Witkin’s Cognitive Styles and Field Theory applied to the study of Global Managers and OD Practioners

Lichia Yiu and Raymond Saner, (2006-2007), “Witkin’s Cognitive Styles and Field Theory applied to the study of Global Managers and OD Practioners”, Book chapter 6, winter 2006-2007: Research in Organizational Change and Development, volume 16- edited by Willam a. Pasmore and Richard w. Woodman, JAI Publ. San Jose CA ; United States of America

This paper builds on current and past research of Witkin et al., and applies his concepts to the study of global managers and OD practitioners. The goal is to describe core aspects of culture related challenges which global mangers and OD practitioners have to overcome, and ends with proposing future research on possibilities of training global managers and OD practitioners in order to develop Integrated Perceptual-Cognitive Ability (IPCA). Such an IPCA competence would allow them to master both field-dependent and field-independent perceptual- cognitive skills.