to institutional logics: Organizational heterogeneity in business models and governance. Strategic Organization, 14(4), 287–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127015625040

76.

Ocasio

Rhee

Milner

(2020). Attention, knowledge, and organizational learning. The Oxford Handbook of Group and Organizational Learning, 81–94. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0062

77.

Ocasio

Wohlgezogen

(2010). Attention to attention. Cambridge University Press.

78.

Orlikowski

W. J.

Scott

S. V.

(2014). Exploring material-discursive practices. Journal of Management Studies, 52(5), 697–705. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12114

79.

Ortega y Gasset

(1914). Meditations on Quixote. Meditaciones del Quijote. Publicaciones de la Residencia de Estudiantes.

80.

Petersen

S. E.

Posner

M. I.

(2012). The attention system of the human brain: 20 years after. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35(1), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-062111-150525

81.

Pfeffer

(1993). Barriers to the advance of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18(4), 599–620.

82.

Posner

M. I.

Rothbart

M. K.

(2007). Research on attention networks as a model for the integration of psychological science. Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085516

83.

Pouthier

Steele

C. W. J.

Ocasio

(2013). From agents to principles: The changing relationship between hospitalist identities and logics of health care. Strategic Organization, 11(2), 141–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127012471737

84.

Powell

W. W.

Dimaggio

P. J.

(Eds.). (1991). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago Press.

85.

Radoynovska

Ocasio

Laasch

(2020). The emerging logic of responsible management: Institutional pluralism, leadership, and strategizing. In Laasch

Suddaby

Freeman

R. E.

Jamali

(Eds.), Research handbook of responsible management (pp. 420–437). Edward Elgar.

86.

Ren

Guo

(2011). Middle managers’ strategic role in the corporate entrepreneurial process: Attention-based effects. Journal of Management, 37(6), 1586–1610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310397769

87.

Rerup

(2009). Attentional triangulation: Learning from unexpected rare crises. Organization Science, 20(5), 876–893. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1090.0467

88.

Rhee

Leonardi

P. M.

(2018). Which pathway to good ideas? An attention-based view of innovation in social networks. Strategic Management Journal, 39(4), 1188–1215. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2755

89.

Rhee

Ocasio

Kim

T. H.

(2019). Performance feedback in hierarchical business groups: The cross-level effects of cognitive accessibility on R&D search behavior. Organization Science, 30(1), 51–69. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1237

90.

Ricci

Rokach

Shapira

(2021). Recommender systems: Techniques, applications, and challenges (pp. 1–35). Recommender Systems Handbook.

91.

Ross

Nisbett

R. E.

(1991). The person and the situation: Perspectives of social psychology. McGraw-Hill.

92.

Searle

(1995). The construction of social reality. Free Press.

93.

Shepherd

D. A.

McMullen

J. S.

Ocasio

(2017). Is that an opportunity? An attention model of top managers’ opportunity beliefs for strategic action. Strategic Management Journal, 38(3), 626–644. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2499

94.

Simon

H. A.

(1947a). Administrative behavior: A study of decision-making processes in administrative organization. The Journal of Politics, 10(1), 187–189. https://doi.org/10.2307/2125825

95.

Simon

H. A.

(1947b). Administrative behavior. MacMillan.

96.

Simon

H. A.

(1971). Designing organizations for an information-rich world [Speaker]. Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest, Baltimore, USA. https://veryinteractive.net/pdfs/simon_designing-organizations-for-an-information-rich-world.pdf

97.

Simons

D. J.

Chabris

C. F.

(1999). Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28(9), 1059–1074. https://doi.org/10.1068/p281059

98.

Simons

D. J.

Chabris

C. F.

(2010). The invisible gorilla: And other ways our intuitions deceive us. Choice/Choice Reviews, 48(03), 48-1757–48-1757. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.48-1757

99.

Thornton

P. H.

Ocasio

(1999). Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958– 1990. American Journal of Sociology, 105(3), 801–843. https://doi.org/10.1086/210361

100.

Thornton

P. H.

Ocasio

(2008). Institutional logics. Sage Publications.

101.

Thornton

P. H.

Ocasio

Lounsbury

(2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process. Choice Reviews Online, 50(04), 50-2388–50-2388. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.50-2388

102.

Tomasello

(1995). Joint attention as social cognition (C. Moore & P. J. Dunham, (Eds.), 103–130). https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/10009354659

103.

Tomasello

(2014). Joint attention as social cognition. In Joint attention (pp. 103–130). Psychology Press.

104.

Tomasello

Carpenter

(2007). Shared intentionality. Developmental Science, 10(1), 121–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00573.x

105.

Tomasello

Carpenter

Call

Behne

Moll

(2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(5), 675–691.

106.

Tomasello

Rakoczy

(2003). What makes human cognition unique? From individual to shared to collective intentionality. Mind and Language, 18(2), 121–147.

107.

Tonellato

Taselli

Conaldi

Lerner

Lomi

(2024). A microstructural approach to self-organizing: The emergence of attentional networks. Organization Science, 35(2), 496–524. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1674

108.

Van Knippenberg

Dahlander

Haas

M. R.

George

(2015). Information, attention, and decision making. Academy of Management Journal/the Academy of Management Journal, 58(3), 649–657. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.4003

109.

Van Maanen

(1995). Style as theory. Organization Science, 6(1), 133–143.

110.

Vaswani

Shazeer

Parmar

Uszkoreit

Jones

Gomez

Kaiser

Polosukhin

(2017). Attention is all you need. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 30(NIPS 2017), 1–11.

111.

Vaughan

(1996). The challenger launch decision: Risky technology, culture and deviance at NASA. University of Chicago Press.

112.

Vuori

T. O.

Huy

Q. N.

(2015). Distributed attention and shared emotions in the innovation process: How Nokia lost the smartphone battle. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61(1), 9–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839215592913

113.

Weick

K. E.

(1979). The social psychology of organizing (2nd edn.). Addison-Wesley.

114.

Weick

K. E.

(1995). Sensemaking in organizations (Vol. 3). Sage Publications.

115.

Weick

K. E.

Sutcliffe

(2006). Mindfulness and the quality of organizational attention. Organization Science, 17(4), 514–524. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1060.0196