Art. 8 Balogun & Johnson Flashcards
Why are middle managers key?
They are both recipients and deployers of the plans designed by their seniors.
Their interpretation of change is key to what will happen (in chaing of events)
What is the role of sensemaking?
The research shows sensemaking to play a central role in change, examines how shifts occur in individuals’ schemata during organizational transformation, and how this leads to change in organizational interpretive schemes.
In times of change, there is more ‘deliberate sensemaking’ (conversational practices).
Sensemaking: engaging in thinking to construct an interpretation of reality (retrospective and prospective)
What are schemata?
Schemata are the mental models held by individuals that affect the events individuals respond to and how. They act as ‘templates against which members can match organizational experiences and thus determine what they mean’
pattern of thought that guide one’s understanding of a situation (affects responses).
In times of stability, such models are taken-for-granted (reinforcement of schemata).
What is ment by ‘general subjectivity’?
The commonality between individuals’ schemata leads to an enacted reality at group level in the form of routines, rituals, systems, norms, assumptions and beliefs.
the level of constructed, taken-for-granted reality, which can be associated with ‘organization’
Weick argues that at times of stability the generic subjective takes on many forms, such as scripts, interlocking routines and habituated action patterns, and shared understanding. The ongoing re-enactment of the generic subjective reinforces individual schemata.
What is ment by the ‘level of intersubjective sensemaking?
When individuals face change, however, existing cognitions are likely to surface as individuals experience surprise. Their expectations differ from their experience . They start to act in a more conscious sensemaking mode as generic subjectivity breaks down to make sense of what is going on around them. It is where ‘Individual representations (thoughts, feelings, “intentions”) become merged or synthesized … not directly into supra-interactive structures, but into face-to-face conversations and inter- actions’.
more conscious sensemaking mode and is a social process
What is sensemaking?
Sensemaking is primarily a conversational and narrative process involving a variety of communication genre, both spoken and written, and formal and informal. However, more specifically, sensemaking involves ‘conversational and social practices’.
Figure 3 shows how these different concepts link together to create an ongoing cyclical sensemaking process that turns change implementation into an emergent and unpredictable process, as change recipients develop particular interpretations about the imposed changes through their social processes of interaction. These interpretations then lead to both intended and unintended change outcomes.
What is the outcome for recipients?
The outcome is that change recipients develop particular interpretations about the imposed changes through their social processes of interaction. These interpretations then lead to intended and unintended change outcomes. Whenever change recipients encounter sensemaking triggers they cannot account for, in terms of their existing mental models or schemata, they engage in more conscious social processes of interaction to attempt, within the context of their current schemata, to resolve their ambiguity and uncertainty. Due to that, new schemata and interpretations are developed. So a person’s schemata at any point of time consist of the old schemata not yet challenged, the schemata in transition, and the new schemata.
What does the model show us?
It is able to link inter-recipient sensemaking activity, in the form of social processes of interaction, to the outcomes of implementation interventions, and the acknowledged unpredictable nature of change. What is key, is not that these processes exist, but how during change they mediate between individuals’ interpretations and the designed change interventions to create an emergent implementation process in which intentional and unintentional change are inextricably interlinked.
Which social processes and types are found?
We show that emergent change outcomes arise from the interaction of two types of social processes — vertical processes (between recipients and senior managers) and lateral processes (between middle managers). In addition the analysis reveals that these social processes are of different types, varying from highly formal verbal (written and spoken) communications in the form of documentation and presentations, to much more informal communications in the form of storytelling and gossip.
What are sensemaking triggers?
Sensemaking triggers are the events and happenings identified as triggering intersubjective sensemaking during change, and include the various designed change goals and interventions, the encountered behaviour of other organizational actors, and the design flaws.
What are social processes of interaction?
Social processes of interaction are the conversational and social practices identified from the first-order analysis that the middle managers engaged in as they attempted to make sense of the new structure and their new roles and responsibilities.
What are old schemata?
Old schemata are the existing ways of thinking which individuals hold about their organization, and provide the context within which change is initially made sense of.
What is developing schemata?
Developing schemata are the interpretations that change recipients arrive at, through their social processes of interaction, of what change is about, such as the negative interpretations of the new structure. In the early tentative stages of change they can be equated with what Isabella (1990) refers to as ‘in progress frames of reference’. These developing schemata underpin the emergent change outcomes that become visible through actions and behav- iours in the form of counteracting and congruent change consequences. The interpretations arrived at by individuals through the social processes are, therefore, important. If the meanings and interpretations individuals develop are consistent with those intended by the instigators of the changes, they are likely to behave in a way consistent with intended outcomes, leading to con- gruent change consequences. If the meanings and interpretations developed by the recipients differ from those intended, the result may be counteracting change consequences.
What belongs to the Generic subjective level?
- Routines,
- rituals,
- symbols,
- stories,
- systems,
- norms,
- beliefs
