Dawn R. Gilpin and Priscilla J. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195328721
- eISBN:
- 9780199869930
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328721.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This chapter shows how sensemaking and group learning lead to flexible, expert decision making. It presents the concept of the “expert organization” that can group effectively to both anticipate and ...
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This chapter shows how sensemaking and group learning lead to flexible, expert decision making. It presents the concept of the “expert organization” that can group effectively to both anticipate and deal with a crisis. The concept of the expert organization has affinities with Choo's (2001) “knowing organization”: one that synthesizes sensemaking, knowledge, and decision making in a cycle that leads to effective learning and adaptation.Less
This chapter shows how sensemaking and group learning lead to flexible, expert decision making. It presents the concept of the “expert organization” that can group effectively to both anticipate and deal with a crisis. The concept of the expert organization has affinities with Choo's (2001) “knowing organization”: one that synthesizes sensemaking, knowledge, and decision making in a cycle that leads to effective learning and adaptation.
Max H. Boisot, Ian C. MacMillan, and Kyeong Seok Han
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199250875
- eISBN:
- 9780191719509
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250875.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
The conceptual framework that this book gradually develops across the various chapters — I-Space — has been used on numerous occasions as conceptual aids both in research and in consulting ...
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The conceptual framework that this book gradually develops across the various chapters — I-Space — has been used on numerous occasions as conceptual aids both in research and in consulting interventions. It has proven its worth as a sensemaking device in complex situations. But does it have any predictive value? At present, it helps to understand rather than predict. To develop a capacity to predict, the framework would have to be further researched. This chapter therefore first briefly recapitulates the key points presented in the book's previous chapters, and then looks ahead at the kind of research agenda that these points imply. It then identifies several possible avenues of research, from mapping knowledge, cultural and institutional structures, and learning processes to further developing the agent-based simulation model that implements the main provisions of the theorizing underpinning the framework. The research agenda keeps growing. To engage with it, the I-Space Institute whose mission is to carry out I-Space-related research and consulting, has been founded.Less
The conceptual framework that this book gradually develops across the various chapters — I-Space — has been used on numerous occasions as conceptual aids both in research and in consulting interventions. It has proven its worth as a sensemaking device in complex situations. But does it have any predictive value? At present, it helps to understand rather than predict. To develop a capacity to predict, the framework would have to be further researched. This chapter therefore first briefly recapitulates the key points presented in the book's previous chapters, and then looks ahead at the kind of research agenda that these points imply. It then identifies several possible avenues of research, from mapping knowledge, cultural and institutional structures, and learning processes to further developing the agent-based simulation model that implements the main provisions of the theorizing underpinning the framework. The research agenda keeps growing. To engage with it, the I-Space Institute whose mission is to carry out I-Space-related research and consulting, has been founded.
Jon Kolko
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199744336
- eISBN:
- 9780199894710
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744336.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures, Human-Technology Interaction
As the world deals with increasing complexity—in issues of sustainability, finance, culture, and technology—business and governments are searching for a form of problem solving that can deal with the ...
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As the world deals with increasing complexity—in issues of sustainability, finance, culture, and technology—business and governments are searching for a form of problem solving that can deal with the unprecedented levels of ambiguity and chaos. Traditional "linear thinking" has been disparaged by the popular media as being inadequate for dealing with the global economic crisis. Standard forms of marketing and product development have been rejected by businesses who need to find a way to stay competitive in a global economy. Yet little has been offered as an alternative. It is not enough to demand that someone "be more innovative" without giving him the tools to succeed. Design synthesis is a way of thinking about complicated, multifaceted problems of this scale with a repeatable degree of success. Design synthesis methods can be applied in business, with the goal of producing new and compelling products and services, and they can be applied in government, with the goal of changing culture and bettering society. In both contexts, however, there is a need for speed and for aggressive action. This text is immediately relevant, and is more relevant than ever, as we acknowledge and continually reference a feeling of an impending and massive change. Simply, this text is intended to act as a practitioner's guide to exposing the magic of design.Less
As the world deals with increasing complexity—in issues of sustainability, finance, culture, and technology—business and governments are searching for a form of problem solving that can deal with the unprecedented levels of ambiguity and chaos. Traditional "linear thinking" has been disparaged by the popular media as being inadequate for dealing with the global economic crisis. Standard forms of marketing and product development have been rejected by businesses who need to find a way to stay competitive in a global economy. Yet little has been offered as an alternative. It is not enough to demand that someone "be more innovative" without giving him the tools to succeed. Design synthesis is a way of thinking about complicated, multifaceted problems of this scale with a repeatable degree of success. Design synthesis methods can be applied in business, with the goal of producing new and compelling products and services, and they can be applied in government, with the goal of changing culture and bettering society. In both contexts, however, there is a need for speed and for aggressive action. This text is immediately relevant, and is more relevant than ever, as we acknowledge and continually reference a feeling of an impending and massive change. Simply, this text is intended to act as a practitioner's guide to exposing the magic of design.
Tor Hernes and Sally Maitlis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594566
- eISBN:
- 9780191595721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594566.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
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 thinking ...
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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 thinking in order to locate sensemaking as it is conceived in organization studies. It suggest four distinctions which have unfolded over the centuries and through which we can understand sensemaking as an integral part of organization as process. Second, it introduces the papers that make up the volume. These include three pieces exploring organization process theorizing from the perspectives of philosophy, psychology, and communication, three papers from long-standing process organizing scholars, and five contributions representing new empirical or conceptual explorations of a variety of different organizational processes, including learning, change, and sensemaking. Together, the collection portrays the polyphony that characterizes Process Organization Studies, offering perspectives from different disciplines and insights from diverse theoretical traditions and contexts.Less
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 thinking in order to locate sensemaking as it is conceived in organization studies. It suggest four distinctions which have unfolded over the centuries and through which we can understand sensemaking as an integral part of organization as process. Second, it introduces the papers that make up the volume. These include three pieces exploring organization process theorizing from the perspectives of philosophy, psychology, and communication, three papers from long-standing process organizing scholars, and five contributions representing new empirical or conceptual explorations of a variety of different organizational processes, including learning, change, and sensemaking. Together, the collection portrays the polyphony that characterizes Process Organization Studies, offering perspectives from different disciplines and insights from diverse theoretical traditions and contexts.
Karl E. Weick
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594566
- eISBN:
- 9780191595721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594566.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This chapter argues here for the poetics of process—the imaginative process of creating forms out of “airy nothing”. Managerial work, it further notes, is akin to the work of a poet. Process thinking ...
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This chapter argues here for the poetics of process—the imaginative process of creating forms out of “airy nothing”. Managerial work, it further notes, is akin to the work of a poet. Process thinking helps us pay attention to concrete details and the constitution of things. Through gerund forms of thinking we recover some of the process that generates nouns and gives us apparent stability. Nouns and verbs are best seen as co-evolving. Scholars who practice process theorizing accept reluctantly the ineffability underlying the stabilization of differences and reaffirm their commitment to draw attention to indications of nouns being unwound and set in motion as verbs, as well as verbs being wound into slower motion as nouns. The naming and the winding are the work of process theorizing just as they are the work of everyday life as organizing.Less
This chapter argues here for the poetics of process—the imaginative process of creating forms out of “airy nothing”. Managerial work, it further notes, is akin to the work of a poet. Process thinking helps us pay attention to concrete details and the constitution of things. Through gerund forms of thinking we recover some of the process that generates nouns and gives us apparent stability. Nouns and verbs are best seen as co-evolving. Scholars who practice process theorizing accept reluctantly the ineffability underlying the stabilization of differences and reaffirm their commitment to draw attention to indications of nouns being unwound and set in motion as verbs, as well as verbs being wound into slower motion as nouns. The naming and the winding are the work of process theorizing just as they are the work of everyday life as organizing.
Elden Wiebe
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594566
- eISBN:
- 9780191595721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594566.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This qualitative study explores the relationship between time and organizational change, a recently emerging area of scholarly interest. Through the narrative analysis of managers' own stories of ...
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This qualitative study explores the relationship between time and organizational change, a recently emerging area of scholarly interest. Through the narrative analysis of managers' own stories of change, this chapter discerns five distinct ‘worlds’ of organizational change within the ‘same’ significant government mandated organizational change in the ‘same’ organizational context. The analysis provides evidence that managers temporally make sense of their experiences of change, actively configuring the relationship between the past, present, and future in different ways. In doing so, managers construct the organizational change and their enacted reality of that organizational change in different ways. This research augments recent work linking time and agency, demonstrates a broader temporal basis than retrospection for sensemaking, and contributes to our knowledge of researching and implementing organizational change.Less
This qualitative study explores the relationship between time and organizational change, a recently emerging area of scholarly interest. Through the narrative analysis of managers' own stories of change, this chapter discerns five distinct ‘worlds’ of organizational change within the ‘same’ significant government mandated organizational change in the ‘same’ organizational context. The analysis provides evidence that managers temporally make sense of their experiences of change, actively configuring the relationship between the past, present, and future in different ways. In doing so, managers construct the organizational change and their enacted reality of that organizational change in different ways. This research augments recent work linking time and agency, demonstrates a broader temporal basis than retrospection for sensemaking, and contributes to our knowledge of researching and implementing organizational change.
Silvia Jordan and Hermann Mitterhofer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594566
- eISBN:
- 9780191595721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594566.003.0012
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This chapter seeks to relate sensemaking and sensegiving processes to their social and institutional context by describing and explaining the effects of diverse metaphors of change used by ...
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This chapter seeks to relate sensemaking and sensegiving processes to their social and institutional context by describing and explaining the effects of diverse metaphors of change used by organizational members during the implementation of lean production and TQM in an internationally operating manufacturing company. We explore how organizational members made sense of these strategic changes in terms of their understanding of the process as an incremental or rather a radical organizational change. We analyze what kind of “conceptual metaphors” are associated with these divergent understandings and explain the relative power of certain conceptual metaphors of change as compared to others by analyzing the social and institutional context of these metaphors‐in‐use. Adopting a “contextualized metaphor” analytical approach which expands Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory with the discourse analysis of linguist Jürgen Link, we analyze the link of dominant metaphors‐in‐use to institutionalized meanings as represented in “collective symbols” apparent in “interdiscursive” charts. Conceptual metaphors were particularly powerful when they referred to institutions that enable identification by virtue of taken‐for‐granted favorable connotations and by means of interpretive flexibility.Less
This chapter seeks to relate sensemaking and sensegiving processes to their social and institutional context by describing and explaining the effects of diverse metaphors of change used by organizational members during the implementation of lean production and TQM in an internationally operating manufacturing company. We explore how organizational members made sense of these strategic changes in terms of their understanding of the process as an incremental or rather a radical organizational change. We analyze what kind of “conceptual metaphors” are associated with these divergent understandings and explain the relative power of certain conceptual metaphors of change as compared to others by analyzing the social and institutional context of these metaphors‐in‐use. Adopting a “contextualized metaphor” analytical approach which expands Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory with the discourse analysis of linguist Jürgen Link, we analyze the link of dominant metaphors‐in‐use to institutionalized meanings as represented in “collective symbols” apparent in “interdiscursive” charts. Conceptual metaphors were particularly powerful when they referred to institutions that enable identification by virtue of taken‐for‐granted favorable connotations and by means of interpretive flexibility.
Robert P. Gephart, Cagri Topal, and Zhen Zhang
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594566
- eISBN:
- 9780191595721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594566.003.0013
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Sensemaking is the process by which people construct, interpret, and recognize meaningful features of the world. Although retrospective sensemaking is a key property of the Weickian approach, ...
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Sensemaking is the process by which people construct, interpret, and recognize meaningful features of the world. Although retrospective sensemaking is a key property of the Weickian approach, sensemaking can also orient to the future. This chapter explores the social processes and practices of future‐oriented sensemaking to understand how it is accomplished, how it relates to other temporal dimensions, and how it legitimates institutions. To do so, we discuss five sensemaking perspectives relevant to temporality: Weickian sensemaking, post‐Weickian sensemaking, institutional rhetoric, agentivity, and ethnomethodology. We use the ideas in these perspectives as a means to conceptualize future-oriented sensemaking and to understand the potential influence that temporal modalities of sensemaking hold for legitimation. Next, we conduct an ethnomethodological investigation of future‐oriented sensemaking in a public hearing where future‐oriented sensemaking was a primary focus. Our investigation of inquiry discourse finds that the construction of plans, expertise, hypothetical entities, institutionalized sequences, and conventional histories are important practices in future‐oriented sensemaking that produce and sustain institutional legitimation.Less
Sensemaking is the process by which people construct, interpret, and recognize meaningful features of the world. Although retrospective sensemaking is a key property of the Weickian approach, sensemaking can also orient to the future. This chapter explores the social processes and practices of future‐oriented sensemaking to understand how it is accomplished, how it relates to other temporal dimensions, and how it legitimates institutions. To do so, we discuss five sensemaking perspectives relevant to temporality: Weickian sensemaking, post‐Weickian sensemaking, institutional rhetoric, agentivity, and ethnomethodology. We use the ideas in these perspectives as a means to conceptualize future-oriented sensemaking and to understand the potential influence that temporal modalities of sensemaking hold for legitimation. Next, we conduct an ethnomethodological investigation of future‐oriented sensemaking in a public hearing where future‐oriented sensemaking was a primary focus. Our investigation of inquiry discourse finds that the construction of plans, expertise, hypothetical entities, institutionalized sequences, and conventional histories are important practices in future‐oriented sensemaking that produce and sustain institutional legitimation.
Chun Wei Choo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176780
- eISBN:
- 9780199789634
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
The book links the broad areas of organizational behavior and information management. It looks at how organizations behave as information-seeking, information-creating, and information-using ...
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The book links the broad areas of organizational behavior and information management. It looks at how organizations behave as information-seeking, information-creating, and information-using communities, and introduces a unifying framework to show how organizations create meaning, knowledge, and action. The book presents a model of how organizations use information strategically to adapt to external change and to foster internal growth. This model examines how people and groups within organizations use information to create an identity and a shared context for action and reflection; to develop new knowledge and new capabilities; and to make decisions that commit resources and capabilities to purposeful action.Less
The book links the broad areas of organizational behavior and information management. It looks at how organizations behave as information-seeking, information-creating, and information-using communities, and introduces a unifying framework to show how organizations create meaning, knowledge, and action. The book presents a model of how organizations use information strategically to adapt to external change and to foster internal growth. This model examines how people and groups within organizations use information to create an identity and a shared context for action and reflection; to develop new knowledge and new capabilities; and to make decisions that commit resources and capabilities to purposeful action.
Chun Wei Choo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176780
- eISBN:
- 9780199789634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176780.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
This chapter introduces an information-based view of organizations — a model of how people and groups in organizations work with information to accomplish three outcomes: (1) create an identity and a ...
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This chapter introduces an information-based view of organizations — a model of how people and groups in organizations work with information to accomplish three outcomes: (1) create an identity and a shared context for action and reflection (sense-making), (2) develop new knowledge and new capabilities (knowledge creation), and (3) make decisions that commit resources and capabilities to purposeful action (decision making). The chapter illustrates the dynamic of the organizational knowledge cycle with a discussion of scenario planning at Royal Dutch Shell.Less
This chapter introduces an information-based view of organizations — a model of how people and groups in organizations work with information to accomplish three outcomes: (1) create an identity and a shared context for action and reflection (sense-making), (2) develop new knowledge and new capabilities (knowledge creation), and (3) make decisions that commit resources and capabilities to purposeful action (decision making). The chapter illustrates the dynamic of the organizational knowledge cycle with a discussion of scenario planning at Royal Dutch Shell.
Chun Wei Choo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176780
- eISBN:
- 9780199789634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176780.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
In sensemaking, people seek answers to the questions: what is going on in the environment? What does it mean for us as an organization? According to Weick, organizations make sense of their ...
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In sensemaking, people seek answers to the questions: what is going on in the environment? What does it mean for us as an organization? According to Weick, organizations make sense of their environments through the processes of enactment, selection, and retention. Sensemaking is driven by organizational beliefs and actions that direct attention and frame the interpretation of information. The result of sensemaking is an enacted environment that is has been rendered meaningul and understandable. A central problem in sensemaking is how to reduce ambiguity and develop shared meanings so that the organization may act collectively.Less
In sensemaking, people seek answers to the questions: what is going on in the environment? What does it mean for us as an organization? According to Weick, organizations make sense of their environments through the processes of enactment, selection, and retention. Sensemaking is driven by organizational beliefs and actions that direct attention and frame the interpretation of information. The result of sensemaking is an enacted environment that is has been rendered meaningul and understandable. A central problem in sensemaking is how to reduce ambiguity and develop shared meanings so that the organization may act collectively.
Chun Wei Choo
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176780
- eISBN:
- 9780199789634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176780.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
The WHO Smallpox Eradication Program (1967-77) showed how cycles of sensemaking, knowledge creation, and decision making supported by a matrix of information management practices enabled the ...
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The WHO Smallpox Eradication Program (1967-77) showed how cycles of sensemaking, knowledge creation, and decision making supported by a matrix of information management practices enabled the organization to innovate and adapt effectively. This chapter discusses how the knowing organization model relates to other models of organizational learning. The chapter also summarizes the practical implications of the model, drawing examples from new cases and cases presented earlier in the book.Less
The WHO Smallpox Eradication Program (1967-77) showed how cycles of sensemaking, knowledge creation, and decision making supported by a matrix of information management practices enabled the organization to innovate and adapt effectively. This chapter discusses how the knowing organization model relates to other models of organizational learning. The chapter also summarizes the practical implications of the model, drawing examples from new cases and cases presented earlier in the book.
Ron Sanchez
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259281
- eISBN:
- 9780191714306
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259281.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
This book explores theoretically sound and practically implementable ideas for effective knowledge management and how knowledge can be converted into increased organizational competence. It draws on ...
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This book explores theoretically sound and practically implementable ideas for effective knowledge management and how knowledge can be converted into increased organizational competence. It draws on a number of management perspectives, including strategy, technology management, marketing, information systems, innovation, accounting and control, and general management, to clarify the processes through which people create and use knowledge in organizations. Case studies and other action-oriented research methods are used to derive practically implementable ways to support, improve, and stimulate the creation and use of knowledge that can enhance organizational competences and bring strategic benefits to organizations. This chapter introduces a model of the five learning cycles of the competent organization: organization learning cycle, group/organization learning cycle, group learning cycle, individual/group learning cycle, and individual learning cycle. Several terms that represent the essential building blocks of organizational sensemaking processes are introduced, namely, data, information, knowledge, learning, sensemaking, and interpretive frameworks. The chapter concludes by proposing a set of basic principles for managing knowledge and organizational learning in each of the five learning cycles.Less
This book explores theoretically sound and practically implementable ideas for effective knowledge management and how knowledge can be converted into increased organizational competence. It draws on a number of management perspectives, including strategy, technology management, marketing, information systems, innovation, accounting and control, and general management, to clarify the processes through which people create and use knowledge in organizations. Case studies and other action-oriented research methods are used to derive practically implementable ways to support, improve, and stimulate the creation and use of knowledge that can enhance organizational competences and bring strategic benefits to organizations. This chapter introduces a model of the five learning cycles of the competent organization: organization learning cycle, group/organization learning cycle, group learning cycle, individual/group learning cycle, and individual learning cycle. Several terms that represent the essential building blocks of organizational sensemaking processes are introduced, namely, data, information, knowledge, learning, sensemaking, and interpretive frameworks. The chapter concludes by proposing a set of basic principles for managing knowledge and organizational learning in each of the five learning cycles.
Yasmin Merali
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199259281
- eISBN:
- 9780191714306
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259281.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
The importance of dynamism, regeneration, change, and innovation is often emphasized in ‘competing for the future’. Recent literature on competence-based competition and dynamic capabilities ...
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The importance of dynamism, regeneration, change, and innovation is often emphasized in ‘competing for the future’. Recent literature on competence-based competition and dynamic capabilities highlights the role of knowledge management and organizational learning in strategic competition. This chapter discusses the cognitive infrastructure of an organization that underpins the development and leveraging of organizational capabilities in dynamic markets. An ‘information lens’ is employed to develop a cognitive congruence framework for looking at issues of organizational learning, knowledge creation, and the leveraging of capabilities. The model is based on the concept of an action-perception cycle, and is used to represent an important element in the ‘sensemaking’ processes of organizations engaged in transformational processes. Its usefulness as a descriptive and explanatory device is demonstrated through three case studies. This chapter also elaborates on the importance of achieving cognitive congruence in the cumulative action-perception cycles that underpin transformative processes in organizations.Less
The importance of dynamism, regeneration, change, and innovation is often emphasized in ‘competing for the future’. Recent literature on competence-based competition and dynamic capabilities highlights the role of knowledge management and organizational learning in strategic competition. This chapter discusses the cognitive infrastructure of an organization that underpins the development and leveraging of organizational capabilities in dynamic markets. An ‘information lens’ is employed to develop a cognitive congruence framework for looking at issues of organizational learning, knowledge creation, and the leveraging of capabilities. The model is based on the concept of an action-perception cycle, and is used to represent an important element in the ‘sensemaking’ processes of organizations engaged in transformational processes. Its usefulness as a descriptive and explanatory device is demonstrated through three case studies. This chapter also elaborates on the importance of achieving cognitive congruence in the cumulative action-perception cycles that underpin transformative processes in organizations.
Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280643
- eISBN:
- 9780191700125
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280643.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, HRM / IR, Organization Studies
This chapter presents a case for considering the psychological contract as a process. First, it argues why we should study the psychological contract as a process and what we mean by a process. It ...
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This chapter presents a case for considering the psychological contract as a process. First, it argues why we should study the psychological contract as a process and what we mean by a process. It then considers existing theoretical approaches and empirical studies examining the psychological contract as a process, along with their limitations. It presents qualitative data from a study illustrating the psychological contract as a process and offers two frameworks (self-narratives, sensemaking) that could be used to think about the psychological contract as a process. The chapter focuses largely on understanding psychological contract breach. The proposed frameworks could, however, also be applied to other areas such as ongoing reciprocation, negotiation, and development of psychological contracts.Less
This chapter presents a case for considering the psychological contract as a process. First, it argues why we should study the psychological contract as a process and what we mean by a process. It then considers existing theoretical approaches and empirical studies examining the psychological contract as a process, along with their limitations. It presents qualitative data from a study illustrating the psychological contract as a process and offers two frameworks (self-narratives, sensemaking) that could be used to think about the psychological contract as a process. The chapter focuses largely on understanding psychological contract breach. The proposed frameworks could, however, also be applied to other areas such as ongoing reciprocation, negotiation, and development of psychological contracts.
Phaedra Daipha
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226298542
- eISBN:
- 9780226298719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226298719.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Science, Technology and Environment
Turning to the temporal dimensions of meteorological decision-making, this chapter identifies two principles underlying the logic of weather forecasting practice: risk and scale. The former rests on ...
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Turning to the temporal dimensions of meteorological decision-making, this chapter identifies two principles underlying the logic of weather forecasting practice: risk and scale. The former rests on a demarcation between routine and non-routine operations, while the latter is driven by the fact that the more global the reach of a weather phenomenon the earlier its detection. The joint influence of risk and spatial scale on weather forecasting practice yields four temporal regimes of decision-making: emergency, extended alert, near-term, and longer-term. This rudimentary framework is elaborated through an analysis of its empirical manifestation in summer weather forecasting, winter weather forecasting, short-term forecasting, and long-term forecasting respectively. The analysis complicates dual-process models of cognitive processing by establishing that, in practice, deliberation and heuristics are combined across disparate temporal regimes to produce organizationally sanctioned, skilled decisions.Less
Turning to the temporal dimensions of meteorological decision-making, this chapter identifies two principles underlying the logic of weather forecasting practice: risk and scale. The former rests on a demarcation between routine and non-routine operations, while the latter is driven by the fact that the more global the reach of a weather phenomenon the earlier its detection. The joint influence of risk and spatial scale on weather forecasting practice yields four temporal regimes of decision-making: emergency, extended alert, near-term, and longer-term. This rudimentary framework is elaborated through an analysis of its empirical manifestation in summer weather forecasting, winter weather forecasting, short-term forecasting, and long-term forecasting respectively. The analysis complicates dual-process models of cognitive processing by establishing that, in practice, deliberation and heuristics are combined across disparate temporal regimes to produce organizationally sanctioned, skilled decisions.
Jon Kolko
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199744336
- eISBN:
- 9780199894710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744336.003.0003
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures, Human-Technology Interaction
This chapter explains how sensemaking works, and how it plays a role in shaping the point of view a designer brings to a problem. This informed intuition is described in the context of patterns, ...
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This chapter explains how sensemaking works, and how it plays a role in shaping the point of view a designer brings to a problem. This informed intuition is described in the context of patterns, illustrating how designers draw on their previous experiences with similar problems.Less
This chapter explains how sensemaking works, and how it plays a role in shaping the point of view a designer brings to a problem. This informed intuition is described in the context of patterns, illustrating how designers draw on their previous experiences with similar problems.
Michael Power (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198753223
- eISBN:
- 9780191814877
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198753223.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This collection of essays deals with the situated management of risk in a wide variety of organizational settings—aviation, mental health, railway project management, energy, toy manufacture, ...
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This collection of essays deals with the situated management of risk in a wide variety of organizational settings—aviation, mental health, railway project management, energy, toy manufacture, financial services, chemicals regulation, and NGOs. Each chapter connects the analysis of risk studies with critical themes in organization studies more generally based on access to, and observations of, actors in the field. The emphasis in these contributions is upon the variety of ways in which organizational actors, in combination with a range of material technologies and artefacts, such as safety reporting systems, risk maps, and key risk indicators, accomplish and make sense of the normal work of managing risk—riskwork. In contrast to a preoccupation with disasters and accidents after the event, the volume as a whole is focused on the situationally specific character of routine risk management work. It emerges that this riskwork is highly varied, entangled with material artefacts which represent and construct risks and, importantly, is not confined to formal risk management departments or personnel. Each chapter suggests that the distributed nature of this riskwork lives uneasily with formalized risk management protocols and accountability requirements. In addition, riskwork as an organizational process makes contested issues of identity and values readily visible. These ‘back stage/back office’ encounters with risk are revealed as being as much about emotional as they are rationally calculative. Overall, the collection combines constructivist sensibilities about risk objects with a micro-sociological orientation to the study of organizations.Less
This collection of essays deals with the situated management of risk in a wide variety of organizational settings—aviation, mental health, railway project management, energy, toy manufacture, financial services, chemicals regulation, and NGOs. Each chapter connects the analysis of risk studies with critical themes in organization studies more generally based on access to, and observations of, actors in the field. The emphasis in these contributions is upon the variety of ways in which organizational actors, in combination with a range of material technologies and artefacts, such as safety reporting systems, risk maps, and key risk indicators, accomplish and make sense of the normal work of managing risk—riskwork. In contrast to a preoccupation with disasters and accidents after the event, the volume as a whole is focused on the situationally specific character of routine risk management work. It emerges that this riskwork is highly varied, entangled with material artefacts which represent and construct risks and, importantly, is not confined to formal risk management departments or personnel. Each chapter suggests that the distributed nature of this riskwork lives uneasily with formalized risk management protocols and accountability requirements. In addition, riskwork as an organizational process makes contested issues of identity and values readily visible. These ‘back stage/back office’ encounters with risk are revealed as being as much about emotional as they are rationally calculative. Overall, the collection combines constructivist sensibilities about risk objects with a micro-sociological orientation to the study of organizations.
Jeffrey Fear
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199646890
- eISBN:
- 9780191756320
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646890.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
If organizational learning is a process of discovery and adaptation, of working through new information and alternatives to come to new conclusions, new knowledge, and new strategies, then historical ...
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If organizational learning is a process of discovery and adaptation, of working through new information and alternatives to come to new conclusions, new knowledge, and new strategies, then historical methods can be useful in mapping this process. It is argued that the lack of dialogue between organizational scholars and (business) historians is a missed opportunity since both disciplines have the business corporation as their subject and utilize common meta-thinkers. The ‘logics of history’ are explored and five intersections mapped where history would permit us to understand organizational change: (1) the use of retrospective knowledge, (2) process or narrative, (3) embeddedness in time and place (periodization), (4) historical actors’ experience (self-understanding, memory, narrative in constructing perception and identity), (5) historical alternatives, i.e., choice under conditions of ambiguity and an unknown, as yet unmade, future. Historians’ methodology can uncover the role of timing, sequence, behavior, and alternative paths that formed organizations’ present.Less
If organizational learning is a process of discovery and adaptation, of working through new information and alternatives to come to new conclusions, new knowledge, and new strategies, then historical methods can be useful in mapping this process. It is argued that the lack of dialogue between organizational scholars and (business) historians is a missed opportunity since both disciplines have the business corporation as their subject and utilize common meta-thinkers. The ‘logics of history’ are explored and five intersections mapped where history would permit us to understand organizational change: (1) the use of retrospective knowledge, (2) process or narrative, (3) embeddedness in time and place (periodization), (4) historical actors’ experience (self-understanding, memory, narrative in constructing perception and identity), (5) historical alternatives, i.e., choice under conditions of ambiguity and an unknown, as yet unmade, future. Historians’ methodology can uncover the role of timing, sequence, behavior, and alternative paths that formed organizations’ present.
Louise Fitzgerald
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198805304
- eISBN:
- 9780191843419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805304.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This chapter presents a distinct perspective on context, adopting an interactionist view that includes the interaction of context, actors, and action. The chapter traces the gradual development of ...
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This chapter presents a distinct perspective on context, adopting an interactionist view that includes the interaction of context, actors, and action. The chapter traces the gradual development of this interactionist perspective and then provides three illustrative examples from which to develop further the concept of context. First, it is argued that the actor fluidly blends context into form by selectively melding contextual elements, with the crucial difference between the elements of the external context and the elements of the personal context being one of distance. Second, it is suggested that attention to certain elements of context is dynamically driven by focus, and selective attention is framed by sensemaking and is driven by an individualized judgment of what is “relevant.” This explanation perceives the bounding of context as an act of individual sensemaking, embodied cognition, and judgment.Less
This chapter presents a distinct perspective on context, adopting an interactionist view that includes the interaction of context, actors, and action. The chapter traces the gradual development of this interactionist perspective and then provides three illustrative examples from which to develop further the concept of context. First, it is argued that the actor fluidly blends context into form by selectively melding contextual elements, with the crucial difference between the elements of the external context and the elements of the personal context being one of distance. Second, it is suggested that attention to certain elements of context is dynamically driven by focus, and selective attention is framed by sensemaking and is driven by an individualized judgment of what is “relevant.” This explanation perceives the bounding of context as an act of individual sensemaking, embodied cognition, and judgment.
