| Reference | Main application of causal mapping | Mode of construction | Dealing with multiple sources | Analysis procedures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Axelrod 1976) | Understand and critique decision making | Coding documents | Mainly idiographic | Compute polarity of indirect effects in some cases. |
| (Bougon et al. 1977) | 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. 2004; Ackermann & Eden 2011; Eden 1992; Eden et al. 1979; Eden et al. 1992) | 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 1994; Laukkanen 2012; Laukkanen & Eriksson 2013; Laukkanen & Wang 2016) | 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. |
Related#
References
Ackermann, Eden, & Cropper (2004). Getting Started with Cognitive Mapping.
Ackermann, & Eden (2011). Using Causal Mapping to Support Information Systems Development.
Axelrod (1976). Structure of Decision: The Cognitive Maps of Political Elites. Princeton university press.
Bougon, Weick, & Binkhorst (1977). Cognition in Organizations: An Analysis of the Utrecht Jazz Orchestra. JSTOR.
Eden, Jones, & Sims (1979). Thinking in Organisations. Macmillan.
Eden, Ackermann, & Cropper (1992). The Analysis of Cause Maps. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1992.tb00667.x.
Eden (1992). On the Nature of Cognitive Maps. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1992.tb00664.x.
Laukkanen (1994). Comparative Cause Mapping of Organizational Cognitions.
Laukkanen (2012). Comparative Causal Mapping and CMAP3 Software in Qualitative Studies. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.2.1846.
Laukkanen, & Eriksson (2013). New Designs and Software for Cognitive Causal Mapping. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/QROM-08-2011-1003/full/html.
Laukkanen, & Wang (2016). Comparative Causal Mapping: The CMAP3 Method. Routledge.