Organizational Sensemaking

Central to the concept of organizational sensemaking is the notion that explanations of issues cannot be found in any form of structure or system but in how organizational actors see and attribute meaning to things. From this perspective, strategies, plans, rules, and goals are not things that exist in an objective sense within (or external to) an organization. Rather, their source is people’s way of thinking. Moreover, from a sensemaking perspective, the issue of whether one’s view of the world is “correct” is not meaningful, and the correctness of a decision is contingent on the point of view that is being used to evaluate it.

The basic idea of sensemaking is that reality is an ongoing accomplishment that emerges from the efforts of organizational members to ...