The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action

by Jeffrey Pfeffer

According to social psychologists, the “need for cognitive closure refers to an individual’s desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity.”27 One consequence of the need for closure that has been identified in experiments is the “permanence tendency”: the inclination of most human beings to seek closure, to freeze on past knowledge and avoid evidence that disconfirms what they believe. People are especially likely to freeze on past knowledge when (1) they feel pressure from deadlines, the need to make a decision, or other time pressures; (2) they are fatigued, thus lacking energy to process new information; (3) they are in any other condition that makes it difficult to process information, like feeling physical discomfort or fear; and (4) “when closure is valued by significant others.”