Making sense of organizational change: Is hindsight really 20/20?

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the conceptual links between 2 different approaches to managerial cognition, sensemaking and cognitive bias, in the context of organizational change. A longitudinal case study utilizing both real-time assessments and retrospective sensemaking data from interviews with 26 hospital employees at 3 points in time was undertaken. Patterns related to individuals' retrospective accounts and real-time assessments were identified and used to construct 4 prototypical narratives. Data analysis revealed that organizational change was not a markedly negative experience for most informants, which is contrary to the prevailing theme in the literature. This and other findings are discussed in terms of sensemaking and cognitive bias. This study makes 2 contributions to our understanding of how individual's experience and make sense of organizational change over time as (a) little is known about how the process of change unfolds over time at the individual level and (b) extant research has not investigated the extent to which individuals' retrospective sensemaking about organizational change reflects or diverges from their real-time assessments over the course of the change. More broadly, the study provides insights and focused advice for management researchers regarding the use of retrospective data to understand individuals' perceptions of situations that have already occurred.

Retiring: Role identity processes in retirement transition

“…Second, the methodology involved retrospective recollection of events, particularly from those in later stages of retirement transition. Cognitive biases and sensemaking over time can make retrospective accounts problematic (Gover & Duxbury, 2018). We tried to deal with this limitation of retrospective reporting in two ways: First, rather than subjective assessments of situations (e.g., were you happy or sad?…”

Occasions for Sensemaking and Responses to Change: A Quasi-Field Experiment

“…In addition, our study extends and enriches the growing literature exploring the temporal shifts in responses to change (Gover & Duxbury, 2017;Jansen et al, 2016;Soenen et al, 2017). Although our study reveals that people participating in OfS are more likely to shift their response, our analyses show divergent results.…”

“…Micro change researchers are increasingly interested in exploring the temporal dynamics of responses to change (Bartunek & Woodman, 2015;Gover & Duxbury, 2017;Jansen et al, 2016). Yet to date, little effort has been given to theoretically ground and empirically explore interventions that drive perceptual shifts.…”

Taking the Culture out of the Lab and Into the Office: A “Non-Lab” Approach to Public Service Transformation

“…In addition to building new skills, there is also a need to support the emotional changes that are associated with organizational transformation. Engaging users in the process of change can help them both understand and accept those changes as necessary, as Gover and Duxbury (2017) found in their study of a hospital restructuring, as well as facilitate the sharing of critical fears and doubts about the process of change (Kearney & Siegman, 2013). Organizational change, then, must have both the cultural change that creates conditions that permit failure, open discussion about feelings and concerns, as well as the ability to challenge the status quo.…”