The use of visual card sorting technique to study managers’ belief structure – An international comparative study

Considering the ever increasing interest of researchers in the study of managerial cognitions, this paper details the what, why and how of visual cards sorting (VCS) technique. Recently, this technique has been successfully adopted to examine managerial cognitions. VCS is an interview‐based approach and helps to highlight how individuals (managers) categorise concepts within a particular knowledge domain. To show the operationalisation of this methodology, results from a recent research conducted in 48 closely matched manufacturing (24 each in Indian and British) firms are presented. The VCS technique helped to glean out the main differences and similarities in the thinking of Indian and British managers regarding the influence of different institutions and different aspects of dynamic business environment on their human resource management (HRM) policies and practices. This confirms the context‐specific nature of HRM. The paper also highlights the limitations and issues of validity and reliability of the VCS methodology.