Use of Cognitive Mapping Techniques in Information Systems

INTRODUCTION Communication in information systems (IS) research and practice is a social process that is characterized by ongoing sense making among various parties. In research, researchers must be able to fully understand research participants’ perceptions about a problem domain. In IS development and implementation, IS professionals and various stakeholders need to communicate effectively in order to achieve expected outcomes (Siau & Rossi, forthcoming). In this social process, human factors have significant implications. Psychological studies have indicated that many human factors, such as cognitive constraints, heuristic-driven biases, and satisficing, may affect the effectiveness of communication (Siau, Wand, & Benbasat, 1997; Siau, 1999; Siau, 2004). In the discipline of IS, the effects of human factors on communication in IS research and practice also have been discussed (Siau & Tan, 2005b; Valusek & Fryback, 1987). People communicate in order to understand others and to be understood by others. Some cognitive mapping techniques have been applied in social sciences to help in sense making among different parties. Cognitive mapping techniques are used to identify subjective beliefs and to portray these beliefs externally (Fiol & Huff, 1992). The general approach is to extract subjective statements from individuals within particular problem domains about meaningful concepts and relations among these concepts and then to describe these concepts and relations in some kind of visuospatial layout (Swan, 1997). The outcome of a cognitive mapping technique usually is referred to as a cognitive map. The advantages of using cognitive mapping techniques in communication include (1) focusing attention and triggering memory; (2) helping to highlight priorities and key factors; (3) supplying missing information; and (4) revealing gaps in information or reasoning that need more direct attention (Fiol & Huff, 1992). In this article, we discuss some common cognitive mapping techniques and their applications in IS research and practice.