ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses national differences in cognition that may influence how people search for information and select from the information available; how they handle contradictory and/or changing information, and how they organize and categorize this information to make sense of new situations. It explores four national differences in cognition: attention, causal attribution, tolerance for contradiction, and perception of change. The chapter defines sensemaking within the macrocognitive framework and outlines some of the demands that make it vulnerable to national differences in cognition. It describes the implications of these differences for sensemaking and more generally for macrocognition. Understanding cultural differences may enable multinational teams to share information more effectively in order to arrive at a common understanding that is richer than the interpretation forged from any single cultural perspective. Holistic thinkers, like the old Chinese farmer, believe that reality, as a process, is always in flux and expect that ups and downs will alternate cyclically.
