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Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Margaret Gross

This piece explores the philosophical origins of sense-making as defined in Brenda Dervin’s methodology.

Abstract

Purpose

This piece explores the philosophical origins of sense-making as defined in Brenda Dervin’s methodology.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper locates the origins of sense-making's rich ontological, epistemological and etymological heritage to the Classical Greece and the Pre-Socratic period. The Greek origins of sense-making‘s philosophical undercurrents surface again in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit before the idea is picked up again in twentieth century philosophy and library science.

Findings

This is a conceptual paper and no empirical findings are presented.

Originality/value

This paper makes an original contribution to the study of information seeking and to sense making theory and methodology.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 79 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 January 2019

Dima Jamali, Yasmeen Makarem and Alberto Willi

Anchored in institutional theory and sense-making theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the multinational…

1012

Abstract

Purpose

Anchored in institutional theory and sense-making theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the multinational corporations (MNC) subsidiary level in a developing country context.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper follows a qualitative methodology and adopts the interview technique to investigate the CSR practices of eight MNCs.

Findings

The results suggest that the CSR diffusion process goes well beyond simple imitation (i.e. adopting CSR myths or best practices intact), involving complex processes of interpretation and translation at the subsidiary level to reconcile the multiple and contradictory expectations for CSR.

Originality/value

The paper illustrates the dynamics of the sense-making process at the level of the subsidiary and the numerous institutional factors that are accounted for while implementing CSR activities in the host community. This paper argues that the integration of the two theories helps bridge macro and micro levels of analysis, thus providing a much richer account of how organizational actors at the subsidiary level make “sense” of a multitude of institutional pressures in the process of CSR implementation stemming from within the MNC itself on one hand (and the respective home country) and from the host community on the other hand.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2021

Bindu Arya, Sven Horak, Sabine Bacouel-Jentjens and Kiran Ismail

This conceptual paper develops a theoretical framework to provide insights with respect to enhancing focus on entrepreneurial sustainability initiatives in the context of emerging…

Abstract

Purpose

This conceptual paper develops a theoretical framework to provide insights with respect to enhancing focus on entrepreneurial sustainability initiatives in the context of emerging economies. The unique idiosyncrasies of the institutional environment of emerging economies are identified along the concept of scripts.

Design/methodology/approach

Sense-making and social identity theory are utilized to draw propositions along with the dimensions of the three stages of the sense-making process: enactment, selection and retention, in order to identify factors that are likely to motivate the next generation of business leaders in emerging economies to undertake greater levels of sustainability initiatives.

Findings

When organizations face competing demands of meeting both social and financial goals, sense-making by next-generation leaders becomes relevant. Leaders with greater entrepreneurial orientation (EO) are more likely to take actions decoupled from local isomorphic pressures, such that they turn opportunities for sustainability into novel sustainable initiatives.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a framework to provide insights and directions for future research with respect to enhancing an organizational focus on sustainability initiatives in the context of emerging economies.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2012

Robert J. Blomme and Kirsten Bornebroek‐Te Lintelo

This article aims to develop a conception consisting of insights from complexity theory and additional notions from Weick's sense‐making theory and existentialism for examining…

3799

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to develop a conception consisting of insights from complexity theory and additional notions from Weick's sense‐making theory and existentialism for examining organization behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper carries out a literature review of Karl Weick's theory of sense‐making and some notions from existentialism to discuss the possible contributions to complexity theory and with this a further comprehension of organizational behaviour.

Findings

Four existential conditions, namely death, freedom, existentialism and meaninglessness, give a further comprehension of Weick's concept of equivocality. Equivocality is an important input for organizing processes. The complexity of organizing processes is an object for examining organizational behaviour from a complexity scientific standpoint. The authors argue that the concept of equivocality and with this the states of equilibrium in an organization can be approached with examining the states of the mentioned four existential conditions.

Practical implications

An important point of application for change managers in an organization is equivocality. The increase of equivocality will lead to a shift in the state of equilibrium in which new themes will emerge and corresponding organisational behaviour. The level of equivocality is due to the presence of existential fears. Hence, change managers should focus on existential themes and anxieties in an organization to advance emergent change.

Originality/value

New in this paper is the usage of notions from existentialism to elaborate Weick's conception of sense‐making. Also this paper discusses the possible contribution of this elaboration to research of organisational behaviour from the perspective of complexity theory.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2015

Marytza A. Gawlik

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which charter school leaders influence the understanding and conception of accountability policy and how that understanding…

1309

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which charter school leaders influence the understanding and conception of accountability policy and how that understanding translates into practice. In particular, this paper draws from sense-making theory and research on charter school leaders to identify their pre-existing understandings, their shared interactions, and their interpretations of accountability policy as they relate to professional development and instructional practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses the qualitative case study approach to document the organizational processes of charter schools. Data for the study were collected in two elementary charter schools over the course of 18 months. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the data because this method is compatible with the inductive, concept-building orientation of all qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two charter school leaders and twelve charter school teachers. In-depth interviews with the leaders were also conducted to gain a deeper understanding of sense-making. In addition pertinent staff meetings, professional development sessions, and informal interactions between charter leaders and teachers were observed.

Findings

While the charter school leaders in this study were inclined to adopt approaches that reinforced their pre-existing understandings, they did so using interpretative frameworks that sought to enact policies they deemed most crucial at the school level. These frameworks included metaphors and modeling, both of which reflected the policy signals received from the institutional environment. The leaders’ use of metaphors and modeling incorporated accountability policy into messages that encouraged constructive instructional practices, including data-driven analysis, project-based learning, and technology use.

Originality/value

This paper broadens discussions about charter school leaders and accountability in three ways. First, it explores how school leaders interpret and adapt policy signals. Second, it delineates the frameworks used by charter school leaders to identify and make sense of accountability policy. Finally, this paper highlights the ways in which charter school leaders influence the teachers in their school buildings through shared sense-making.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 53 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2005

Duane M. Covrig

Contingency and institutional theories of organizational development are used to describe and interpret the 100‐year history of a health science university and to then make a case…

1127

Abstract

Purpose

Contingency and institutional theories of organizational development are used to describe and interpret the 100‐year history of a health science university and to then make a case for teaching organizational sociology in administrative preparation programs.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary and secondary documents were analyzed to delineate the university's history.

Findings

Results indicated that organizational development was the result of complex institutional commitments that were challenged by and reinterpreted in the face of controversial and unanticipated contingencies. Both contingency and institutional theories help explain organizational processes. Organizational sense‐making theories from Karl Weick explain conflicting findings related to the tensions between old and new, the known and unknown, and the set and novel environmental and organizational processes.

Research limitations/implications

This research shows the usefulness of organizational theory in helping administrators develop more elaborate ways of thinking about their schools. The process of theory crafting and testing encourages essential openness and curiosity in administrators.

Practical implications

Administrative candidates should be introduced to the content and processes of organizational sociology as a way of thinking about their leadership and organizational processes.

Originality/value

Organizational theory, including organizational sociology, contingency theory, institutional theory, and sense‐making remain viable in the study of educational organizations and can provide new administrators with a guide for their own meaning construction.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 43 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 November 2015

Luisa Helena Pinto and Regina Caldas

– The purpose of this study is to examine how international workers engage into and make sense of expatriation and how sense-making enacts further action.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how international workers engage into and make sense of expatriation and how sense-making enacts further action.

Design/methodology/approach

Given the corporate influence over expatriation, empirical data were collected from a single case study organization, a well-established Portuguese retail company. The primary data sources were the in-depth interviews with 13 international workers, while other secondary data sources included company documents that provided the background information required to understand the interviewees and describe the organization. The experiences of expatriation through the accounts and stories of these workers were subject to thematic content analysis.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that international workers act as sense-makers and sense-givers vehicles about expatriation. By doing so, they enact a plausible and dominant story that ultimately bounds the perception of divergent cues and limit their own action. While this ongoing dialogue between expatriation meaning and action can raise organizational actors’ capacities to negotiate and influence further meaning and action, it also validates existing practices and generates further compliance.

Originality/value

Despite being limited to a single organizational context, this study offers a contextualized approach to the study of expatriation that complements earlier research and highlights sense-making dynamics and related outcomes, further extending the applications of the sense-making perspective. This study suggests new research avenues exploring the politics and negotiation bonds from which expatriation sense-making can emerge as well as the opportunities for disruptive sense-making.

Details

Management Research: The Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1536-5433

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2018

Gary Marchionini

This paper aims to discuss how search, sense making and learning have become more closely integrated, as search services have leveraged new technologies and large and…

1028

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to discuss how search, sense making and learning have become more closely integrated, as search services have leveraged new technologies and large and media-diverse data streams.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews progress in search over the past 60 years, summarizes different theories of sense making and learning and proposes a framework for integrating these activities.

Findings

The arguments are supported with examples from search in 2018 and suggest that even as search becomes an automated process during learning, search strategies must continue to evolve to insure that complex information needs can be met.

Research limitations/implications

The work is limited to search that uses electronic search systems. Implications include the need to understand that multiple levels of system inferences/estimates are used to present search results and that different kinds of learning processes are affected by search systems.

Social implications

The importance of information literacy is implied.

Originality/value

This paper will provide readers with an understanding of how search services and systems have evolved and their implications for human learning.

Details

Information and Learning Sciences, vol. 120 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2018

Chaoguang Huo, Min Zhang and Feicheng Ma

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing people’s health knowledge adoption in social media, with an eye toward promoting health information literacy and…

2464

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing people’s health knowledge adoption in social media, with an eye toward promoting health information literacy and healthy behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the integration of sense-making theory, social influence theory, information richness theory, fear appeal theory, and ELM (elaboration likelihood method), a health knowledge adoption model is constructed. Taking spondylopathy as an example, high health threat and low health threat experiments and questionnaires are designed to complete the empirical study. In all, 355 effective survey samples are collected and analyzed, leveraging a partial least squares method.

Findings

Research results indicate that perceived knowledge quality, perceived knowledge consensus, and perceived source credibility have positive effects on health knowledge adoption via the mediator – trust; knowledge richness contributes to the perception of knowledge quality, source credibility, and knowledge consensus, especially under high health threat; health threat has significant positive moderating effects on the relationship between trust and health knowledge adoption, and the relationship between perceived knowledge quality and trust, with negative moderating effects on the relationships between perceived knowledge consensus, perceived source credibility, and trust.

Originality/value

This paper examines the mediating effecting of trust in the process of health knowledge adoption. Based on the integration of fear appeal theory, social influence theory, sense-making theory, information richness theory and elaboration likelihood model, this study investigates the factors influencing health knowledge adoption in social media from the perspective of a user, and explores the moderating effect of health threat on health knowledge adoption.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 July 2014

Jim Andersén and Annelie Andersén

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how social representation theory (SRT) can be used to understand the concept of resistance to change. SRT is a growing theory in social…

2041

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how social representation theory (SRT) can be used to understand the concept of resistance to change. SRT is a growing theory in social psychology research. SRT is about how individuals co-construct representations of various objects in different social settings. These social representations govern the attitudes and actions of individuals and groups. In spite of the growing interest in SRT in various fields, no studies have used SRT to understand resistance to organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reviews the relevant literature on resistance to change and SRT to develop a conceptual framework for understanding resistance from the standpoint of SRT.

Findings

The authors develop a model that illustrates how three interrelated objects, i.e. the organizational process and the pre-and post-change situation, are co-constructed in social contexts. Also, the authors discuss how representations of these objects can co-exist (cognitive polyphasia). Our study illustrates the complexity of resistance to change by deconstructing the concept.

Originality/value

Application of SRT to analyze resistance to organizational change is a novel approach that provides several new insights. For example, where most publications regard advocates of change as sense-givers in the change recipient’s sense-making process, the authors argue for a more constructionist approach. Thus, all actors involved in the change process will affect each other and together co-construct the social representations. These social representations govern attitudes to change.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 22 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

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