This paper begins to answer the call to broaden current theories of individual decision-making by including in them the effects of human mood. Grounding our arguments in psychological literature on the effects of mood on information processing, motivation, and decision heuristics, we develop hypotheses about how mood can significantly affect individuals' use of structured decision protocols. In support of our hypotheses, results from an experimental study of complex decision-making suggest that, in situations where a structured decision protocol is the usual method of decision-making, individuals in moderately negative moods are significantly more likely than those in moderately positive moods to: (1) carefully execute all the steps of a structured decision protocol, (2) execute the steps of a structured decision protocol in the correct order, and (3) rely on the outcome of the structured decision protocol as the primary basis for the decision. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for both organizational decision models and psychological models of mood and decision-making. In general, our findings help establish mood as an important variable in models of organizational decision-making and help shed light on often conflicting findings about the benefits of positive vs. negative mood for individual decision-making.

Using the established definition of situated cognition in organizations as "the interaction of cognitive schemas and organizational context" (Lant 2002), we examine empirical case studies from the last 15 years to illustrate what situated cognitions in organizations might actually look like. Grounded in this research, we develop a framework that identifies how some specific forms of cognitive schemas (i.e., rule schemas, event schemas, person schemas) and specific contexts (e.g., physical contexts, institutional contexts) interact during sensemaking processes to give rise to momentary perceptions that we call situated cognitions. We present evidence that common patterns of interaction between schemas and context may occur during sensemaking in organizations. In terms of theoretical implications, our framework focuses attention on the specific interactions between context and cognition (rather than on context or cognition alone) that comprise situated cognitions, and helps to more concretely define situated cognitions as momentary or temporally bounded perceptions. We offer several practical implications of this framework for managers and suggest avenues for further elaboration on our ideas through research. © 2005 INFORMS.