Maps for Managers: Where are we? Where do we go from here?

Research on managerial cognition in general, and on cognitive mapping in particular, is receiving a great deal of attention in Europe and the US, but the work being done is currently disparate and loosely coupled. Furthermore, the development of maps as a decision aid has tended to focus on specific sub-areas of cognition. In this article we argue that the broad strategic concerns of managers require a portfolio of different kinds of cognitive maps. The interactions among these maps are as important as the functions of each one separately. We develop a framework for classifying cognitive maps and argue for the importance of managing multiple maps