Attention Is Attention: Preserving Ontological Integrity in Organizational Research
Exploring the existing potential of attention rather than expanding its boundaries
1The Organizational Role of Attention
The attention-based view of the firm is a key theoretical tool explaining how organizations learn, adapt, and perform. However, recent approaches risk diluting attention's explanatory power. This article argues that attention must be preserved as a fundamental mechanism linking cognition, structure, and behavior.
2The Threat to Ontological Integrity
Efforts to redefine attention as 'crescive' risk collapsing causal explanations into phenomenological descriptions. The paper clarifies the ontological attributes inherent in attention's definition and why preserving them is critical for robust organizational research.
3Gaps in the Literature
Many perceived limitations of the attention-based view actually stem from the field's failure to fully exploit the ontological potential within attention's definition. The article focuses on two major gaps: limited normative theorizing and insufficient theorization of situations.
4Research Agendas
The paper proposes three key research agendas: developing attention patterns that manage scarcity, revealing the costs of selective attention, and designing information environments that condition returns on attention. These agendas aim to advance attention theory while preserving its ontological core.
5The Power of Attention
Attention's enduring power lies not in expanding its boundaries but in fully leveraging its inherent scarcity, selectivity, and situatedness. This approach promises stronger theoretical and practical outcomes in organizational research.
6Conclusion and Implications
This article demonstrates that preserving the attention-based view's integrity can yield deeper and more effective explanations in organizational research. By maintaining attention's ontological core, significant theoretical and practical advancements can be achieved.
Original article: Journal of Management Studies — Örgütsel Araştırmada Dikkatin Ontolojik Bütünlüğü