Organizational Restructuring and Middle Manager Sensemaking.

Balogun, Julia; Johnson, Gerry

doi:10.2307/20159600

Cited by 891 publications

(571 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

530

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Our analysis of temporal work complements existing research on strategic sensemaking (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005) by explaining how and why some strategic accounts work and some fail in practice; and, for those that do work, why some lead to status quo outcomes and others lead to change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Yet, the literature in strategic management that has built on sensemaking has focused more on the ways in which individual sensemaking leads to shared cognitions, and in particular, how such views are "given" or justified to others (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). Less attention has been directed to the question of how interpretations of the past, present and future are constructed and linked together in more or less radical ways.…”

Section: Foundations For Understanding Temporal Work In Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In studying strategic change, scholars have emphasized the importance of sensemaking as a collective and often conflictual interpretive process for dealing with uncertainties about the business, the market, and the environment that lead to breakdowns in understandings and require cognitive reorientations to move forward (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). These studies suggest that linking across interpretations of the past, present and future make action possible, but have left unexplained how and why some linkages work and some fail in practice, and, for those that do work, why some lead to the status quo and others produce change.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Kaplan

Orlikowski

2013

Organization Science

419

458

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper reports on a field study of strategy making in one organization facing an industry crisis. In a comparison of five strategy projects, we observed that organizational participants struggled with competing interpretations of what might emerge in the future, what was currently at stake, and even what had happened in the past. We develop a model of temporal work in strategy making that articulates how actors resolved differences and linked their interpretations of the past, present, and future so as to construct a strategic account that enabled concrete strategic choice and action. We found that settling on a particular account required it to be coherent, plausible and acceptable, otherwise breakdowns resulted. Such breakdowns could impede progress, but could also be generative in provoking a search for new interpretations and possibilities for action. The more intensely actors engaged in temporal work, the more likely the strategies departed from the status quo. Our model suggests that strategy cannot be understood as the product of more or less accurate forecasting without considering the multiple interpretations of present concerns and historical trajectories that help to constitute those forecasts. Projections of the future are always entangled with views of the past and present, and temporal work is the means by which actors construct and reconstruct the connections among them. These insights into the mechanisms of strategy making help explain the practices and conditions that produce organizational inertia and change. Temporal Work in Strategy Making-1 -A fundamental challenge for managers making strategy is coping with an uncertain future. In studying strategic change, scholars have emphasized the importance of sensemaking as a collective and often conflictual interpretive process for dealing with uncertainties about the business, the market, and the environment that lead to breakdowns in understandings and require cognitive reorientations to move forward (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al. 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). These studies suggest that linking across interpretations of the past, present and future make action possible, but have left unexplained how and why some linkages work and some fail in practice, and, for those that do work, why some lead to the status quo and others produce change.Our study of strategy making in practice offers some answers to these questions. We found that managers -through a set of practices that we call "temporal work" -come to settle on particular strategic accounts that link interpretations of the past, present and future in ways that appear coherent, plausible and Settling on a strategic account, even if provisional, allows actors to shift from disagreeing or deliberating about meanings to implementing strategic choices, thus enabling the organization to move forward in the face of uncertainty. If a settlement breaks down, further temporal work is required in order to reconstruct a new str...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Foundations For Understanding Temporal Work In Strategy Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Kaplan

Orlikowski

2013

Organization Science

419

458

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A third, and the most related body of work to our research, explores the cognitive processes of middle managers' involvement in strategy (e.g., Balogun and Johnson, 2004;Dutton et al, 1997;Guth and MacMillan, 1986;Huy et al, 2014;Mangaliso, 1995;Ren and Guo, 2011;Westley, 1990). For example, Balogun and Johnson's (2004), and Rouleau and Balogun's (2011) studies reveal the pivotal role of middle managers in sense-making during organisational change.…”

Section: The Strategic Role Of Middle Managersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Balogun and Johnson's (2004), and Rouleau and Balogun's (2011) studies reveal the pivotal role of middle managers in sense-making during organisational change. Similarly, Luscher and Lewis's (2008) action research focuses on helping middle managers interpret, communicate, and implement strategic change through the use of paradox in the Danish LEGO company.…”

Section: The Strategic Role Of Middle Managersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Middle managers' knowledge of strategy: antecedents, cognitive accuracy and self-awareness

Cruikshank¹,

Auster²,

Basir³

et al. 2015

IJSCM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Middle managers provide a powerful conduit for strategy execution particularly in fast paced environments. Their knowledge of strategy is critical for strategic change to be successful. Yet, little research directly examines how aware middle managers are of corporate strategy and how accurate they are in their understanding of how that strategy translates into divisional goals. Framed in cognition theory, this exploratory study uses qualitative and quantitative 74 R. A. Cruikshank et al. analysis to investigate the antecedents, accuracy and self-awareness of middle managers' knowledge of strategy within a large North American financial firm (N = 294). Implications for research and practice are highlighted.

show abstract

Regeneration

2018

Strategic Analytics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Organizational Restructuring and Middle Manager Sensemaking.

Cited by 891 publications

References 38 publications

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Middle managers' knowledge of strategy: antecedents, cognitive accuracy and self-awareness

Regeneration

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About