An introduction to intuition theory and practice: a summary and a research agenda

Abstract

Welcome to the third handbook in the intuition series by Edward Elgar Publishing. It took ten years to get to this point – and what a journey it has been. We celebrated a decade of annual intuition symposia at the Academy of Management meeting last year, where new collaborations were struck and innovative approaches to intuition research explored. It confirms that intuition is gradually entering the mainstream, as theorists and practitioners alike call for new ways to conduct business and survive in the twenty-first century. It also shows that the initial research has shifted from our original narrow focus on expert intuition using psychology-based tools to a broader investigation of topics that includes a variety of qualitative methods to offer additional richness and depth. Work in the expert stream continues on a more fine-grained scale but it is complemented by insights from other streams and disciplines, reaching as far as neuroscience, quantum physics or clinical studies. Finally, more empirical work started emerging. This does not mean that all conceptual differences have been reconciled but there is a sufficient consensus to move forward under the original premise of our intuition community to ‘agree to respectfully disagree.’ This overall development has been reflected in the progression of topics covered in the handbooks. While the first volume addressed mostly conceptual issues, the second volume reviewed an array of applicable methods underpinned by conceptual considerations. Now, with the third volume, it is time to explore what is happening at the workplace and how we can capture it for practice. This is in response to the growing concern about the existing gap between theory and practice. While new intuition theories are being developed and (sometimes) tested, very few of them are converted into practical training tools. On the other hand, intuition practitioners find it challenging to explain what works for them and their clients by the existing theory. A question arises whether these parallel views can be somehow reconciled for the benefit of all. The current handbook takes the first step in this direction. It was quite challenging to organize the included chapters into individual parts. Many of them contain several themes that bind the whole book together, making their categorization somewhat arbitrary. At the same time, this is encouraging. The fact that some contributions could be placed under multiple headings resonates with the conclusion that intuition does not function in isolation but tends to be integrated with other processes, prevalent in a multitude of professional settings. Interestingly, most of these have been discussed at the intuition symposia since the last handbook. One common theme is the interaction of intuition and reasoning, although for the latter some researchers use different terms that do not always fully overlap, such as rationality, deliberation or analysis. Sadly, this phenomenon is still mostly investigated in the context of decision making, which seems to be the dominant research focus of this handbook. Not enough attention has been paid to problem solving so far,