Making Sense of Organizational Change

1998 ◽  
Vol 1998 (102) ◽  
pp. 43-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Stewart Levin
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Making Sense

scholarly journals Sensemaking and identity management amidst major organizational change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Madeline Pringle
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Student Teaching ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Management Processes

Organizational change is inevitable and its impacts will affect all members, albeit to different degrees. These changes also bring about uncertainty, especially as it pertains to one's organization-based identities. However, when studying change and identity, organizational communication scholars have often missed studying the interplay of one's many organization-based identities and how these are made sense of and managed amidst major organizational change. This thesis employs a phronetic-iterative methodology to analyze 16 semi-structured interviews with U.S. graduate students to understand how they have made sense of and managed their organization-based (i.e., graduate student, teaching assistant/instructor, department, university) identities after the COVID-19-induced transition to fully online education in Spring 2020. Analysis of this data suggested that participants used two types of ideal self discursive resources to make sense of and manage these identities, while also experiencing their sensemaking and identity management processes in two distinct stages. Additionally, participants revealed the importance of organizational places as it pertained to making sense of this change and its impacts. With these findings, this thesis extends theoretical work surrounding sensemaking, identity, and place, especially as it pertains to organizational change and providespractical recommendations for organizational leaders in academia to assist some of their highly impacted and identity-precarious populations--graduate students.

Making sense of organizational change: Is hindsight really 20/20?

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Gover ◽  
Linda Duxbury
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Making Sense

Discussion Note: Using Metaphors to Understand and to Change Organizations: A Critique of Gareth Morgan's Approach

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy McCourt
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Cognitive Change ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Discussion Note ◽  
Metaphoric Thinking

A critique of Gareth Morgan's approach to metaphor is used as the vehicle for an assessment of the value of metaphoric thinking to understanding and acting in organizations. Metaphor is shown to be an epistemologically valid approach to making sense of organizations, although not at the expense of traditional literal language approaches. Metaphoric thinking is located within the OD model of organizational change, where it functions as a valuable aid to cognitive change, while sharing some of the limitations of OD itself. Some issues for further research are outlined.

Making sense of a new nursing role: A phenomenological study of an organizational change

1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 340-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Smith-Blair ◽  
Barbara L. Smith ◽  
Katherine J. Bradley ◽  
Carol Gaskamp
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Nursing Role ◽  
Making Sense

Organizational improvisation: change or stability?

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
João Vieira da Cunha ◽  
Miguel Pina e Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Everyday Experience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Improvisation ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Organizational Stability

PurposeSome studies show that improvisation is a source of change, whereas others show that it is a source of stability. The purpose of this paper is to specify the factors which set the boundary between improvised change and improvised stability.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on two published studies and contrasts their findings to analyze the extent to which improvisation leads to organizational change or organizational stability.FindingsThe paper suggests that the most innovative instances of improvisation reproduce some features of everyday experience. The extent to which an improvisation is a source of stability or a source of change depends on the dynamics of variation, selection and retention therein.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research needs to add empirical flesh to this theoretical skeleton to push research on organizational improvisation beyond the study of its causes and into further research on its consequences.Originality/valueThe paper deals with the paradox of making sense about two apparently opposing streams of research on improvisation.

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