Massaro, S; (2013) Cognitive and affective features of interpersonal dynamics in knowledge-intensive organizations. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the topics of affect and its relationship with cognition, areas of growing interest for management research. Despite the significant scholarly attention on affective and cognitive constructs, processes, and dynamics shaping organizational life, several questions on their interplay remain unanswered. This work employs exploratory analyses and provides original contributions to fill some of these crucial research gaps. Chapter 1 argues the urgency of a review work on the relationship between affect and cognition. By highlighting the existence of a parcelled body of literature, this chapter proposes its systematic integration in key topical areas. Moreover, it defines a novel conceptual model that incorporates interdisciplinary insights into a unifying framework, offering fresh avenues for organizational research. Chapter 2 researches on the dyadic level of analysis and focuses on interpersonal trust, a key organizational construct characterized by affective and cognitive aspects. The study explores how these two forms of trust interplay in hierarchical relationships, a puzzle limiting current knowledge on their roles in workplace dynamics. This qualitative research, conducted among knowledge-intensive workers, explains that varying levels of cognitive and affective trust interact in both concordant and discordant ways, defining four distinct relationship types. These findings offer theory for advancing both the literature on affect and cognition, and that on trust. Chapter 3 holds methodological value and claims that organizational studies can benefit from employing neuroscience techniques. By focusing on insights from affective research, it analyses technical and functional characteristics and limits of neuroscience methods, and argues that their integration in management scholarship could move its theory and practice forward. These chapters altogether develop knowledge on the topics of affect and its relationship with cognition, offer original contributions by challenging and extending current theoretical and methodological frameworks, and pinpoint relevant implications for hierarchical relationships, knowledge-intensive work, and overall management scholarship and practice.

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