Cognitive Functions and Business
Jocelyn Webber
Organizational Behavior
David Lucia
College of St. ScholasticaIntroduction to Cognitive Functions
The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality evaluation is a well-known and widely-used form of psychological testing. The MBTI sorts the psychological differences in the way people make decisions and perceive the world around them into four dichotomies: Introversion/Extraversion; Sensing/Intuition; Thinking/Feeling; and Perceiving/Judging. There are 16 different combinations—16 psychological types—that can be used to represent a person’s personality preferences (Briggs & Meyers, 1980).
These ideas were an expansion of the work of Carl Jung (1921), who pioneered that the cognitive (or mental) functions, made up of extraverted vs. introverted thinking, feeling, sensing and intuition, were the foundation for the way individuals perceive and judge the world.
Dominant, Auxiliary, Tertiary and Inferior Functions Each person has one dominant, auxiliary, tertiary and inferior functions. The dominant function is the primary function a person will use, and what comes most naturally to them. This makes up over half of their personality. The auxiliary (secondary) function, is supportive of the dominant function. The tertiary (relief) functions are the way a person will recharge and/or creatively express themselves. Inferior functions make up a very small part of an individual’s personality, and do not typically develop until much later in life, if ever, but are often the function people aspire to grow more in. (Jung, 1921)
By knowing a person’s dominant and auxiliary functions, it is possible to predict their behavior and the manner in which they will react to different situations, and tertiary and inferior functions are indicative a person’s reaction under stress or facing a challenge (Berens and Nardi, 2004). Understanding the general way an individual thinks and behaves is obviously an indispensable tool to businesses, as it will allow a manager to predict an employee’s success in a given position and/or work style, and place each in an area suitable to their style. “Positive organizational culture… emphasize[s] showing workers how they can capitalize on their strengths” (Robbins and Judge, 2013).
The Eight Functions There are eight different cognitive functions, and each person has a combination of four of them. The remaining four become the “shadow process” (Jung, 1921) and are not actively used, except occasionally under negative circumstances. These functions are represented by the abbreviations Ne, Ni, Se, Si, Te, Ti, Fe, and Fi, with the first letter of each being one of the functions and the second letter being the introverted/extraverted orientation of each.
Ne
Ne stands for extraverted intuition. This function involves seeing possibilities and finding numerous meanings from a single piece of information. Many thoughts and ideas can be present at the same time, but are often not drawn out until context demands them to be (Berens and Nardi, 2004).
In the business world, people with this function tend to brainstorm new ideas and initiate change within the system. A manager utilizing extraverted intuition might group together people in a catalyzing way to evoke a change. Ne may also be the devil’s advocate in some situations.
The Ne function is present in the following Meyers-Briggs (1980) types: ENTP and ENFP (dominant); INTP and INFP (auxiliary); ESTJ and ESFJ (tertiary); ISTJ and ISFJ (inferior).
Ni
Introverted intuition, Ni, is a future-oriented function that requires action to fulfill visions. People utilizing the Ni function are able to see complex patterns that will result from a given action and using symbolism to enlighten others to intricate systems. These people not only see the future, but also the process of getting there (Berens and Nardi, 2004). The utilization of the Ni function can bring understanding and transformation of universal goals. A