A short history of intuition

According to Immanuel Kant²⁰ (2003), intuitions are conscious representations, distinct from sensation. For example, “space and time are only forms of sensible intuition, and hence are only conditions of the existence of things as phenomena”, or they are ideal constructs, depending of the subjective workings of the mind.

Henri Bergson²¹ (2002) holds that intuition is a faculty

20 1724 –1804, Prussia 21 1859 –1941, France.

of knowing, an experience that allows us to experience the world as an interconnected whole. His view is not unlike what Joseph Campbell²² with Bill Moyers (1988) describe as the shamanic experience, a way some people in hunter societies were able to access directly a shared knowledge, not just belonging to human communities but to the world as a whole. They usually accessed that domain in trance, drug induced or meditative, in order to share with the others. In ancient Greek society the role of sharer of wisdom was played most notably by the Pythia.

The oracle operated at the temple of Apollo in Delphi since the 8 century B.C., although originally the site was dedicated to Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth.

It was famous for giving ambiguous albeit strikingly accurate answers to those seeking its wisdom, among which were kings, warriors and philosophers (Kempiński, 2001). The last of Pythia’s pronouncements made in 393 AD to the emperor Theodosius I concerned herself:

Tell the king; the fair wrought house has fallen.

No shelter has Apollo, nor sacred laurel leaves;

The fountains are now silent; the voice is stilled.

It is finished (Broad, 2007, p. 71).

The Oracle was knowledgeable because she had a special gift, enhanced by the trance-inducing drugs. The idea of a prophetic or intuitive gift brings us to Carl Gustav Jung’s²³ (1992) psychological types. Jung discerned four main functions of consciousness:

sensation and intuition, which are perceiving functions, and thinking and feeling – judging functions. In addition he also proposed there are two attitude types: extroversion and introversion.

A combination of these function gives 8 psychological types, of which two are intuitive, which means they act not on the basis of rational analysis but on direct perception. Intuition is, to Jung, a

22 1904 –1987, USA.

23 1875 – 1961, Switzerland.

kind of perception from the collective unconscious, beginning as an inward journey to bring out ideas and visions not necessarily accessible within the material reality.

3.2. Reflection 1

Intuition has been something of a taboo among management scientists in the last century, although not necessarily among practitioners (Isaack, 1978; Akinci and Sadler-Smith, 2012).

However, old masters such as Chester Barnard (1966) recognizes the importance of intuition for the good manager. According to him, it is exactly as important as logical reasoning and a good manager should develop his or her intuitional abilities. Thomas Isaack (1978) is among the rare researchers of his era who actively advocates for the reincorporation of intuition into management education. He emphasizes its unique advantages:

Through intuition, a pattern is presented as a complete whole without our being able to explain how it was arrived at. It can grasp the meaning, significance, or structure of a problem without explicit reliance on analytical apparatus.

Intuition is not limited by conventional time since it has no boundaries of duration. Intuition can synthesize disparate ideas, achieving serendipity as it senses combinations which did not appear to be related in the past (Isaak, 1978, p. 919) Intuition and intellect work very well together and complement each other: the latter prepares logical lines of thought and sets of a structure, and the former makes sudden insights and creative solutions possible (ibid.). Outstanding decision-makers know how to use both qualities (Mintzberg, 1976). Cinla Akinci and Eugene Sadler-Smith (2012) chart the intuition research of the last 80 years, contrasting the profusion of studies in related disciplines and the paucity of such studies in management studies during much of that period. However, this is changing fast, especially during the last decades there has been much promising work on the topic,

ranging from learning, through decision making to entrepreneurial processes. This advance has resulted in a rich and diverse body of knowledge, potentially very inspiring for future researchers. The Authors conclude by listing four recommendations for future research: a more careful conceptual framing, a cross-disciplinary integration, more methodological rigour and attention to levels of analyses issues.

And yet, intuition is ever present in all instances of the practice of organizing. One author who has not explicitly used the term “intuition” as his topic of interest but whose writings have undoubtedly thrown some light on intuitive aspects of the processes of organizing is Karl Weick. He points out that organization works very much like jazz music (1989). Choices are made during, rather than before, action, quite often because one or the other direction seem appropriate to the actors. They often feel it is a good idea – but do not have a precise vision of goals and results. However, after the fact they may rationalize their choices by explaining them in terms of plans, goals and results and show how they made the decision in purely rational terms. That kind of ex ante rationalization is very usual in the practice of management (Weick, 1979). Yet real managerial talent reveals itself in non-linear, simultaneous action.

A good manager finds the right ideas and actions through trial and error, much like the jazz musician. He or she fails more often than succeeds, but once in a while finds a motif that works for him or her and knows how to develop it and how to propose it to others to be collectively built up. This mode of collective action is like jazz improvisation and talented managers use all of their faculties not only to take part in the collective processes but also to have a grasp over it all – they have a responsibility for the organization (Weick, 1989). What we call managerial intuition may, then, well be likened to a musical ear and is a necessary ingredient in all everyday organizational and managerial activities.

One of the most acknowledged uses of intuition in management concerns decision making processes, where it is seen as a crucial and integral part of action and expertise (March, 1971; Simon, 1987; Klein and Weick, 2000). Erik Dane and Michael Pratt (2007) refer to research showing that intuition is vital in complex tasks, involving short time horizons, such as: planning, stock analysis, performance appraisal, strategic decision making and decision making in turbulent environments. Intuitions are defined as “affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, nonconscious, and holistic associations” (Dane and Pratt, 2007, p. 40, emphasis removed).

The Authors compare analytic and intuitive processes and conclude that intuition is highly beneficial in complex situations, they are able to make “both fast and accurate decisions in organizations” (ibid., p. 50). Mindful managers are better tuned in to their environments and learn better to respond to them. Intuition is very useful in strategic thinking, understood as a subtle balance between passion and discipline (Obłój, 2010). On the one hand, the strategist has to find and actively invent a preferred path of development for the company. On the other, he or she should be able to respond to the environment. Strategy is an interplay of these two aspects, based on a few key and mutually complementary choices that will ensure that the organization succeeds (ibid.). Given the complexity and the hyperdynamism of contemporary environments, this is particularly important for strategic management (Hodgkinson et al., 2009).

More attention should be paid to the development to such qualities, in education, selection and rewarding of organizational decision makers. I will address education for intuition development in section Reflection 2.

Let us now give some more thought to the collective aspects of intuition. It is not just a issue of promoting the right abilities in individuals, but since

strategic competence is a collective activity, [it is important to] consider the implications of our analysis for managing and leading teams, such that a requisite blend of individual cognitive competencies (both intuitive and analytical) and the development of shared understandings of intuitions (which are inherently subjective and experiential) might be achieved (ibid., p. 278).

The strategy making unit should be organized in such a way that an optimal blend of intuitive and analytically-inclined individuals is achieved. Solely analytically oriented strategists are unable to face the challenges of a turbulent environment and the participation of just intuitive individuals pose a risk that decisions will be made without a complete understanding of the situation.

Therefore a balanced composition is truly helpful. This is the task of the leader of the group. He or she should then be able to manage such a cognitively diverse group. The leader should be able to encourage people to express their intuitive ideas and then allow for a debate which involves rational analysis. In the process, he or she should manage conflict and not allow it to escalate which is rather common in such diverse groups. Intuitions are difficult or impossible to express in words. The leader has to facilitate communication in the strategy making unit by proposing some kind of sharing, for example, through metaphors. The leader then serves as a mediator and translator, transferring meaning between different individuals and taking care so that all are respectfully received by the others.

Organizational decision making is then a relatively established domain for the use of intuition. Much less explored in literature is the role that intuition plays in extraordinary organizational efforts, such as creativity. Viktor Dörfler and Fran Ackerman (2012) propose to further the understanding of creative intuition, which they regard as a kind of knowledge operating at high levels of expertise. They distinguish between intuitive judgment and

intuitive insight. The first kind is needed for decision making, for example for thinking of alternatives and feeling a preference for one or a few of them, rather than others. This is a standard activity of managers and experts in organizations and so this type dominates in the literature. The second kind, or creative insight, is necessary in creative work, when people in organizations face ill-structured problems. The way of arriving at a solution to such problems is often unaccountable for in any kind of symbolic language, even though some people may be able to either express it metaphorically (or poetically), or, more, commonly in contemporary organizations, rationalize them ex post in the Weickian (1979) manner. This distinction is not exclusive: creative processes may contain both kinds of intuition (Dörfler and Ackerman, 2012).

Another increasingly important aspect of managerial work concerns projects. Project management is about organizing in order to reach a specific goal. It involves much novelty, a temporary structure and little routine. This kind of work is highly dependent on the ability to improvise and thus demands that managers are able to make decisions intuitively Leybourne and Sadler-Smith, 2006). Rationality does not play a role in the capability to improvise. Research also reveals that customers express more satisfaction with the outcomes of the work of such managers.

More experienced project managers tend to improvise more than less experienced ones. They act and feel more confident in the unstructured conditions of the project.