Abstract
<p>A long tradition in organizational theory argues that shared cognitive schemas simultaneously help organizations interpret and respond effectively to complex environments and trap organizations into ineffective responses as they misinterpret changed environments. However, existing evidence cannot establish whether schemas cause differences in adaptation or reflect unobserved organizational differences. This limitation is difficult to overcome because schemas are hard to observe, emerge endogenously from experience, and coevolve with organizational capabilities. This paper develops an experimental paradigm that addresses this challenge by inducing or inhibiting shared schema formation, observing schemas as they emerge, and evaluating the performance consequences of shared schemas when the environment changes. Across two studies, we show that groups that developed shared schemas coordinated faster when environmental change was compatible with those schemas. But when change rendered these schemas ineffective, they impaired adaptation. Additional evidence suggests that this maladaptive persistence was strongest when the changed environment remained familiar-looking enough to make an obsolete schema seem useful, and weakest when the schema’s inapplicability was readily apparent. The findings provide direct causal evidence that shared cognitive schemas can limit organizational adaptation and introduce a paradigm for studying how and when schemas become competency traps.</p>