Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a qualitative study of employees' sensemaking as a social, communicative process during a major organizational transformation. Design/methodology/approach -This case study describes a major transition in work mode, from traditional officing to nomadic work. Nomadic work is a radical new mode of work that emphasizes: worker mobility both at and away from the company facility; a paperless operation; and integrated technological platforms that enable knowledge work and flexible, project-based organizing. Relying on participant observation and interviews, employee accounts were gathered of their experiences as told during the change implementation. Findings -It was found that shocks noted in social interaction indicated that employee sensemaking was anchored by frames relying on identity, culture, or structure as the primary stabilizing discourse called into question. The findings suggest that employees used sensemaking to work out the tensions between social action and the systemic realities of organizational life. Originality/value -The study contributes to the organizational literature by responding to the call for more research on social interaction during change implementation processes and on the implementation of new information technologies.

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Alternative workplaces are increasingly prevalent, combining flexible work practices, open landscape settings and a variety of acceptable working locations, especially for technology-enabled workers. In this article we examine the sensemaking response of technology-enabled, nomadic workers to the firm’s downsizing event at Telenor, Norway’s premier telecom company, in late 2002. We find two opposite interpretations of the firm’s employee database efforts and project-based structure emerge after the downsizing event. Our findings suggest the lack of geosocial boundaries in the organization influences sensemaking. Nomadic workers adopt frames that drive their interpretations and actions idiosyncratically. We suggest further research is needed to understand the influence of alternative work-places on patterns of behavior and human processes.

The communication environment for buyer-seller interfaces is being transformed by a variety of new communication choices. The use of electronic mail in business today is especially prevalent. This investigation explores buyer and seller reactions to electronic mail use in buyer-seller relationships. Two studies conducted explore themes perceived by buyers and sellers regarding electronic mail use. From indepth interviews of sellers, some initial themes are developed. Second, a survey from a sampling frame of business-to-business sales people and organizational buyers advances the questions of benefits and barriers perceived to be associated with electronic mail use from both the organizational buyer and seller perspectives. From a sample of 103 buyers and 107 sellers, questions are raised about the communicative and relationship aspects that potentially influence the buyer-seller interface. Findings suggest sellers need to be attuned to individual buyers' views in order to benefit from the new communication options regarding communication choices.. . . organizations have embraced e-mail without always reflecting significantly on the effect that CMC may have on working practices. This investigator calls for more research to explore fundamental questions surrounding environments with predominant use of CMC in the form of e-mail, electronic meetings and conferences. In their qualitative examination

A potential weakness of marketing in the strategy dialogue has been a tendency on the part of marketing scholars to stay with outmoded frameworks. As the economy is decreasingly influenced by industrial value creation and increasingly influenced by knowledge creation and dissemination, the role of marketing in value creation and thus in strategy is accentuated. Synthesizing current literature regarding the environmental changes and the underlying foundations for value creation affected by these changes, and contrasting them to traditional, industrial value creation, an argument for the central role of marketing in the knowledge economy is provided and examples support the new value creation‐marketing link.