University of São Paulo research shows effective use of intuition in the business world
While reflection is slow, analytical and painful, intuition is fast, unconscious and emotional. When applied to the business world, each of the two concepts can change decision-making, recruitment and consumer behavior analysis practices. To understand which one works best in moments of deep uncertainty, researchers studied the role of intuition and reflection and found that, in this case, acting intuitively offered more advantages.
The study published in 2021 was developed in the doctorate of researcher Marlon Alves, a member of the Study Group on Innovation and Internationalization of Companies (Inint) at the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto (FEA-RP) at USP, supervised by professor of the institution and coordinator of Inint Simone Galina. The research also had the participation of Vicenzo Vastola, professor at the Montpellier Business School, in France, and Maurizio Zollo, from the Imperial College Business School in London, England.
The study authors designed a virtual game and subjected 160 managers working with their teams to analysis. At first, managers had to develop efficient processes required by the game; soon after, in a second round, they were forced to deal with new rules that were imposed without prior notice. With the extreme change of rules, the previously created processes were no longer useful and managers had to adapt their approaches and teams, making decisions chosen between intuition and reflection. “In general, the objective was to understand the intuitive and reflexive processing of executives when there are disruptive changes and, therefore, the need for innovations to react and maintain competitiveness”, clarifies Professor Simone.
Finding solutions
The study advisor says that, after the changes imposed by the game, all teams showed a drop in performance, but those that used intuition to make decisions showed better results in the four dimensions analyzed: flexibility, speed, routine and coordination. Thus, Simone clarifies:
“Acting intuitively, in short, means that the person, unconsciously, uses cognitive patterns experienced in past situations, for a new present situation.”
By using intuition, teams have been able to let go of previous processes that no longer made sense more easily and find solutions that work for different situations and use them over and over again. Furthermore, the intuitive managers were better able to coordinate the paired actions required in the different rounds of the game.
“The study showed that managers who use intuition make better use of smaller sets of information”, says the professor, emphasizing that in those environments where there were extreme changes, intuitive action brought more benefits to the competitiveness of organizations.
Diversity of human capital: intuitive and reflective
Another important conclusion of the research refers to the management of human capital. The advisor points out that, despite the favorable results for intuition, reflection should not and cannot be left aside. Maintaining a work team with different cognitive abilities is essential for the corporation to be able to react quickly to market needs, whether through intuitive or reflective decisions. “Whoever manages to do this will certainly be ahead of the competition”, says the researcher.
In addition, as intuition depends on old experiences and situations experienced throughout life, the study opens doors for companies to view less valued professionals as an option currently in the job market. Elderly people, in underprivileged socioeconomic conditions or with atypical abilities can contribute significantly to companies through intuition.