Of Organizing and Sensemaking: From Action to Meaning and Back Again in a Half‐Century of Weick’s Theorizing

Mary Ann Glynn · Lee Watkiss

62 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Management Studies

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Management and Organizational Studies Management Theory and Practice Information Systems Theories and Implementation

Abstract

Abstract The themes of organizing and sensemaking have reverberated throughout Weick’s remarkable career and constitute one of the hallmarks of his contribution. We review his major works and show how Weick differentially emphasizes organizing and sensemaking over time and, eventually, arrives at a fuller integration of meaning and action. Initially, Weick (1969; 1979) models their relationship as linear, focusing on how organizing functioned as a context for sensemaking, an approach we labelSensemaking in Organizing. Later, however, Weick (1995a; 2005) construes their relationship in more dynamic, interactive, and reciprocal cycles, modelling sensemaking as the process whereby organizing is achieved, an approach we labelSensemaking as Organizing. We explore the evolution and implications of these approaches and discuss their impact on management scholarship. Finally, we draw out potential future research directions at the interface of organizing and sensemaking.

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References

1983The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields 1977Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony 1955A BEHAVIORAL MODEL OF RATIONAL CHOICE 1969The social psychology of organizing 1986Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies 1976Educational Organizations as Loosely Coupled Systems 2005Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking 1984Toward a Model of Organizations as Interpretation Systems

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