ACADEMIA Letters

An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and

Their Decision-making Preferences in the Iranian Higher
Education Sector
Alireza Hejazi

Abstract
This research was designed to inspect the link between cognitive style and decision-making
preferences among managerial leaders in the Iranian higher education system. Up to 150
academic managerial leaders, including 92 graduates of leadership and management studies
and 58 graduates of other disciplines participated in this study. Differences between the two
groups in terms of cognitive processes and decision-making approaches were identified. The
study suggests that managerial leaders’ cognitive style has positive and negative relationships
with their decision-making style preferences. The findings of this study might be used to de-
scribe not just how managerial leaders think, the precision of their vision, and how they absorb
and recall information, but also how they make judgments.

Keywords: cognitive style, leadership, manager, managerial leader, decision-making

Introduction
Managerial leaders possess both the talents of a manager and the attributes of a leader. Being
a successful manager necessitates leadership that focuses managers’ attention on goals that
address issues, as well as how people and processes may interact and work together to produce

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alireza Hejazi , hejaziar@gmail.com

Citation: Hejazi , A. (2021). An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and Their Decision-making
Preferences in the Iranian Higher Education Sector. Academia Letters, Article 4516.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4516.
1
particular organizational results [1]. Researchers have identified the significance of these roles
for managerial leaders, namely CEOs, and their impact on a firm’s strategic orientation [2].
The goal of this research was to expand on the notion of the link between managerial
leaders’ cognitive types and decision-making styles. It is considered that managerial leaders’
methods of acquiring and assessing information are reflected in their strategic decisions [3].
The empirical investigation produced a more in-depth understanding of managerial leaders’
cognitive styles and their decision-making preferences.

Cognitive Style
The term “cognitive style” refers to a propensity in how people interpret stimuli and utilize
information to influence their behavior, which is a stable and habitual action that does not
alter over time due to experience [4]. Simply, the way people imagine, perceive, discriminate,
identify, think, and retain information is referred to as their cognitive style [5]. Individuals
gain knowledge and process information using cognitive modes [6]. Cognitive style, as a
repeating perceptual and intellectual pattern in personality, can impact attitudes, values, and
social interaction [7].

Decision-making
Decision-making abilities include recognizing available alternatives, possible repercussions,
evaluating the desirability of each result, analyzing the likelihood of each outcome, and select-
ing decisions using a decision rule [8]. Empirical research has demonstrated that cognitive
style is a more accurate predictor of people’s success in specific contexts than situational
characteristics [9]. Cognitive styles assist to explain why people with similar skill sets and
levels of competence make different judgments. Cognitive style research may contribute to a
better understanding of decision-making and how cognitive styles influence decision-making
processes [10].

Measurement Tools
This was a multidimensional investigation of cognitive and decision-making styles. For this
study, the Decision-Making Style Questionnaire (DMSQ) was applied [11]. It identifies four
decision-making style aspects. Rational decision-making is defined by contemplation and
evaluation of options to select the most effective choice to attain a goal. Intuitive decision-

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alireza Hejazi , hejaziar@gmail.com

Citation: Hejazi , A. (2021). An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and Their Decision-making
Preferences in the Iranian Higher Education Sector. Academia Letters, Article 4516.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4516.
2
making is helped by experience, but it does not always follow. The dependent decision-making
approach is typical of those who seek help from others. People with an avoidant decision-
making style make every attempt to avoid making decisions.
The Cognitive Style Indicator (CoSI) was applied to assess cognitive styles [12]. This
model proposes a more adaptable, three-dimensional prototype of cognitive styles, including
knowing, planning, and creating types. The knowing style is defined as favoring a logical,
rational, and impersonal method of processing information using analytical abilities and log-
ical thinking. The planning style is characteristic of an inclination to structure and control,
favoring certainty and rejecting change and new ideas. A creating personality is characterized
by a preference for new ideas, a strong imagination, and decision-making based on intuition.
The measures employed in this study were translated into Persian. The goal was to intro-
duce these measurements to investigate the relationship between CoSI cognitive style dimen-
sions and DMSQ decision-making style preferences, as well as possible differences between
managerial leaders who had studied management and leadership and those from other fields
of study serving the Iranian universities.

Methodology
The survey included 150 academic managerial leaders from Iran. Management and leader-
ship studies graduates included 92 managerial leaders (50 men and 42 women). Fifty-eight
managerial executives (44 men and 14 women) graduated from different fields. All of the
managerial leaders were Ph.D. holders. The Snowball sampling method was used to collect
data from these individuals [13].
An invitation containing the links to two online surveys was emailed to respondents. The
CoSI was used to assess cognitive style preference [14]. As reported by the CoSI’s developers,
the questionnaire has a high level of internal validity and consistency.
The DSMQ was used to assess decision-making style [15]. There are four subscales in this
questionnaire: rational choice-making (8 items), intuitive decision-making (5 items), depen-
dent decision-making (5 items), and avoidant decision-making (5 items). The questions were
asked on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“strongly agree”) to 5 (“strongly disagree”),
with “no idea” as the middle. A lower score indicates a higher affinity for the decision-making
approach. The Cronbach alpha coefficients of the subscales as reported by questionnaire de-
velopers suggested that this instrument was reliable and valid.
Pearson’s correlation coefficient r was utilized to determine the importance of the rela-
tionship between cognitive style preferences and decision-making style preferences. T-tests
were also used to evaluate the likelihood that two groups are the same in terms of the variables

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alireza Hejazi , hejaziar@gmail.com

Citation: Hejazi , A. (2021). An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and Their Decision-making
Preferences in the Iranian Higher Education Sector. Academia Letters, Article 4516.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4516.
3
being examined.

Results
Correlation analysis revealed that rational decision-making style corresponds with both the
knowing cognitive style (r = -0.29, p ≤.05, n = 150) and the planning cognitive style (r =
-0.27, p ≤.05, n = 150). The expected correlation between intuitive decision-making style
and creating cognitive style was not verified (r = -0.01, n.s., n = 150). A strong link was
discovered between the avoidant decision-making style and the planning cognitive style (r =
-0.22, p ≤.05, n = 150), as well as the knowing cognitive style (r = -0.21, p ≤.05, n = 150). The
creating cognitive style, on the other hand, revealed a very poor connection with the avoidant
decision-making style (r = 0.05, n.s., n = 150).
Management and leadership graduates outperformed other managerial leaders in terms of
performance. Management and leadership graduates appreciated the knowing approach more,
with a t (150) = 4.75, p ≤.05 difference. They performed better on the planning style (t (150)
= 4.65, p ≤.05) and the creating style (t (150) = 3.72, p ≤.05). There was also a substantial
difference between the two groups in terms of avoidant decision-making style. Management
and leadership graduates valued this approach substantially more (t (150) = -2.03, p ≤.05).

Conclusion
The findings suggest that the cognitive style has both positive and negative relationships
with the preference for certain subdimensions of decision-making styles as measured by the
DMSQ. The planning and knowing cognitive styles are associated with rational decision-
making style. The two measurements, on the other hand, did not indicate a link between the
creating cognitive style and the intuitive decision-making style. A link was also discovered
between the avoidant decision-making style and the planning and knowing elements of cogni-
tive style. Managers that favor planning and knowing cognitive styles would prefer to postpone
making decisions if their requirements were not met. The management and leadership study
graduates’ larger preference for avoidant decision-making style might be explained by their
stronger preference for planning and knowing cognitive type. Understanding cognitive style
preferences may assist policymakers in designing employment strategies that encourage the
development of management abilities required for managerial leaders working in positions
that require certain decision-making styles.

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alireza Hejazi , hejaziar@gmail.com

Citation: Hejazi , A. (2021). An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and Their Decision-making
Preferences in the Iranian Higher Education Sector. Academia Letters, Article 4516.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4516.
4
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Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alireza Hejazi , hejaziar@gmail.com

Citation: Hejazi , A. (2021). An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and Their Decision-making
Preferences in the Iranian Higher Education Sector. Academia Letters, Article 4516.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4516.
5
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Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Alireza Hejazi , hejaziar@gmail.com

Citation: Hejazi , A. (2021). An Analysis of Managerial Leaders’ Cognitive Styles and Their Decision-making
Preferences in the Iranian Higher Education Sector. Academia Letters, Article 4516.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4516.
6