Micro‐Practices of Strategic Sensemaking and Sensegiving: How Middle Managers Interpret and Sell Change Every Day*

abstract This paper looks at the workings of ongoing primary sensemaking and sensegiving micro‐practices by which middle managers interpret and sell strategic change at the organizational interface. Through middle managers’ routines and conversations related to the implementation of a strategic change in a top‐of‐the‐line clothing company, the article shows how they contribute to renewing links with stakeholders, in particular clientele, by drawing on their tacit knowledge. Interpretative analysis of these routines and conversations highlights four micro‐practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: translating the orientation, overcoding the strategy, disciplining the client, and justifying the change. The paper outlines a practice perspective of sensemaking and sensegiving. It ends by suggesting the necessity of looking at middle managers’ role as interpreters and sellers of strategic change at the micro level for a better understanding of their contribution in sustaining competitive advantage through their everyday activities.     

Unpacking strategic foresight: A practice approach

This paper unpacks strategic foresight by exploring the creative evaluation and reconfiguration of sources of potentialities into resources and productive outcomes. Placing emphasis on the everyday practices of organizational members’ positioned lower down the organizational hierarchy, we identified prospective sensemaking, multi-lateral conversations about future possibilities and limits in the present, and the application of future-related techniques and methodologies as embedded organizing practices that gave form to the patterns of ‘foresightful’ actions observed in practice.     

Organizational Learning in Project‐Based Companies: A Process Thinking Approach

Although a traditional project model is clearly useful for laying out the patterns of relationships surrounding a project, it does not provide the temporally embedded accounts that enable us to understand how organizational learning takes place. The process thinking perspective offers a means to solving this problem. This article provides an analysis of how different processes interact dynamically in order to benefit project‐based companies' organizational learning. Two findings from this study are: (1) organizational learning is a dynamic concept that emphasizes the continually changing nature of a project‐based company and (2) sensemaking and negotiation of meaning are ongoing processes in project‐based companies.     

Riding off into the Sunset: Organizational Sensegiving,Shareholder Sensemaking,and Reactions to CEO Retirement

We test hypotheses derived from resource dependence and sensemaking/sensegiving theoretical lenses in the context of CEO succession, focusing on an under‐researched yet prevalent type of executive turnover – CEO retirement. Using event study methodology and a sample of CEO retirements from S&P 1500 firms during the 2003–12 period, we find that, all else equal, shareholders’ perceptions of organizations’ capacity to serve their interests are adversely affected when a retirement related change occurs in the leadership structure. Specifically, in line with resource dependence theory, we find that CEO retirement disclosures typically generate negative abnormal returns. Furthermore, in line with the sensemaking perspective, we find that the magnitude of shareholders’ reactions is contingent on the lexical sensegiving cues contained in the organizational narratives that are released to capital markets via executive retirement announcements. Overall, our theory and results point to CEO retirement events as consequential in the eyes of shareholders, challenging an important assumption of extant succession research. Moreover, they suggest that shareholders’ interpretation of these events is influenced by organizational sensegiving, highlighting the important role of organizational communication around succession events.     

混乱环境中企业战略决策的意义构建过程解析——两个林业局的对比案例研究

在混乱环境中,企业需要理解新事件真实的战略意义,以快速、准确地转变或修正战略决策。现有文献过度简化了意义构建的过程,并忽略了战略决策者社会属性在意义构建过程中的作用,本文旨在描述企业战略决策者在混乱环境中的意义构建过程,建立企业意义构建过程模型,提炼组织心理与角色承诺在意义构建过程中的作用。通过对迎春林业局和伊图里河林业局的对比案例研究,本文发现:混乱环境中企业战略决策的意义构建过程包括发现、选择、变革、设定和固化五个阶段;组织心理和角色承诺在这一过程中扮演极其重要的角色,组织心理固化和角色承诺固化会阻碍企业意义构建的顺利开展。研究结论有助于解释和解决混乱环境中企业的生存和发展问题。     

Post-acquisition Integration as Sensemaking: Glimpses of Ambiguity, Confusion, Hypocrisy, and Politicization

ABSTRACT   Though many studies have examined post-acquisition integration challenges, they have mainly focused on rationalistic explanations for the difficulties encountered in post-acquisition integration. There remains little knowledge of how the 'irrational' features of post-acquisition decision-making may impede organizational integration. This study attempts to bridge that gap by examining post-acquisition decision-making from a sensemaking perspective. The paper presents an in-depth analysis of a merger between a large Finnish furniture manufacturer and three smaller Swedish furniture companies. By focusing on the sensemaking processes surrounding integration issues, we uncover four interrelated tendencies that illuminate why the frequent problem of slow progress during post-acquisition integration occurs: inherent ambiguity concerning integration issues; cultural confusion in social interaction and communication; organizational hypocrisy in integration decision-making; and the politicization of integration issues.     

Sensemaking on the Shop Floor: Narratives of Knowledge in Organizations*

ABSTRACT This paper explores the role of narratives in organizational inquiry and knowledge work. Following the tenets of the phenomenological method, the paper digs into the ‘life world’ of organizations in order to capture the taken for granted stream of everyday routines, interaction, and events that constitute both individual and social practices. An empirical case study examines the narrative‐based processes of sensemaking and knowledge acquisition in the setting of a traditional pressing plant at Fiat Auto, Italy. The focus of analysis is on how a best performing team engages in the resolution of disruptive occurrences on the shop floor. Through the deconstruction of narratives underlying problem‐solving activities, the case identifies a distinctive mode of investigation conceptualized as ‘detective stories’. The detective's method highlights the interplay between time and narrative in shaping the interconnected processes of organizational knowledge creation, utilization, and institutionalization. More generally, the findings of the paper stress the importance of conjectural knowledge and common‐sensical wisdom in the everyday life of organizations.     

The role of organizational cultures in information‐systems security management: A goal‐setting perspective

The aim of this research is to investigate the role of strong organizational cultures in setting information‐systems security goals. In doing so, we explore and discuss the concept of culture within three financial organizations with different social and organizational structures, and seek to demonstrate the importance of having a cohesive culture in efficiently setting information‐security goals. The relationship between goal setting, culture strength, and performance is also discussed, as there have been studies that indirectly indicate that such a relationship may exist. The contribution of this work to interpretive information‐systems research consists of its study of culture and goal setting in a security‐management context, and its grounding within an interpretive epistemology. In addition, this research promotes an interdisciplinary and interorganizational theory to foster dialogue that transcends industry‐specific contexts and explores different organizational practices that can improve leadership's role in human life.     

The labour relations heritage and lean manufacturing at Fiat

The objective of the paper is interpreting, from an evolutionary perspective, recent developments of work organization and human resource management policies at Fiat Auto, one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, which achieved a successful restructuring in the early 1990s. Building on a heritage of adversarial labour relations and ‘mass production’ organizational principles, Fiat developed an original and to some extent hybrid version of ‘lean’ human resource management practices (teamwork, flexible compensation, multi-skilling, etc.).

The paper analyses this process of organizational change from an evolutionary perspective based on the concept of dynamic capabilities. From this standpoint, IR. HRM and work organization practices are the result of a learning process, based on original development, imitation, analogical replication, combination and selection of organizational capabilities; organizational capabilities have a cumulative and path-dependent nature; workplace innovations are also rooted in organizational absorptive capacities, that is, the ability of firms to exploit new (and often extramural) organizational and HRM developments; the existence of complementarities among organizational competencies, assets and choices in term of HRM are likely to push toward the adoption of a set or system of (rather than single and insulated) innovations in work organization, HRM practices and industrial relations policies.

The data provided in the paper show that the process of innovation of workplace practices at Fiat Auto (summarized by the concept of the Fabbrica Integrata) is curiously non-linear. The newly designed HRM policies have, on the one hand, been resisted by the unions (who have not been involved in the design process) and by segments of the work-force; on the other hand, they have been hindered by existing organizational features and personnel practices which, in turn, were key success factors during the 1980s. This inertia is significantly lower at the new greenfield plant of Melfi. On the whole, the restructuring process was successful from the competitive and financial standpoint, and represents the basis on which management and the unions can develop a new co-operative model of industrial relations.     

Increasing perceived work meaningfulness by implementing psychological need-satisfying performance management practices

To further investigate the relationship between human resource practices and organizational performance, research suggests focusing on psychological employee outcomes. In this paper, it is proposed that the positive psychological concept of work meaningfulness constitutes a mediator between human resource practices and performance which is worth investigating. The author argues that performance management practices can potentially lead to an increase in employees' perceived work meaningfulness, if they focus on satisfying the three psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Based on findings from research focusing on performance management trends, goal setting, performance appraisal, performance feedback, and self-determination theory, the paper suggests a new perspective on how to incorporate concepts rooted in the science of positive psychology in performance management practices to contribute to positive workplace outcomes such as well-being and performance.     

The ‘textual attitude’ and new technology

One of the most important tasks information systems executives face is making sense of emerging opportunities for organizational innovation through information technology. However, the parlance of information systems practitioners yields a variety of metaphors suggesting that this crucial task is a perilous one, in which success is far from assured. This paper reports on an interpretive study of these metaphors, using data from field interviews. Five images are identified, which evoke certain hazards and illuminate aspects of a successful executive response. The subsequent analysis of these images reveals how they serve constructively in promoting rationality in sensemaking, against a background that includes an ontologically problematic innovation and belief formation under institutional pressure. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the wider role of discourse in innovation sensemaking.     

Do high performance work systems generate negative effects? How and when?

A high-performance work system (HPWS) is defined as a series of performance-enhancing human resource management practices. Many studies have demonstrated the positive relationship of HPWSs with organizational, group, and individual performance. However, evidence has indicated that HPWSs can also exert negative effects. In this paper, taking a dialectical view, we elaborate several propositions regarding why HPWSs have negative effects and when these negative effects occur, mainly from the perspective of employees. We also propose several research directions enriching knowledge of the relationship between HPWSs and organizational outcomes.     

基于组织结构熵与耗散结构理论的企业组织结构完善研究

企业组织结构的合理性及混乱程度一般认为是无法量化和衡量的,只能通过组织内部各项定性指标来进行评价。热力学概念熵是揭示系统无序程度的物理定量方法,而企业的系统性、开放性为企业组织结构熵的提出提供了必要条件。在企业管理中引用熵理论,有利于更加直观地了解组织结构合理性问题。通过耗散结构理论对无序、混乱、熵值较高的组织结构引入"负熵"进行改造,降低企业组织结构熵值,使组织结构向有序化方向发展。     

Rethinking the polyphonic organization: Managing as discursive practice

Literary approaches problematize the practice of knowing in relation to managing. Drawing on Kafka, Lyotard, Rorty and others, our overarching objective here is to widen and deepen linguistic approaches to management and organization studies. We elaborate the concept of the polyphonic organization: starting from Kafka's reading of the story of the Tower of Babel, we reflect on polyphony and, using Lyotard's concept of the différend, we explore the linguistic gaps that constitute the polyphonic organization. Interpreting these different language games as a driving force behind organizational sensemaking, we theorize on the connection between change, power and language. Management as a discursive practice focuses linguistically on deconstructing and translating between language games divided by the différend.     

Towards a Theory of Serendipity: A Systematic Review and Conceptualization

Serendipity – the notion of making surprising and valuable discoveries – plays a major role in the success of individuals and organizations alike. Previous research has established the importance of serendipity and identified important individual- and organizational-level antecedents. However, the literature has been dispersed and the boundaries of the concept have been blurry, leading to a lack of conceptual clarity and structure, and thus limiting validity and managerial actionability. Based on a systematic literature review, I synthesize existing management-related research on serendipity and explicate the emergence and composition of serendipity in the organizational context. I first identify three necessary conditions that differentiate serendipity from related concepts such as luck or targeted innovation: agency, surprise, and value. Then, I draw from the literature on sensemaking, event-based theorizing, and quantum-based approaches to management to conceptualize the process of cultivating serendipity in the organizational context as a process of enabling potentiality and materialization, and develop a multi-level theory of (cultivating) serendipity. This conceptualization contributes to our collective understanding of how, why, and when (i.e., under what conditions) organizations can leverage the value in the unexpected, which opens up fruitful avenues for further research.     

Enactment,Sensemaking and Decision Making: Redesign Processes in the 1976 Reorganization of US Intelligence

Weick’s theories of organizing and sensemaking help enrich the assumptions in the organization design school. This study builds on Weick’s theories of sensemaking to illustrate how three fundamental organization design assumptions — dominant variables, causal laws and executive dictates — were found to be restrictive in the explanation of redesign processes in the 1976 reorganization of the US intelligence community. The assumption of dominant variables was challenged by the appearance of a multitude of events, or enactments, which were selected by organization members for further attention. The assumption of causal laws was challenged by the appearance of individual‐level cause maps which were filtered, through sensemaking processes, into organization‐level workable realities. The assumption of executive dictates was challenged by the appearance of attempts to punctuate redesign processes as organizational decisions. The study suggests value in moving from simple organization design assumptions to more reliable findings drawn from detailed observations of redesign processes.     

Modularity in building mass customization capability: The mediating effects of customization knowledge utilization and business process improvement

This study investigates the relationships among product/process modularity, organizational learning practices, and mass customization (MC) capability. Drawing on organizational learning theory, we propose that organizational learning practices help to embed the knowledge gained from modular design practices into organizational processes, enhancing MC capability. We empirically test the mediating effects of two organizational learning practices—customization knowledge utilization and business process improvement—on the relationship between product/process modularity and MC capability, using data collected from Chinese manufacturers. We find strong support for the mediating role of organizational learning practices in the relationship between modularity and MC capability. Our findings have implications for management strategies and point to directions for further research in this area.     

Performance implications for the relationships among top management leadership,organizational culture,and appraisal practice: testing two theory-based models of organizational learning theory in Japan

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships among top management leadership, organizational culture and human resource (HR) practices, and their associative effects on organizational performance. Based on the theory of organizational learning, we developed and tested two different causal models: (1) a feed-forward learning flow model in which supportive leadership by top management would create a community culture and HR practices within organizations; and (2) a feedback learning flow model in which a community culture would support the practice of supportive leadership by top management and HR practices within a firm. Our structural equation modelling (SEM) results for a sample of 225 Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Japan supported the second model, in which the dominance of a community culture within the firm is an antecedent of top management's supportive leadership, which in turn necessitates a performance-based appraisal practice and eventually leads to better organizational performance in terms of objective indicators of turnover and absenteeism rates and workforce productivity. The findings are used to discuss the role of top management leadership in a particular organizational culture from the organizational learning perspective. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Effectual entrepreneuring: sensemaking in a family-based start-up

Abstract

In this paper we examine the microprocesses associated with a successful business established by two young brothers (16 and 18). The study is informed by recent processual approaches to entrepreneurship associated with effectuation theory and sensemaking. We also draw on literature related to personal dispositions, which are the basis of habitual behaviours. The empirical data are drawn from a longitudinal study of an unconventional family business which was created by the two brothers while still at school. Opportunities were created, rather than discovered, by optimizing limited familial resources during the early stages of start-up. We expand effectuation theory by demonstrating the role of sensemaking (enactment, selection and retention), familial influences on dispositions (habits, heuristics and routines) and experiential learning during the first three years of operation.