Making Sense of Organizational Change in Times of Dynamic Complexity: Change Managerialism and Reflexivity

This chapter analyzes micro-processes of sense-making sensemaking during change implementation under a macro-level discourse of ‘change managerialismmanagerialism ’. We demonstrate how managerialism is interwoven in taken-for-granted enactments of managing change and how this instrumental rationalityinstrumental rationality subsequently suppresses reflexive capabilities and agency during change implementation in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Adopting a reflexive research methodology, this chapter aims at illustrating how sense-making processes are enacted by a predominant perspective of change managerialismmanagerialism that does not take into account the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous nature of the organizational context. Empirical material presented suggests that sense-making is shaped through a dynamic interplay of dominant macro-level discourse of change managerialism change managerialism on the one hand, and grandiose discursive enactments and rhetoric strategies on the other hand. This interdependent play results in sense-making that is characterized by system colonization of the sense-maker’s lived reality, de-familiarization, discursive disconnection, and eventually suppression of reflexive capabilities.