Simple rules for sensemaking praxis: How HR can contribute to strategic change by developing sensemaking capability in organisations

Kieran, Sarah; MacMahon, Juliet; MacCurtain, Sarah

doi:10.1111/1748-8583.12404

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Some studies (Wang et al , 2019; Kumar, 2020; Kieran et al , 2022) have adopted sensemaking theory to argue for dynamic challenges organizations and individuals face. For instance, Genius and Bronstein (2017), Christianson and Barton (2021) used sensemaking to study blockchain before COVID-19 and supply chain health-care disruption during COVID-19, respectively.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Supply chain solutions for essential medicine availability during COVID-19 pandemic

Onyango

2023

JHLSCM

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Purpose This study aims to document students’ supply chain solutions developed through the internship hackathon program. The study profiled innovative solutions developed by university students in Kenya to solve health supply chain logistics challenges during and beyond COVID-19. This is done by exploring students’ experience in developing sustainable logistics and supply chain management capacity-building programs in a low-middle-income country (LMIC). Design/methodology/approach This study used a qualitative approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of students and mentors who participated in a hackathon program. The study followed a cross-sectional descriptive survey design, collecting data from the participants through online questionnaires. The data were analyzed and presented using thematic analysis and narrative techniques. Findings Findings provide preliminary evidence for narrowing the gap between theory and practice through a hackathon internship blended with a mentorship program. Assessment of this program provides evidence for developing solutions toward ensuring the availability of essential medicine in LMICs during a pandemic such as COVID-19 by students. The profiled solutions demonstrate a broader perspective of innovative solutions of university students, mentors and potential opportunities for a triple helix approach to innovation for health supply chain system strengthening. Research limitations/implications This original study provides evidence for advancing contribution to developing innovative solutions through partnerships between investors, universities and industry practitioners interested in mentoring students in the health-care supply chain during COVID-19 in LMICs. Specifically, contingency factors that affect the implementation of innovative programs during and beyond global pandemics such as COVID-19 by students’ innovators are identified, and implications for policy action are discussed based on the praxis of sensemaking. Practical implications This study examines a novel approach that combines internship, mentorship and hackathon projects for logistics and supply chain students in LMICs. The approach aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to create innovative solutions for essential medicines during and after COVID-19. The study urges more resources for supporting such programs, as they benefit both academia and industry. The study also argues that hackathon internship programs can help the logistics and supply chain industry adapt to the post-pandemic era. The study offers insights for investors, universities and practitioners in the health-care industry. Originality/value This study shows how to develop innovative solutions for the health-care supply chain during COVID-19 in an LMIC through partnerships between investors, universities and industry practitioners who mentor students. The study identifies the contingency factors that influence the success of such programs during and beyond global pandemics such as COVID-19 and discusses the policy implications based on the sensemaking praxis of the student innovators.

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Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Supply chain solutions for essential medicine availability during COVID-19 pandemic

Onyango

2023

JHLSCM

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“…Similarly, Oliveira and Handfield ( 2017 ) suggest that open communication with suppliers can improve risk perception. However, despite growing acknowledgement of and interest in the use of enactment theory and sensemaking within organizational research, the literature is still in its infancy (Kieran, MacMahon and MacCurtain, 2022 ; Sarafan, Squire and Brandon‐Jones, 2019 ). Specifically, the understanding of how sensemaking can assist managerial risk perception and decision‐making within organizational resilience is absent.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Enactment theory (Weick, 1995(Weick, , 2001 has been regarded as a rich theoretical background to showcase the behavioural process of managerial risk decision-making during equivocal environments (Ellis, Shockley and Henry, 2011;Olcott and Oliver, 2014;Sarafan, Squire and Brandon-Jones, 2019). It proposes that experiences shaped by psychological and social processes determine how individuals and organizations 'make sense' of their environments (Kieran, MacMahon and MacCurtain, 2022;Mayson and Barrett, 2017;Weick, 1995Weick, , 2001. Sensemaking, being the foundation of enactment theory, is explained through its closedloop socio-psychological process comprising enactment (i.e.…”

Section: Enactment Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational Resilience to Supply Chain Risks During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Wulandhari

Budhwar

Akbar

et al. 2022

British J of Management

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This paper aims to establish a link between aggregate organizational resilience capabilities and managerial risk perception aspects during a major global crisis. We argue that a multi-theory perspective, dynamic capability at an organizational level and enactment theory at a managerial level allow us to better understand how the sensemaking process within managerial risk perception assists organizational resilience. We draw from in-depth interviews with 40 managers across the UK's food industry, which has been able to display resilience during the pandemic. In sensing supply chain risks (SCRs), managers within both authority-based and consensus-based organizational structures utilize risk-capture heuristics and enact actions related to effective communications, albeit at different information costs. In seizing, we found that managers adhere to distinct heuristics that are idiosyncratic to their organizational structures. Through limited horizontal communication channels, authority-based structures adhere to rudimentary how-to heuristics, whereas consensus-based structures use obtainable how-to heuristics. We contribute to the organizational resilience and dynamic capabilities literature by identifying assessment as an additional step prior to transforming, which depicts a retention process to inform future judgements. Our study presents a novel framework of organizational resilience to SCRs during equivocal environments, by providing a nuanced understanding of the construction of dynamic capabilities through sensemaking.

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“…A sensemaking approach (Weick, 2012;Sandberg and Tsoukas, 2015) offers a way to examine both individual and organisational levels (Kieran et al, 2022) of identity as they coevolve. Sensemaking is "a socially constructed process in which individuals interact with their environment and with others to create meaning, and enable action" (Christianson and Barton, 2021, p. 572).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A sensemaking approach (Weick, 2012; Sandberg and Tsoukas, 2015) offers a way to examine both individual and organisational levels (Kieran et al. , 2022) of identity as they coevolve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

Hoyte,

Noke

2023

IJEBR

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PurposeThis study aims to explore how aspiring entrepreneurs navigate between their own individual self-concept and the organisational identity of the new venture during the process of new venture creation.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on three cases of aspiring entrepreneurs within a UK-based university incubator in the process of “becoming” entrepreneurs. Semi-structured interviews and secondary data were collected and analysed using a flexible pattern matching approach.FindingsThe data illustrated parallel identity and sensemaking processes occurring as the aspiring entrepreneurs navigated towards new venture formation. For the organisational identity process, three key stages were found to occur: referent identity labelling, projection and identity reification. Concurrently the sensemaking process made up of creation, interpretation and enactment were seen to enable identity transitioning mechanisms: cue identification, liminal sensegiving and recognition of formal venture boundaries, which led to the organisational identity being formed.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is exploratory in nature thus future research is required to clarify the relationship between identity work practices and the process of creating a new venture (Oliver and Vough, 2020). The paper is limited to successful instances of new venture formation, and though this helped to extricate the identity transitioning stages and mechanisms that have thus far remained implicit within the process of new venture creation, it could be extended to examine entrepreneurs who fail to set up new ventures. This limitation opens avenues for further research on identity formation in failed ventures (Snihur and Clarysse, 2022) and on how entrepreneurs negotiate contested identities (Varlander et al., 2020). Furthermore, entrepreneurs take different pathways to new venture formation (Shepherd et al., 2021) and while this study follows the journey of aspiring entrepreneurs who differed in terms of sector, education and prior entrepreneurial experience (Shane, 2003), future researchers could undertake a more in-depth ethnographic study including the effects of incubator setting and how these can be best supported, as this was outside the original remit of this study. Given the importance of the university incubator (Bergman and McMullen, 2022), its role in the construction of new venture identity is an interesting area for future research.Practical implicationsThis study provides a practical contribution into entrepreneurship curricula and incubator training, emphasising the importance of understanding the relevance of the entrepreneur's self-concept in making sense of future venture identities. Through the findings of this study, the importance of cue identification and how aspiring entrepreneurs rely on these to carve out the identity of their budding venture is demonstrated. Incubator spaces may have a role to play in supporting aspiring entrepreneurs to reflect on and interpret feedback (liminal sensegiving) during the venture creation process. Furthermore, both educators and incubator managers need to be aware of the state of in-between-ness aspiring entrepreneurs will face as they carve out the identity of the budding venture. This study enables educators to advise aspiring entrepreneurs that there will come a point on the entrepreneurial journey when they need to emphasise boundary setting between self and organisation to enable organisational identity to be fostered and venture formation realised. This study advises incubator managers to consider whether support around business registrations and creation of business accounts should be provided earlier in the incubation programme to emphasise boundary setting between self and organisation. There is a fruitful avenue for future research to extend the work in this paper to fully understand how this might be taught and practiced in the classrooms.Originality/valueBy extricating the stages of organisational identity formation, often hidden within the new venture creation process, this study has framed new venture creation as a liminal experience and a visible site of identity work. This study presents a process model of the key identity transitioning stages and mechanisms in new ventures, by illustrating how aspiring entrepreneurs' sensemaking influences identity transitions during the process of venture creation.

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Simple rules for sensemaking praxis: How HR can contribute to strategic change by developing sensemaking capability in organisations

Cited by 6 publications

References 77 publications

Supply chain solutions for essential medicine availability during COVID-19 pandemic

Supply chain solutions for essential medicine availability during COVID-19 pandemic

Organizational Resilience to Supply Chain Risks During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Making sense of identity transitioning within the new venture creation process

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