| Reference | Main application of causal mapping | Mode of construction | Dealing with multiple sources | Analysis procedures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Axelrod n.d.) | Understand and critique decision making | Coding documents | Mainly idiographic | Compute polarity of indirect effects in some cases. |
| (Bougon et al. n.d.) | Understand how organisations are constructed and can be influenced. | Semi-structured interview to identify a fixed list of factors aka ‘variables’; respondents then say which are linked and give the polarity. | Compare individual maps and combine into global ‘average’ map. | Identify variables X with high outdegree and Y with high indegree and construct an ‘etiograph’ to show all the multiple paths from one point to another; discuss how respondents might have influence over some variables. |
| (Ackermann et al. n.d.; Ackermann & Eden n.d.; Eden 2023; Eden et al. n.d.; Eden et al. 2023) | Decision support and problem solving in organisations. Maps are seen primarily as useful tools rather than research about reality. | Open interviewing of several respondents based on Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory. Also map construction directly with groups (1988). | Comparing maps between individuals and analysing group maps directly. | Various structural measures, presence of isolated clusters, hierarchical trees, loops. Simplify individual maps by collapsing X->Y->Z into X->Z. |
| (Laukkanen n.d.; Laukkanen 2024; Laukkanen & Eriksson 2022; Laukkanen & Wang n.d.) | Explicitly cognitive, to improve knowledge and understanding in management | Systematic comparative method with semi-structured interviewing: respondents are given anchor topic(s) then asked for causes, effects, causes of causes, effects of effects. Compress the data by standardising factor names. Comprehensive coverage of different map construction possibilities. | Comparative study of different individual maps, combining data into a database. | Display combined maps for subgroups, e.g. all local managers. |
References
Ackermann, Eden, & Cropper (n.d.). Getting Started with Cognitive Mapping.
Ackermann, & Eden (n.d.). Using Causal Mapping to Support Information Systems Development. Causal Mapping for Research in Information Technology.
Axelrod (n.d.). Structure of Decision: The Cognitive Maps of Political Elites. Princeton university press.
Bougon, Weick, & Binkhorst (n.d.). Cognition in Organizations: An Analysis of the Utrecht Jazz Orchestra. Administrative Science Quarterly, 606--639.
Eden, Ackermann, & Cropper (2023). The Analysis of Cause Maps. Journal of Management Studies, 29, 309--324.
Eden (2023). On the Nature of Cognitive Maps. Journal of Management Studies, 29, 261--265.
Eden, Jones, & Sims (n.d.). Thinking in Organisations. Macmillan.
Laukkanen, & Eriksson (2022). New Designs and Software for Cognitive Causal Mapping. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 8, 122--147.
Laukkanen (2024). Comparative Causal Mapping and CMAP3 Software in Qualitative Studies. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.2.1846.
Laukkanen, & Wang (n.d.). Comparative Causal Mapping: The CMAP3 Method. Routledge.
Laukkanen (n.d.). Comparative Cause Mapping of Organizational Cognitions. Organization Science, 5, 322--343.