Identity, Image, and Issue Interpretation: Sensemaking During Strategic Change in Academia

Gioia, Dennis A.; Thomas, James B.

doi:10.2307/2393936

Cited by 1,327 publications

(1,159 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Sensemaking is the process by which individuals "construct meaningful explanations for situations and their experiences within those situations" (Gioia, 1986, p. 61). Leaders as sensemakers are important as previous research has found top managers' ability to scan the environment and interpret issues influence decision-making and strategic change in organizations (Gioia and Thomas, 1996;Smircich and Stubbart, 1985;Thomas et al, 1993). We found evidence that the leaders at Mission Church enabled change by making sense of the emerging change in the organization (Weick & Quinn, 1999) and giving meaning to unfolding events (See Table 2).…”

Section: Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 71%

The role of leadership in emergent, self-organization

Plowman

Solansky

Beck

et al. 2007

The Leadership Quarterly

263

199

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Section: Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 71%

The role of leadership in emergent, self-organization

Plowman

Solansky

Beck

et al. 2007

The Leadership Quarterly

263

199

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“…In the study of corporate cultural repertoires in the pharmaceutical industry, I entered the process of element identification with a broad analytic framework derived from the sensemaking literature (Gioia and Thomas, 1996;Thomas et al, 1993;Weick, 1995). Sensemaking processes involve at least three central aspects: perceptions, interpretations and actions.…”

Section: Illustration: Elements Of Corporate Cultural Repertoires In mentioning

confidence: 99%

A toolkit for analyzing corporate cultural toolkits

Weber

2005

Poetics

134

105

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The cultural and discursive underpinning of industries and markets has received growing attention in recent years. I use Ann Swidler's conceptualization of culture as toolkit, and Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus as the starting point to further this enterprise. The article illustrates a strategy for measuring and comparing the cultural toolkits in use by different actors in a larger field. The strategy allows quantitative comparisons of similarity at the level of large comprehensive toolkits instead of selective elements or inferred deeper dimensions. It also takes into account the embeddedness of actors' cultural toolkits in the structures of larger social fields and the specificity of toolkits to communication contexts. While this analytic strategy is potentially applicable to any actor's toolkit in a recurring communication context, I use as an illustration the repertoires that different corporations in the pharmaceutical industry employ to account for their activities in their annual reports. #

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“…The case of communication departments could be seen as one example alongside several others, the establishment of departments in accounting, research management, and HR. While the label "communication" does not necessarily imply "new" practices (Gioia and Thomas 1996), one could expect that a result of increased professionalization could have organizational consequences for the university. For example, a communication department with a highly professionalized staff may potentially create organizational inconsistency in that a strong internal professional ethos may lead to tensions between the aims and objectives of the communication department and other departments (Meyer and Rowan 1977).…”

Section: Unpacking the Development Of New Administrative Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The painters behind the profile: the rise and functioning of communication departments in universities

2018

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It has been argued that universities are changing into becoming more professional as organizations, and this paper investigates this claim by exploring the emergence and tasks of communication departments in modern universities. Examination of universities in six Baltic and Nordic countries shows that communication departments are working closely with the institutional leadership and that communication is increasingly seen as a strategic function in the universities. This can position communication departments as a central internal coordinator between various organizational units and processes. While the findings indicate support for the assumption about more professional universities, those working within a communication department seem to have a broad and varied background and cannot be said to have developed a specific professional identity in all the institutions. However, our findings do indicate increasing contact and close relations between communication specialists across university borders which may result in a stronger professional identity over time.

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Identity, Image, and Issue Interpretation: Sensemaking During Strategic Change in Academia

Cited by 1,327 publications

References 33 publications

The role of leadership in emergent, self-organization

The role of leadership in emergent, self-organization

A toolkit for analyzing corporate cultural toolkits

The painters behind the profile: the rise and functioning of communication departments in universities

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