Cognitive Resource Theory

Fundamentals

General cognitive ability, or intelligence, is said to predict many important life outcomes in addition to managerial and leadership performance. However, within the context of CRT, Fiedler’s research in fact found that intelligence did not consistently predict job performance of leaders. Sometimes, intelligence was unrelated or even worse, negatively related to performance. Specifically, while leaders were under stressful situations, intelligence did not contribute to performance; however, in conditions of low stress, a leader’s level of intelligence did predict performance. A number of field studies for diverse groups with diverse measures of leader outcomes showed these effects. Also, within the theory, Fiedler and his colleagues examined the effects of many different types of stressful situations (stressors) including situations that produced evaluation apprehension or stressful work events in diverse groups such as the military, firefighters, student groups, and sports teams. The debilitating effects of stress on intelligence could, it was found, lead to increased anxiety and distracted leaders from the task at hand. It was only in situations where leaders behaved in a directive manner could their intelligence contribute to the group’s performance—but only when stress was low. Even directive behavior was not enough, however, to utilize the leader’s intelligence if stress for the leader was high.

Conversely, Fiedler and his colleagues found a leader’s level of experience played an important role in effectiveness in stressful situations. Experience is often defined as the time served in a particular organization, position, or occupational field. Specifically, under conditions of high stress, they found that more experienced leaders performed better than less experienced leaders. Conversely, under low stress, more experienced leaders were not better performing leaders than their less experienced counterparts, and in fact, sometimes performed less well than less experienced leaders.

The task of leadership requires skill acquisition that goes beyond technical knowledge and represents knowledge of an interpersonal and intrapersonal nature that might be gained through years of experience. Fiedler suggested such skills as cognitive, or problem solving skills (including technical experience, or how to do the task), human relations skills (including leadership role experience, or how to organize a group), self-confidence, and understanding oneself and how to satisfy one’s own needs. Fiedler’s ideas are congruent with the results of a study by Morgan McCall and others in which they asked hundreds of leaders to recall what experiences they thought had made them better leaders. One category of important skills was called executive temperament and included the use of self-confidence, power, and persevering through adversity.

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