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Newsmaking and Sensemaking: Navigating Temporal Transitions Between Planned and Unexpected Events

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  • Gerardo Patriotta

    (Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus, Nottingham NG8 1BB, United Kingdom)

  • Daniel A. Gruber

    (Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208)

Abstract

Navigating transitions between planned and unexpected events is a familiar challenge for organizations, and yet little is known about the sensemaking processes by which organizational members coordinate action to fit unexpected events within temporally defined plans and schedules. Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted at a local U.S. television station (codenamed “Local TV”), we elaborate on how workers in the news department plan their stories on a daily basis and adjust their plans when new stories break. We find that newsmaking is shaped by expectancy frameworks, which define the baseline of what is expected to occur during the news day, and typifications, which allow newsworkers to categorize incoming events based on relevance and update expectancy frameworks accordingly. Taken together, these provide newsworkers with sensemaking resources for responding regularly to unexpected events. Our study contributes to the understanding of sensemaking processes in three main areas: the effect of time-based dynamics on the control and coordination of work, the interaction of routine and mindful processes in response to unexpected events, and the structural influences of expectations and typifications on sensemaking.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerardo Patriotta & Daniel A. Gruber, 2015. "Newsmaking and Sensemaking: Navigating Temporal Transitions Between Planned and Unexpected Events," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1574-1592, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:26:y:2015:i:6:p:1574-1592
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2015.1005
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    2. John W. Gardner & Kenneth K. Boyer & Peter T. Ward, 2017. "Achieving Time-Sensitive Organizational Performance Through Mindful Use of Technologies and Routines," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 1061-1079, December.
    3. Haridimos Tsoukas & Gerardo Patriotta & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe & Sally Maitlis, 2020. "On the way to Ithaka[1]: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of Karl E. Weick’s The Social Psychology of Organizing," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(7), pages 1315-1330, November.
    4. Xiaozhi Huang & Xiaojie Zhang & Heng Zhang, 2022. "The Impact of Mixed Emotions on Consumer Improvisation Behavior in the Environment of COVID-19: The Moderating Effect of Tightness-Looseness Culture," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-21, December.
    5. Gerardo Patriotta, 2017. "Crafting Papers for Publication: Novelty and Convention in Academic Writing," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 747-759, July.
    6. Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Azizsafaei, Farzaneh & Keegan, Anne, 2021. "HRM operational models and practices to enable strategic agility in PBOs: Managing paradoxical tensions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 170-182.
    7. Manuel Hensmans & Guangyan Liu, 2016. "How do the normativity of headquarters and the knowledge autonomy of subsidiaries co-evolve?," Working Papers TIMES² 2016-020, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Jörgen Sandberg & Mats Alvesson, 2021. "Meanings of Theory: Clarifying Theory through Typification," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 487-516, March.
    9. 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.

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