Project Managers’ Cognitive Style in Decision Making: A Perspective from Construction Industry

A large and growing body of literature focuses on the project manager’s technical issues while ignoring the so-called soft project management. This study proposes that there is a need to extend management practices for project management from a human-related factor by incorporating the cognitive styles in the decision-making process towards the accomplishment of a successful project. The study aims to introduce the concept of cognitive styles in decision making by project managers. Furthermore, it takes up a discussion on the definition and types and roles of cognitive styles by linking these styles with project manager’s decision making behaviour. A questionnaire-based survey using Cognitive Style Instrument (CoSI), covering 110 project managers in the construction industry, was used to determine the cognitive styles among Malaysian project managers. The paper provides the empirical findings that reveal that Malaysian project managers used Cognitive Style on a daily basis in their project environment. Planning Style was the most preferred style, followed by Knowing Style and Creating Style. This study is significant both for researchers and practitioners to shed light upon the ways in which project managers organise and process information and make judgements from a psychological perspective. Moreover, this study contributes more generally to the evolving understanding of the human intellect process in project management. This paper introduces the concept of Cognitive Styles as an important human-related factor for project managers, contributing to the body of project manager’s soft skills.