Anticipating the end: exploring future-oriented sensemaking of change through metaphors

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether there is a link between retrospective and prospective sensemaking by analyzing metaphors of past and potential future changes.

Design/methodology/approach

The article draws on interview data from employees, team managers and middle managers at an IT department of a Nordic bank.

Findings

The study found that organizational members' sensemaking of changes in the past were characterized by trivializing metaphors. In contrast, future-oriented sensemaking of potential changes were characterized by emotionally charged metaphors of uncertainty, war and the End, indicating that the organizational members anticipating a gloomier future.

Research limitations/implications

These findings might be limited to the organizational context of an IT department of a bank with IT professionals having an urge for control and sharing a history of a financial sector changing dramatically the last decade.

Originality/value

This article contributes to the emerging field of future-oriented sensemaking by showing what characterize past and future-oriented sensemaking of changes at a bank. Further, the paper contributes with an empirical study unpacking how organizational members anticipate an undesired future which might not be grounded in retrospective sensemaking.

Citation

Bruskin, S. and Mikkelsen, E.N. (2020), "Anticipating the end: exploring future-oriented sensemaking of change through metaphors", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 1401-1415. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2019-0342