Weick, 1995, which, put simply, is how people think sensemaking, and how people attempt to influence how others think sensegiving. This book is the first in a series of volumes which explore perspectives on. Analysis of qualitative data is a process which novice researchers must learn as they progress, and which. Process, sensemaking, and organizing paperback tor. Sensemaking means to organize the circumstances so make plausible reactions possible. The sensemaking model connects existentialism and phenomenology, interpersonal and organizational communication, and the systemic and. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of. The section below is devoted to a presentation of the theoretical concepts and models i use in this essay, when analyzing a collection of organizational narratives.
Evidence is a part of the sensemaking process, although the manner in which it is used is consistent with a realist approach to science, not a positivist one. Yet, one persistent criticism levelled at his work has been a neglect of the role of larger social and historical contexts in sensemaking. Christian gartner chair of organization theory, helmut schmidt university, 22083 hamburg, germany email. Oct, 2011 organizing and theprocess of sensemaking karl e. Sensemaking in organisations towards a conceptual framework for understanding strategic change thomas ericson jonkokping international business school, kyrkogatan 15, p. The effective organization is one that understands this process of sensemaking and learns to manage it with wisdom. Nov 15, 2000 making sense of the organization by karl e. Organizing and the process of sensemaking edisciplinas. Karl weicks sensemaking perspective has proven to be a central influence on process theories of organizing. He has written numerous books and articles, including sensemaking in organizations 1995, and the social psychology of organizing second edition 1980. Using complexity and chaos theory, this chapter explores polymediation through weicks model of sensemaking. Laura mcnamara describes sensemaking as perpetually emergent meaning and awareness.
Sensemaking is a process of clarifying and removing ambiguity and uncertainty by searching for and organizing similarities and differences from data sources through which goaldirected interpretations for decisionmaking are established. Gioia and chittipeddis 1991 processes involved in strategic change. This important collection provides a valuable addition to the international literature on organization theory and will be welcomed by students and. In this context sensemaking means basicallyinventinganewmeaninginterpretationfor something that has already occurred during the organizing process, but does not yet have a name italics in original, has never been recognized as a separateautonomousprocess,object,eventmagala1997, p. Furthermore, we clarify the application range of the sensemaking perspective and identify, as well as account for, the types and aspects of organizational sensemaking that have been under. Weick 1936 loose coupling mindfulness sensemaking 4. This introduction to the first volume of perspectives on process organization studies first explores the relationship between process and sensemaking, offering a brief genealogy of process.
Four potential sources of resilience that make groups less vulnerable to. Sensemaking has tremendous implication for how we design and manage institutions, organizations, teams, programs, technologies. Sensemaking builds on extracted cues that we apprehend from sense and perception. He is the rensis likert distinguished university professor at the ross school of business at.
Sensemaking in organisations towards a conceptual framework. Making sense of the organization elaborates on the influential idea that organizations are interpretation systems that scan, interpret, and learn. Organizing and the process of sensemaking making sense. The ways in which people do that are demonstrated in chapters of this book.
Abstract taking weicks theory of sensemaking as illustrative of a socioconstructionist conception of. Sensemaking or sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences. Model of organizational entry and sense making louis, 1980, 242 36. Karl edward weick born october 31, 1936 is an american organizational theorist who introduced the concepts of loose coupling, mindfulness, and sensemaking into organizational studies.
We sense joint enthusiasm to restate sensemaking in ways that make it more future oriented, more action oriented, more macro, more closely tied to organizing, meshed more boldly with identity, more visible, more behaviorally defined, less sedentary and backward looking, more infused with emotion and with issues of sensegiving and persuasion. Describes organizing as an iterative, ongoing, messy process of. Utilizing grounded theory methods charmaz, 2006, some critical findings. Sensemaking, knowledge creation, and decision making organizational knowing as emergent strategy chun wei choo this chapter introduces the perspective of strategy as the outcome of organizational sensemaking, knowledge creating, and decision making. Mar 24, 2015 sensemaking has tremendous implication for how we design and manage institutions, organizations, teams, programs, technologies. Sensemaking sensemaking is the process by which people give meaningtoexperience. Sep 04, 2012 january 20, 2012 daniel russell describes how people collect complex information and what they do with it. Sensemaking or sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to their collective. The teaching of organization theory and the conduct of organizational research have been dominated by a focus on decision making and the conception of strategic rationality. Organizing and the process of sensemaking organization science. This book is the first in a series of volumes which explore perspectives on process theories, an emerging approach to the study of organizations that focuses on understanding activities, interactions, and change as essential properties of organizations rather than structures and state an approach which prioritizes activity over product, change over persistence, novelty over continuity. Furthermore, our primary focus is on sensemaking in organizations and so we draw most heavily upon research on collective sensemaking as it is carried out by.
He explains how people find, organize, and use this information in the context of. May 17, 2017 organizing and the process of sensemaking 1. Self organizing neural networks for the identification problem. The rational model, however, ignores the inherent complexity and ambiguity of realworld organizations and their environments. Sensemaking in organizations download ebook pdf, epub. Conceptual model of properties of sensemaking and the organizing model. Explains and supports the idea of sensemaking, that we act first, and then form our ideas and opinions based on our actions, rather than vice versa. Sensemaking, knowledge creation, and decision making. Ment process, sensemaking takes place as a social process. Its also relatively accessible at least, compared to my painful memories of slogging through outline of a theory of practice. Organizing and the process of sensemaking pdf fulltext views and pdf downloads since this web site went live on october 22, 20. Jan, 2014 that is what sensemaking can look like in the context of developmental evaluation. Organizational sensemaking describes the reality of an organization and the organizing processes that individuals engage within that organization. We address this critique by showing how institutional context is a necessary part of sensemaking.
Process, sensemaking, and organizing is the first in a series of volumes which explore perspectives on process theories, an emerging approach to the study of organizations that focuses on understanding activities, interactions, and change as essential properties of organizations rather than structures and state an approach which prioritizes activity over product, change over persistence. Work to date suggests that the study of sensemaking is useful for organizational studies because it fills several gaps. The paradox of sensemaking in organizational analysis the collective dimension of cognition and sensemaking has attracted a great deal of attention in managerial and organizational cognition research since 1980, leading to numerous theoretical, methodological and empirical works on its characteristics, how it has emerged and. The first three sections examine the processes by which an organization constructs meaning, cre. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. Citeseerx organizing and the process of sensemaking. Sensemaking is essentially the meaning that people give to an experience. The first two of these are theories from different domains. Karl weicks new landmark volume, sensemaking in organizations, highlights how the sensemaking. The answer is that sensemaking and organization constitute one another.
Organization studies 2015 and is available for download at. He discusses sensemaking and organization as phenomena that are mutually constituted weick et al. Men and fire, is analyzed as the interactive disintegration of role structure and sensemaking in a minimal organization. Towards a comprehensive model of the cognitive process and. According to karl weick, a distinguished scholar in organizational behavior and psychology, the organization cannot be imagined as an architectural design, static and prescriptive, but should be described as a jazz improvisation, a flexible mental model. Leadership as a form of social influence is hard to distinguish from many other influences in relationships between people yet, it is argued, its emphasis on moving towards future action encourages a conception not dissimilar to organizing.
We critically discuss the criticism that the sensemaking perspective has received so. Process, sensemaking, and organizing hardcover tor hernes. Understanding organization as process tor hernes ebok. These are moments of sensemaking, and scholars stretch those moments, scrutinize them, and name them in the belief that they affect how action gets routinized, flux gets tamed, objects get enacted, and precedents get set. Weick is the rensis likert college professor of organizational behavior and psychology and professor of psychology at the university of michigan. Four potential sources of resilience that make groups less vulnerable to disruptions of sensemaking are proposed to forestall disintegration, including improvisation, virtual. Process, sensemaking, and organizing books pics download. Organizing and the process of sensemaking article pdf available in organization science 164. As a way to underscore the value of sensemaking, i summarize. However, the rational model ignores the inherent complexity and ambiguity of realworld organizations and their environments. When speaking about individuals making sense of their world and their environment, two prominent ideas lead this discussion.
Sensemaking is a term that, in all essence, refers to making sense of something. Networked computing and software tools are changing the. Such a perspective on organizing and sensemaking may be considered as fully embracing an interpretive conception of social reality and human. The situation is that of a potential suicide bombing in london which leads to a fatal shooting. The rise of the sensemaking perspective marks a shift of focus in organization studies. Process, sensemaking, and organizing paperback tor hernes. The model illustrates the iterative processes of sensemaking, extends existing models that focus on activities by integrating cognitive mechanisms and the creation of instantiated structure elements of knowledge, and different types of conceptual change to show a complete picture of the cognitive processes of sensemaking. Essentially, the theory asks, how does somebody try to. Organization emerges from an ongoing process in which people organize to make sense of equivocal inputs and enact that.
It illustrates how rigidity, leader dependence, and erratic behavior get in the way of effective sensemaking, and how one might teach sensemaking as a core leadership capability. Some of the topics weick thoroughly covers are the concept, uniqueness, historical roots, varieties and occasions, general properties, and the future of sensemaking research and practice. In other words, the entire process of giving meaning to something. The literature on sensemaking in organizations is characterized by a onesided emphasis on mental or textual explanations regarding 1 how actors make sense of events, 2 how intelligent behaviour is conceptualized and 3 how agents understand each others intention and coordinate action. Weick, 9780631223191, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Very simply, weicks sensemaking theory examines the cognitive processes that underlie the ways people make sense of ambiguous situations. Expertly written, sensemaking in organizations is the volume that students, scholars, and professors of organization and management studies must have. The social psychology of organizing was hugely influential in initiating new research programs in organization studies over the last fifty years anderson, 2006. First, i briefly introduce weicks concept of sensemaking and gioia and chittipeddis concept of sensegiving. Thus, a hallmark of sensemaking is the simplification of complexity through individuals mental models so as not to be overwhelmed by data daft and weick, 1984, walsh, 1988. Sutcliffe department of management and organizations, ross school of business, university of michigan, 701 t appan. Viewed as a significant process of organizing, sensemaking unfolds as a sequence in which people concerned with identity in the social context of other actors engage ongoing circumstances from which they extract cues and make plausible sense retrospectively, while enacting more or less order into those ongoing circumstances. The process is seen as the creation of reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves.
Process, sensemaking, and organizing hardcover tor. The case analysis developed in this article goes on to reframe leadership as an example of sensemaking. Sensemaking in organizations sage publications inc. Click download or read online button to get sensemaking in organizations book now. Secondly, while the tempo and temporality of how events are happen. One of my favorite books about sensemaking is karl weicks, sensemaking in. Sensemaking is the olympus fe 370 manual pdf process by which people give meaning to. Discourses in retrospective relational sensemaking. Department of management and organizations, ross school of business. The concept was introduced to organizational studies by karl e. Organizational sensemaking is realized through collective.
A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. Making sense of sensemaking in organization studies andrew d. Making sense of sensemaking in organization studies. This work introduces a new method called self organizing. Four forms of organizational sensemaking maitlis, 2005 49. Sensemaking offers a useful theoretical construct for many types of scholars but, given this vast reach, we restrict our discussion in this chapter to the. Bringing theories and tools together nikhil sharma school of information, university of michigan, ann arbor address. Whilethisprocesshasbeenstudiedbyotherdisciplinesunderothernamesforcenturies. Process, sensemaking, and organizing oxford scholarship. It can occur when a research group is attempting to make sense of an emerging area or when an organization is trying to find strategies to deal with globalization pressures. Weick in the 1970s and has affected both theory and practice. Neural network sonn algorithm and demonstrates its use in a system identification task. Major processsensitive developments that have focused on organizational culture, cognition, sensemaking, attention, resilience, high. When people try to make sense of events, they begin with some perspective, viewpoint, or framework.
These selected essays represent a new approach to the way managers learn and act in response to their environment and the way organizational change evolves. Organizing and the process of sensemaking organization. Sutcliffe slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Sensemaking and sensemaking may be pronounced the same, are almost written the same, and are based on similar constructivist perspectives, but they are not the same.
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