IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lum/rev3rl/v12y2021i1p308-318.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sensemaking in Social Construction of Organization. A Powerful Resource in Pandemic Context

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Galbin

    (UAIC University of Iasi)

Abstract

The paper presents the potential of sensemaking in social construction of organization, especially in times of uncertainty, generated by Covid-19 pandemic. The perspective is based on the social constructionism and explores the implications of sensemaking in organizational context. The paradigm of social constructionism is interested in dialogue and relations between members of organizations in the process of producing meaning in social interactions. In this context, sensemaking provides a significant influence in the process of organizing and leads the members to develop new ideas and discover effective practices, helping them to face the challenges encountered. Finally, the paper suggests the sensemaking as being a useful resource in creating a common map, providing hope, confidence, that may conduct to more effective action for rethinking the activities in situations of safety and trust.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Galbin, 2021. "Sensemaking in Social Construction of Organization. A Powerful Resource in Pandemic Context," Postmodern Openings, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 308-318, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:lum:rev3rl:v:12:y:2021:i:1:p:308-318
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1/262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/article/view/3621
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/https://doi.org/10.18662/po/12.1/262?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. Rothstein, M.A. & Talbott, M.K., 2007. "Encouraging compliance with quarantine: a proposal to provide job security and income replacement," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(S1), pages 49-556.
    2. Stefan COJOCARU & Constantin BRAGARU & Oana Maria CIUCHI, 2012. "The role of language in constructing social realities.The Appreciative Inquiry and the reconstruction of organisational ideology (English version)," Revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 36, pages 31-43, March.
    3. Daniela COJOCARU, 2012. "Appreciative Inquiry and Organisational Change. Applications in Medical Services (English version)," Revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 38, pages 122-131, September.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Christie ANDRUS, 2010. "Using appreciative inquiry to build organizational capacity to learn, risk and grow (English version)," Revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 30, pages 63-76, September.
    7. Martine R. Haas, 2006. "Knowledge Gathering, Team Capabilities, and Project Performance in Challenging Work Environments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(8), pages 1170-1184, August.
    8. 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.
    9. Guido CUYVERS, 2010. "Appreciative inquiry as a foundation for quality development (English version)," Revista de cercetare si interventie sociala, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 30, pages 39-52, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sevda Helpap & Sigrid Bekmeier-Feuerhahn & Luisa Pinkernelle, 2018. "Ambivalenzen in organisationalen Veränderungen [Ambivalence in Organizational Change]," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 209-241, August.
    2. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Dancing in the Dark: Making Sense of Managerial Roles during Strategic Conversations," Working Papers hal-01145772, HAL.
    3. Lionel Garreau & Serge Perrot, 2012. "Comprendre la dynamique de la socialisation organisationnelle: Une approche par le sensemaking," Post-Print halshs-00949067, HAL.
    4. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Dancing in the dark: Making sense of managerial roles during strategic conversations," Post-Print hal-01490734, HAL.
    5. Lionel Garreau & Serge Perrot, 2012. "Comprendre la dynamique de la socialisation organisationnelle : une approche par le sensemaking," Post-Print halshs-01054809, HAL.
    6. Loréa Baïada-Hirèche & Lionel Garreau, 2014. "Exploring the dynamics of ethical judgment : the sensemaking-based evolution model," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01009708, HAL.
    7. 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).
    8. Loréa Baïada-Hirèche & Lionel Garreau, 2014. "Exploring the dynamics of ethical judgment : the sensemaking-based evolution model," Post-Print halshs-01009708, HAL.
    9. 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.
    10. Niyati Kataria & Glen Kreiner & Elaine Hollensbe & Mathew L Sheep & Jeff Stambaugh, 2018. "The catalytic role of emotions in sensemaking: Evidence from the blogosphere," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(3), pages 456-475, August.
    11. Allard-Poesi, Florence, 2015. "Dancing in the dark: Making sense of managerial roles during strategic conversations," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 338-350.
    12. Genevieve Musca & Linda Rouleau & Caroline Facq-Mellet & Frédérique Sitri & Sarah de Vogüé, 2018. "From boat to bags: The role of material chronotopes in adaptive sensemaking," Post-Print hal-01928127, HAL.
    13. Bowman, Gary & Parks, Ryan W., 2024. "Between episodes of strategy: Sociomateriality, sensemaking, and dysfunction in a scenario planning process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    14. Gino Cattani & Daniel Sands & Joe Porac & Jason Greenberg, 2018. "Competitive Sensemaking in Value Creation and Capture," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 632-657, December.
    15. Ronit Yitshaki & Fredric Kropp & Benson Honig, 2022. "The Role of Compassion in Shaping Social Entrepreneurs’ Prosocial Opportunity Recognition," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 617-647, August.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Eero Vaara & Andrea Whittle, 2022. "Common Sense, New Sense or Non‐Sense? A Critical Discursive Perspective on Power in Collective Sensemaking," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 755-781, May.
    19. Orla Byrne & Dean A. Shepherd, 2015. "Different Strokes for Different Folks: Entrepreneurial Narratives of Emotion, Cognition, and Making Sense of Business Failure," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 375-405, March.
    20. Clément Desgourdes & Daniel Leroy, 2019. "Measuring the influence of sensegiving on employees' commitment to work during a period of organizational change [Mesure de l’influence du sensegiving sur l’engagement au travail des salariés en pé," Post-Print hal-02442644, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    organization; sensemaking; social constructionism; uncertainty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A23 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Graduate

    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:lum:rev3rl:v:12:y:2021:i:1:p:308-318. 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: Antonio Sandu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/po/ .

    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.