Speaker: Prof Jörgen Sandberg, UQ Business School, University of Queensland
Title: The sensemaking perspective: an explication, critique, reconsideration, and possible application range
Date: Wed, 13th Sep 2023
Time: 12:30pm – 2:30pm
Venue: Allan Barton Forum, Level 2, CBE Building 26C
Dr Samira Nazar is the host of this visit.
ABSTRACT
The sensemaking perspective is one of the most influential theoretical perspectives in management and organization studies. It has been applied in over 30 different areas, ranging from strategy and organizational change to organizational identity and organizational knowledge, and has been a driving force in the development of process interpretive studies more broadly in business studies. Despite its influence, there is still considerable confusion about what the sensemaking perspective entails, stands for, its limitations, and possible application range. In this presentation, I will unpack the sensemaking perspective by identifying its main components and critically evaluate them. Based on this, I propose a typology of different types of sensemaking in organizations that provides a more coherent and integrative conceptualization of what defines the sensemaking perspective. Finally, I discuss how the typology contributes to the existing sensemaking perspective, and its potential areas of application.
BIO
Jörgen Sandberg is Professor in the University of Queensland (UQ) Business School, Australia, Co-Lead of Practice and Process Studies, a multidisciplinary research group within the UQ Business School, Honorary Professor at Warwick Business School, UK, and Co-founder of the international conference Philosophy and Organization Studies (PHILOS). He has researched extensively in the areas of competence and learning in organizations; practice, process, sensemaking theory; theory development; philosophy of science; and research methodology, published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Organization Behavior, Organization Theory, Organization Research Methods, Journal of Management Studies, and Harvard Business Review. His most recent books include Re-imagining the research process: conventional and alternative metaphors (with Alvesson, Sage, 2021) and Skillful performance: Enacting capabilities, knowledge, competence and expertise in organizations (with Rouleau, Langley and Tsoukas, Oxford University Press, 2017). He also serves on the editorial boards for Academy of Management Review, Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Organization Studies.