Organizational Attention

INTRODUCTION Attention is a term commonly used in education, psychiatry, and psychology. Attention can be defined as an internal cognitive process by which one actively selects environmental information (i.e., sensation) or actively processes information from internal sources (i.e., stored memories and thoughts; Sternberg, 1996). In more general terms, attention can be defined as an ability to focus and maintain interest in a given task or idea, including managing distractions. Attention is selective by its nature. According to Pashler (1998, p. 37), " The process of selecting from among the many potentially available stimuli is the clearest manifestation of selective attention. " Why do firms respond to certain events or stimuli in their environment while neglecting others? It seems that organizations, just like individuals , have limited attention capacity. Hence, they must select from among the many potentially available stimuli and respond to these selected stimuli only. Organizational attention is defined as the socially structured pattern of attention by decision makers within the organization (Ocasio, 1997). Organizational attention, like human attention , is a limited resource: " Attentional limits filter or screen incoming information such that a great deal of data pertinent to strategic decision may never get processed " (2003) show that the extent to which CEOs (chief executive officers) are selective in their attention to sectors of the environment is a significant predictor of performance. Knowledge management (KM) models and process theories, almost without exception, incorporate a stage or phase in which a given knowledge item is brought to bear on a current decision or action. This stage, referred to alternatively as, is of crucial importance in any knowledge-management cycle. The flow of knowledge in and out of an awareness stage is not merely a function of the universe of available organizational memory or the technological tools available to filter and identify such knowledge. It is influenced to a large degree by organizational attention. The second area in which organizational attention is key is knowledge acquisition and creation as discussed by Ocasio (1997), and Yaniv and Elizur (2003). Successful knowledge management requires attention. Davenport and Volpel (2001) argues that attention is the currency of the information age. Knowledge consumers must pay attention to knowledge and become actively involved in the knowledge-transfer processes. This is particularly important when the knowledge to be received is tacit (Nonaka, 1994). Knowledge can be part of the organization's repository, however, if it does not …