IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/srbeha/v31y2014i2p280-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mind the Gap. The Relevance of Postchange Periods for Organizational Sensemaking

Author

Listed:
  • Ralf Wetzel
  • Frank E.P. Dievernich

Abstract

Up to 70% of change initiatives fail. This poor rate of success seems to be caused by a flawed management of change. One of the lacunae for a proper understanding of this situation is the way in which organizations perceive their own change. The activities in self‐perception have a crucial impact on the long‐term success of ongoing change activities in organizations. However, very little is known about these processes at the point when change initiatives have taken place. Nonetheless, it is the moment of retrospection that defines the relevance and continued impact of previous decisions. This paper explores this gap by introducing a qualitative in‐depth case study at the national branch of a multinational communications company, analysed by means of sensemaking theory combined with sociological systems theory and neo‐institutionalism. The case shows how retrospection defines the corridor for future success and reveals a previously ignored momentum of change. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralf Wetzel & Frank E.P. Dievernich, 2014. "Mind the Gap. The Relevance of Postchange Periods for Organizational Sensemaking," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 280-300, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:srbeha:v:31:y:2014:i:2:p:280-300
    DOI: 10.1002/sres.2198
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2198
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sres.2198?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dennis A. Gioia & Kumar Chittipeddi, 1991. "Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 433-448, September.
    2. Haridimos Tsoukas & Robert Chia, 2002. "On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 567-582, October.
    3. Henry Mintzberg & James A. Waters, 1985. "Of strategies, deliberate and emergent," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(3), pages 257-272, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Dennis A. Gioia & James B. Thomas & Shawn M. Clark & Kumar Chittipeddi, 1994. "Symbolism and Strategic Change in Academia: The Dynamics of Sensemaking and Influence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(3), pages 363-383, August.
    6. Martha S. Feldman, 2004. "Resources in Emerging Structures and Processes of Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 295-309, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Steven E. Wallis, 2020. "Integrative Propositional Analysis for developing capacity in an academic research institution by improving strategic planning," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 56-67, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schuler, Benedikt Alexander & Orr, Kevin & Hughes, Jeffrey, 2023. "My colleagues (do not) think the same: Middle managers’ shared and separate realities in strategy implementation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Sarah Kaplan & Wanda J. Orlikowski, 2013. "Temporal Work in Strategy Making," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 965-995, August.
    3. Paul Spee & Paula Jarzabkowski, 2017. "Agreeing on What? Creating Joint Accounts of Strategic Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 152-176, February.
    4. 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.
    5. Sirén, Charlotta & Kohtamäki, Marko, 2016. "Stretching strategic learning to the limit: The interaction between strategic planning and learning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 653-663.
    6. Alexis Laszczuk & Lionel Garreau & Bernard de Montmorillon, 2017. "Understanding emergence in business model development: how companies interact with stakeholders to deal with environmental ambiguity," Post-Print hal-01787276, HAL.
    7. Jeffrey S. Bednar & Benjamin M. Galvin & Blake E. Ashforth & Ella Hafermalz, 2020. "Putting Identification in Motion: A Dynamic View of Organizational Identification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 200-222, January.
    8. Robert J. Blomme, 2012. "How Managers Can Conduct Planned Change in Self-organising Systems: Actor Network Theory as a Perspective to Manager¡¯s Actions," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(5), pages 9-22, September.
    9. Mesa, William B., 2019. "Accounting students’ learning processes in analytics: A sensemaking perspective," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 50-68.
    10. Jane Hendy & Theopisti Chrysanthaki & James Barlow, 2014. "Managers’ Identification with and Adoption of Telehealthcare," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-18, August.
    11. 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.
    12. James Demastus & Nancy E. Landrum, 2024. "Organizational sustainability schemes align with weak sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 707-725, February.
    13. Cristofaro, Matteo, 2020. "“I feel and think, therefore I am”: An Affect-Cognitive Theory of management decisions," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 344-355.
    14. Sally Maitlis & Scott Sonenshein, 2010. "Sensemaking in Crisis and Change: Inspiration and Insights From Weick (1988)," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 551-580, May.
    15. Glover, Jane & Touboulic, Anne, 2020. "Tales from the countryside: Unpacking “passing the environmental buck” as hypocritical practice in the food supply chain," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 33-46.
    16. Joep P. Cornelissen, 2012. "Sensemaking Under Pressure: The Influence of Professional Roles and Social Accountability on the Creation of Sense," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 118-137, February.
    17. Jørgensen, Lene & Jordan, Silvia & Mitterhofer, Hermann, 2012. "Sensemaking and discourse analyses in inter-organizational research: A review and suggested advances," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 107-120.
    18. 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.
    19. Puhakka, Hannu, 2017. "The role of accounting in making sense of post-acquisition integration," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 12-22.
    20. Masashi Goto, 2021. "Accepting the Future as Unforeseeable: Sensemaking by Professionals in the Rise of Artificial Intelligence," Discussion Paper Series DP2021-05, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.

    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:srbeha:v:31:y:2014:i:2:p:280-300. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/1092-7026 .

    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.