This article presents findings on the nature and operation of gossip that emerged from an empirical study of organizational communication during a chief executive officer (CEO) succession process. By studying gossip within the context of a broader study of change-related communication, new insights were gained that extend, and in some respects challenge, commonly accepted views of the nature of gossip. The findings suggest gossip is experienced as coupled to or embedded in the other forms of change communication employees encountered across the CEO succession process. Gossip appears to be experienced as an integral part of sensemaking and social exchange and not as a phenomenon that can be fully understood in isolation to the formal and other types of informal communication that contribute to these processes. These findings provide the foundations for a theory of embedded organizational gossip that is offered here as a framework for further empirical study.

Current spirit at work literature often assumes spirituality needs to be introduced to the workplace. This paper offers an additional perspective, arguing that spirituality is already present, as many individuals have spiritual beliefs but struggle to articulate or enact these beliefs at work. Exploratory narrative research revealed frequent references to a lack of safety in expressing spirituality at work. The question is why and how do individuals silence their spiritual expression. This paper explores this question and presents a model that captures the ongoing experiential nature of spirituality and proposes that decisions about spiritual expression in the workplace are complex meshes of stimulus, decision-making and action cycles (SDAs) that are embedded in the individual's sensemaking, interpersonal relationships and group dynamics. Findings are explained through different theoretical lenses such as diversity management, social identity theory, social penetration theory and affective sensemaking theory.

Enterprise orientations: a framework for making sense of fashion sector start-up Colleen Mills Article information:To cite this document: Colleen Mills, (2011),"Enterprise orientations: a framework for making sense of fashion sector start-up", Abstract Purpose -This paper aims to present an original conceptual model that captures the orientations of new business founders in the fashion design sector as they navigate the tension between creative endeavour and business practice. Design/methodology/approach -The start-up experiences of 38 fashion designers from the four main fashion centres in New Zealand were examined using an interpretive narrative approach. The designers' enterprise development narratives were analysed using in-depth literary and conceptual analyses to reveal the nature and context of their start-up behaviour and the conceptual frameworks they employed to make sense of their start-up behaviour. Findings -The designers were, to varying degrees, preoccupied with a perceived tension between creative processes and business practices. This tension was typically experienced as a disjunction between self-identity and the identities supported by the business models designers worked within. Successfully navigating this tension could require significant conceptual shifts or fundamental adjustments in business approaches which challenged designers' original rationales for start-up. The analysis of designers' responses to the creativity-business tension and how they made sense of this produced a conceptual framework, a space delineated by three basic enterprise orientations: creative enterprise orientation (CEO), creative business orientation (CBO), and fashion industry orientation (FIO). Research limitations/implications -This conceptual framework has major implications for policy makers and providers of design education and business support as it offers a means of differentiating between the lived-in experiences of designers. In so doing it could be used as a tool for tailoring support more appropriately to designers' needs. The narrative approach produced rich, contextualised insights and a template for the further studies that will be required to establish the wider applicability of the framework. Originality/value -The original conceptual framework presented here provides much needed insight into creative business start-ups that will allow better targeting of education, support and policy development. The approach used to create this framework is an innovative example of how narrative and sensemaking approaches can be combined to provide rich insights into enterprise creation from the entrepreneur's perspective.

While much of the literature on strategy and strategy as practice (SaP) focuses on traditional strategic tools, technologies and discursive practices of managers, this paper extends the understanding of strategic change implementation by proposing that mundane material tools, understood as text, translate global strategic discourse in ways that make sense to workers and orchestrate successful global strategy implementation at the local level. Based on a rich case study within one branch of a national bank, this paper demonstrates how a middle manager's materializing practices developed local strategy practice while simultaneously transforming work and producing strategic figures or indicators that satisfied senior management's global strategic change objectives. The contributions of this paper are threefold: (i) it advances the understanding of the multimodality of materiality by identifying the influence of three types of mundane tools produced locally by a middle manager as he performed his sense of the senior managers' strategic discourse; (ii) it reveals how these three types of physical texts materialized the manager's sense of this discourse, facilitating frontline workers' engagement and coupling materiality and orality in a coherent way that allowed workers to embody the company's global strategy in their 'sayings and doings'; and (iii) it highlights the importance of managers' ability to materialize a strategic discourse.

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This article describes an original typology of enterprise development narratives that emerged from a study of the motivation, risk-taking and self-identity of nascent ICT (information and communications technology) entrepreneurs. The typology provides a multifaceted and integrated framework for appreciating an entrepreneur’s quest to align ‘who I am and what I do’ and achieve what we are calling the ‘self-enterprise fit’. As such, it promises to provide a valuable framework for (re)locating the ‘psychology of entrepreneurship’ in entrepreneurs’ experiences of enterprise development so that our understanding of new entrepreneurs’ approaches to enterprise development is enhanced and business assistance can be more effectively targeted.

Purpose -This paper presents a case study that explores the experiences and sensemaking of a new start entrepreneur in New Zealand. The primary aim of the case was to theorise new entrepreneurs' sensemaking about risk in order to provide a framework for further study. Design/methodology/approach -Data for the case were gathered using a semi-structured interview technique. These data were then coded and analysed using an approach inspired by grounded theory. As the purpose was to examine both what the subject said about her entrepreneurial experience and the conceptual frameworks she drew upon to do this, the analysis integrated techniques employed in discourse analysis and educational psychology. Findings -The analysis produced a theoretical model that suggests the entrepreneur's perceptions of self shaped the perception of risk and then structured the way in which risks were addressed or avoided.Practical implications -This case and the questions that the theoretical model raises have significant implications for entrepreneurs, policy makers and educators. We expect the lines of enquiry suggested by this case will provide a framework for further research on new start entrepreneurs' sensemaking and in so doing help address the dearth of knowledge about New Zealand's new start entrepreneurs' behaviour, particularly in relation to risk assessment. Originality/value -The case draws attention to the interplay between identity and new start entrepreneurial behaviour and in so doing challenges us to look at new start behaviour in a new way. It raises questions about the centrality of the notion of risk in new start entrepreneurs' rationales for the enterprise development decisions they make.

This paper seeks to contribute to understanding of the factors associated with an effective emergent emergency response organisation and to provide new insights into this understudied area. It examines, through an analysis of a range of textual resources, the emergence and re-emergence of the Student Volunteer Army (SVA) during the devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2010-11. This evaluation is conducted in relation to the four key features of an effective emergency response organisation: adaptability; direction; leadership; and communication. In addition, the paper aims to further understanding of 'emergency entrepreneurship' and thus of the values and strategies that underpin social entrepreneur organisations in times of normalcy. The paper concludes that the unique position of the SVA as a 'repeat emergent' emergency response organisation enabled it to innovate continually and to improve repeatedly its systems, relationships, and image, such that it exhibited features common to emergent and established emergency response organisations.