Symbolism and Strategic Change in Academia: The Dynamics of Sensemaking and Influence

Gioia, Dennis A.; Thomas, James B.; Clark, Shawn M.; Chittipeddi, Kumar

doi:10.1287/orsc.5.3.363

Cited by 590 publications

(515 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Our analysis of temporal work complements existing research on strategic sensemaking (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005) by explaining how and why some strategic accounts work and some fail in practice; and, for those that do work, why some lead to status quo outcomes and others lead to change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…In studying strategic change, scholars have emphasized the importance of sensemaking as a collective and often conflictual interpretive process for dealing with uncertainties about the business, the market, and the environment that lead to breakdowns in understandings and require cognitive reorientations to move forward (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). These studies suggest that linking across interpretations of the past, present and future make action possible, but have left unexplained how and why some linkages work and some fail in practice, and, for those that do work, why some lead to the status quo and others produce change.…”

Section: Temporal Work In Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, the literature in strategic management that has built on sensemaking has focused more on the ways in which individual sensemaking leads to shared cognitions, and in particular, how such views are "given" or justified to others (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). Less attention has been directed to the question of how interpretations of the past, present and future are constructed and linked together in more or less radical ways.…”

Section: Foundations For Understanding Temporal Work In Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Kaplan

Orlikowski

2013

Organization Science

437

458

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This paper reports on a field study of strategy making in one organization facing an industry crisis. In a comparison of five strategy projects, we observed that organizational participants struggled with competing interpretations of what might emerge in the future, what was currently at stake, and even what had happened in the past. We develop a model of temporal work in strategy making that articulates how actors resolved differences and linked their interpretations of the past, present, and future so as to construct a strategic account that enabled concrete strategic choice and action. We found that settling on a particular account required it to be coherent, plausible and acceptable, otherwise breakdowns resulted. Such breakdowns could impede progress, but could also be generative in provoking a search for new interpretations and possibilities for action. The more intensely actors engaged in temporal work, the more likely the strategies departed from the status quo. Our model suggests that strategy cannot be understood as the product of more or less accurate forecasting without considering the multiple interpretations of present concerns and historical trajectories that help to constitute those forecasts. Projections of the future are always entangled with views of the past and present, and temporal work is the means by which actors construct and reconstruct the connections among them. These insights into the mechanisms of strategy making help explain the practices and conditions that produce organizational inertia and change. Temporal Work in Strategy Making-1 -A fundamental challenge for managers making strategy is coping with an uncertain future. In studying strategic change, scholars have emphasized the importance of sensemaking as a collective and often conflictual interpretive process for dealing with uncertainties about the business, the market, and the environment that lead to breakdowns in understandings and require cognitive reorientations to move forward (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al. 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). These studies suggest that linking across interpretations of the past, present and future make action possible, but have left unexplained how and why some linkages work and some fail in practice, and, for those that do work, why some lead to the status quo and others produce change.Our study of strategy making in practice offers some answers to these questions. We found that managers -through a set of practices that we call "temporal work" -come to settle on particular strategic accounts that link interpretations of the past, present and future in ways that appear coherent, plausible and Settling on a strategic account, even if provisional, allows actors to shift from disagreeing or deliberating about meanings to implementing strategic choices, thus enabling the organization to move forward in the face of uncertainty. If a settlement breaks down, further temporal work is required in order to reconstruct a new str...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Temporal Work In Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Foundations For Understanding Temporal Work In Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Kaplan

Orlikowski

2013

Organization Science

437

458

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“…Complementing the stream of research focusing on the role of middle managers in sensemaking and sense-giving of strategy (e.g., Gioia and Chittipeddi, 1991;Gioia et al, 1994;Luscher and Lewis, 2008;Rouleau and Balogun, 2011), our study suggests that deeper investigation of both actual and self-rated strategy knowledge will enrich our understanding of the dynamics of cognition and strategy.…”

Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 65%

Middle managers' knowledge of strategy: antecedents, cognitive accuracy and self-awareness

Cruikshank¹,

Auster²,

Basir³

et al. 2015

IJSCM

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Middle managers provide a powerful conduit for strategy execution particularly in fast paced environments. Their knowledge of strategy is critical for strategic change to be successful. Yet, little research directly examines how aware middle managers are of corporate strategy and how accurate they are in their understanding of how that strategy translates into divisional goals. Framed in cognition theory, this exploratory study uses qualitative and quantitative 74 R. A. Cruikshank et al. analysis to investigate the antecedents, accuracy and self-awareness of middle managers' knowledge of strategy within a large North American financial firm (N = 294). Implications for research and practice are highlighted.

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“…The change process often divides the participants into two groups: the change agents (managers) and the change recipients (employees) who engage in reciprocal sensemaking throughout. Change agents seek to determine strategies to facilitate the change process; whereas the change recipient endeavours to determine how the change will directly affect them (Gioia, Thomas, Clark & Chittipeddi, 1994). Studies investigating change processes (Berman & McLaughlin, 1975;Beer, Eisenstatt & Spector, 1993) highlight the critical need for processes of 'mutual adaptation'.…”

Section: Change In Organisationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving from contractor to owner operator: impact on safety culture – a case study

Bahn

2012

Employee Relations

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Purpose -The research study investigated whether a change in staffing contractual arrangements, specific training in hazard identification, mentoring of supervisors and the introduction of a robust safety system could improve the organisations safety culture. How safety conditions change under contracted out labour compared to direct labour and the influence that contracting out has on organisational safety culture is explored.Design/methodology/approach -The study used a case study methodology to detail how the change occurred over a six month period in 2011. As part of the analysis a model of the change process and push-pull factors is offered.Findings -As a result of the change all areas saw some improvement. Work-related injury statistics dropped significantly, supervisors were clear of their roles, actively monitoring their crews to ensure they worked in a safer manner than before, and staff were actively addressing work-place hazards. With the safety system in place the organisation should be deemed compliant and diligent by the state auditing authorities. This study has also shown that using contractor workers together with in-house workers that are managed under different safety regimes is problematic. The problems don't occur due to the contractor's safety systems being less robust than the parent company's or that contract workers are themselves less safe; it is the added complexity of managing multiple safety regimes and the lack of trust of the robustness of each system that create conflict.Research limitations/implications -The paper reports on the change process of one mining organisation in Western Australia as a case study from a managerial sample and is thereby limited.Practical implications -This study demonstrates the difficulties in changing safety culture in an underground mining organisation. The paper argues the need for specialised training in identifying hazards by the staff, the mentoring of supervisory staff and the adoption of a robust safety system to support improved safety culture.Originality/value -There is little research conducted in the resources sector researching changes in human resource supply and OHS management, in particular moving from contracted labour to hiring in-house. This case provides an insight into how a change in staffing hiring arrangements together with specific safety initiatives has a positive impact on safety performance.

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Symbolism and Strategic Change in Academia: The Dynamics of Sensemaking and Influence

Cited by 590 publications

References 58 publications

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Middle managers' knowledge of strategy: antecedents, cognitive accuracy and self-awareness

Moving from contractor to owner operator: impact on safety culture – a case study

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