Methodological Advances in Studying Construal Level in Organizations

People can mentally represent situations, people, and tasks at different levels, focusing on the details (i.e., construing concretely) or the big picture (i.e., construing abstractly). Despite the growing attention devoted by management scholars to construal level as a feature of cognition, methodological innovations are needed to allow researchers to better study construal-level within organizational contexts. This symposium presents four lines of research that use diverse research designs to advance measures and manipulations of construal level in varied contexts. The four papers examine cognitive construal in everyday work, context-specific linguistic abstraction in small natural language samples, construal-related stereotypes of social groups, and effectiveness of two common construal manipulations in the lab. This symposium aims to provide an opportunity for knowledge sharing and discussion among researchers, with a specific focus on methodological innovations that can advance construal level research in organizations. Abstract and Concrete Construals in Everyday Work Author: Yidan Yin; U. of Southern California -Marshall School of Business Author: Pamela K. Smith; U. of California, San Diego Author: Batia Mishan Wiesenfeld; New York U. Construal Level in Small Natural Language Samples Author: Kalman Victor; New York U. Author: Yaacov Trope; New York U. He Sees the Forest, She Sees the Trees: A Construal-Level Stereotype Author: Samantha Dodson; Sauder School of Business, U. of British Columbia Author: Rachael Goodwin; Syracuse U. Whitman School of Management Author: Cheryl Wakslak; U. of Southern California Author: Kristina Diekmann; U. of Utah Author: Jesse Graham; U. of Utah, David Eccles School of Business The Effect of Abstract versus Concrete Mindset Author: Ori Levit; Tel Aviv U. Author: Nira Liberman; Tel Aviv U.