Rupture and reclamation in the life story: The role of early relationships in self-narratives following a forced career transition

Maitlis, Sally

doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2021.104115

Cited by 25 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 124 publications

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“…Another general contribution of our study is to bring in renouncing as a core lever of sensemaking to the literature on how individuals reflect on their own experience within a constraining regime (Knights & McCabe, 2000). Our narrative sensemaking perspective (Cunliffe & Coupland, 2012; Maitlis, 2022) focused on how individuals give meaning to their own behavior and construct themselves within such a context (Bailey et al, 2019). Generally speaking, existing studies show that organizational participants can either adhere to managerialist definitions of what is meaningful or adopt more resistant postures through alternative constructions of meaning such as cynicism, skepticism, or mistrust (Cartwright & Holmes, 2006; Knights & McCabe, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the sensemaking perspective, a range of researchers (e.g., Chaudhry et al, 2009; Cunliffe & Coupland, 2012) acknowledge the need to understand individual differences in how employees make sense of their work life. The narrative approach takes this fine‐grained perspective by acknowledging how personal life stories are created in sensemaking processes, at work and beyond (Maitlis, 2022). Because addressing the what, how, and why individuals renounce at work requires understanding how they individually make sense of their situation and choices and reconstruct it to give it coherence, focusing on narrative sensemaking is highly relevant.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making sense of renouncing: A typology of types, motives, and approaches to renouncing at work

Bardon

Frémeaux

Letierce

et al. 2023

European Management Review

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In this paper, we provide an exploratory account of the experience of renouncing at work—giving up a work‐related aspiration. Despite the importance of the phenomenon, the conceptualization of renouncing has been overlooked by the literature. Taking a narrative sensemaking approach to renouncing, we document variance in individual experiences to renouncing, that is, how they subjectively understand what, why, and how they renounce at work. Through a qualitative approach, we investigate the case of 30 academics working in three French business schools characterized by an increasingly influential managerialist “publish or perish” regime, a context conducive to renouncing. Based on our findings identifying various experiences of renouncing, we inductively build a matrix and a model connecting six experiences of renouncing based on the type of renouncing (renouncing in order to succeed vs. renouncing success itself) and how people approach renouncing (suffered, accepted, or chosen renouncing).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of renouncing: A typology of types, motives, and approaches to renouncing at work

Bardon

Frémeaux

Letierce

et al. 2023

European Management Review

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“…The narrative sensemaking approach has also been used by scholars interested in careers. Lee et al (2011) already used to study a variety of topics, the narrative perspective can also be applied in other areas where there is a need to place specific events or issues in a longer-term context, such as historical analyses of organizational change (Boje, Haley, & Saylors, 2016;Gasparin, Green, & Schinckus, 2019), or studies of adversity and growth (Maitlis, 2022;Sawyer & Clair, 2021).…”

Section: Rhetorical Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In essence, this research has shown how narratives provide temporal discursive structures that are crucial for making sense of experiences at the interface of the self and organization. Although already used to study a variety of topics, the narrative perspective can also be applied in other areas where there is a need to place specific events or issues in a longer-term context, such as historical analyses of organizational change (Boje, Haley, & Saylors, 2016; Gasparin, Green, & Schinckus, 2019), or studies of adversity and growth (Maitlis, 2022; Sawyer & Clair, 2021). Such research not only illuminates the role of preexisting and established narratives in collective meaning-making, but also how narratives are formed, reproduced and transformed in social interaction.…”

Section: Language-based Perspectives On Sensemakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Language in Organizational Sensemaking: An Integrative Theoretical Framework and an Agenda for Future Research

Whittle

Vaara

Maitlis

2023

Journal of Management

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Despite the rapid growth of research on organizational sensemaking and an acknowledgment of the critical role of language in the sensemaking process, the literature on sensemaking and language is fragmented. In particular, there is no systematic review that explains the roles and functions of different linguistic elements in meaning construction. The purpose of this review paper is to develop an integrative theoretical framework that organizes existing research in a way that allows us to better understand how different linguistic processes shape the construction of meaning in sensemaking. First, we explain how a cognitive linguistic perspective elucidates how language provides the cognitive associations, schema, and frames used in sensemaking. Second, we discuss how a focus on the social practices of language use, as in rhetorical, narrative, or interactionist approaches, illuminates the patterns of meaning-making among organizational members in social interaction. Third, we explain how a focus on discourse helps us to understand how discursive structures enable or constrain sensemaking and thereby reproduce or transform systems of thought. This leads us to turn to the differences in these perspectives and suggest how they can be brought together in an integrative theoretical framework. Finally, we discuss the contributions of our framework and propose an agenda for future research focusing on the multifaceted role of language in sensemaking, intertextual and multimodal links in the language of sensemaking, the agentic and structural role of language in sensemaking, episodic and latent aspects of language use in sensemaking, and the role of power in discursive sensemaking.

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“…Numerous works using this approach, many of them empirical, have appeared in top American and European journals and cast light on novel or problematic features of organizations, organizing, and the organized (e.g. Anicich, forthcoming; Ashforth and Reingen, 2014; Fotaki, 2013; Fotaki and Hyde, 2015; Handy and Rowlands, 2017; Kahn, forthcoming; Kenny, 2010; Kenny et al, 2020; Maitlis, forthcoming; Padavic et al, 2020; Petriglieri and Peshkam, forthcoming; Petriglieri et al, 2018, 2019; Prasad, 2014; Stein, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2021; Vince, 2019). After its mid-life crisis, the work is alive anew.…”

Section: A Mid-life Crisis (Are You Not Entertained?)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The work is alive! Systems psychodynamics and the pursuit of pluralism without polarization in human relations

Petriglieri

2022

Human Relations

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This article celebrates the vitality of the systems psychodynamic approach and its potential to humanize organization studies, management practice, and working lives. An approach is a deliberate movement: a way to move closer to, inquire about, and deal with something. The systems psychodynamic approach involves moving closer to organizations and workers through research and educational efforts to study and manage the unconscious dynamics of organizing. It aims to reveal the fears, needs, and wishes that underpin rigid structures and dysfunctions in groups, organizations, and institutions—and to foster more adaptive and functional ways of dealing with those impulses. Advocates refer to this approach as ‘the work’. This article tells the story of the work as we understand it. We tell it as a life, to highlight the work’s intent and evolution, its struggles and contributions, but mostly to make the point that the work is alive. It is alive as an academic enterprise and it is a way of life. An approach devoted to dismantling defenses, countering authoritarianism, and nurturing development and democracy, we argue, is more relevant than ever. And so is what we see as the purpose of the work: fostering pluralism without polarization in human relations.

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Rupture and reclamation in the life story: The role of early relationships in self-narratives following a forced career transition

Cited by 25 publications

References 124 publications

Making sense of renouncing: A typology of types, motives, and approaches to renouncing at work

Making sense of renouncing: A typology of types, motives, and approaches to renouncing at work

The Role of Language in Organizational Sensemaking: An Integrative Theoretical Framework and an Agenda for Future Research

The work is alive! Systems psychodynamics and the pursuit of pluralism without polarization in human relations

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