IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v37y2000i2p213-234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enactment, Sensemaking and Decision Making: Redesign Processes in the 1976 Reorganization of US Intelligence

Author

Listed:
  • James Douglas Orton

Abstract

Weick’s theories of organizing and sensemaking help enrich the assumptions in the organization design school. This study builds on Weick’s theories of sensemaking to illustrate how three fundamental organization design assumptions — dominant variables, causal laws and executive dictates — were found to be restrictive in the explanation of redesign processes in the 1976 reorganization of the US intelligence community. The assumption of dominant variables was challenged by the appearance of a multitude of events, or enactments, which were selected by organization members for further attention. The assumption of causal laws was challenged by the appearance of individual‐level cause maps which were filtered, through sensemaking processes, into organization‐level workable realities. The assumption of executive dictates was challenged by the appearance of attempts to punctuate redesign processes as organizational decisions. The study suggests value in moving from simple organization design assumptions to more reliable findings drawn from detailed observations of redesign processes.

Suggested Citation

  • James Douglas Orton, 2000. "Enactment, Sensemaking and Decision Making: Redesign Processes in the 1976 Reorganization of US Intelligence," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 213-234, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:37:y:2000:i:2:p:213-234
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6486.00178
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00178
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-6486.00178?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guiette, Alain & Vandenbempt, Koen, 2013. "Exploring team mental model dynamics during strategic change implementation in professional service organizations. A sensemaking perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 728-744.
    2. Scott, Susan V. & Perry, Nicholas, 2006. "The enactment of risk categories: organizing and re-organizing risk management practices in the energy industry," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 37868, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Susan Scott & Nicholas Perry, 2012. "The enactment of risk categories: The role of information systems in organizing and re-organizing risk management practices in the energy industry," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 125-141, April.
    4. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2005. "The Paradox of Sensemaking in Organizational Analysis," Post-Print hal-01251211, HAL.
    5. Mary Ann Glynn & Lee Watkiss, 2020. "Of Organizing and Sensemaking: From Action to Meaning and Back Again in a Half‐Century of Weick’s Theorizing," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(7), pages 1331-1354, November.
    6. Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe & David Obstfeld, 2005. "Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 409-421, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:37:y:2000:i:2:p:213-234. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.