Individual Sensemaking Research Articles

Where will my future Be? Adaptive sensemaking of refugee camp entrepreneurs in perpetual liminality

ABSTRACT Refugees in camps are in precarious and perpetual liminal situations that require them to continually make sense of entrepreneurial activities. This study seeks to answer the following research questions: How do refugee camp entrepreneurs make sense of entrepreneurial activities in perpetual liminality? How do their individual stories interact with the collective narrative of entrepreneurship within the camp community? We employed adaptive sensemaking as a theoretical construct to conduct an explorative qualitative study of Somali refugees in the Umkulu camp in Eritrea. Our study found that entrepreneurs perceive a disparity between an imaginary future and the perceived reality of perpetual liminality in making sense of entrepreneurial activities. When the disparity is small, entrepreneurs are committed to collective accounts for refugee camp entrepreneurship. When the disparity is large, however, it harms the plausibility and cohesiveness of existing narratives, which leads to sensebreaking and eventually prompts the refugees to look for an alternative liminal place. Based on the findings, we theorize refugee camp entrepreneurs’ adaptive sensemaking in perpetual liminality. This study advances scholarly discussions on refugee camp entrepreneurship by revealing the dynamic interplay between individual sensemaking and collective accounts within the camp and conceptualizing the refugee camp as a perpetual liminal place.

Uncertainty in Forest Fire Management

In forest fire management, uncertainties are inherent. One major challenge for forest fire managers is the uncertainty of whether a fire will start at all, where, when and with what effect. In particular, human negligence and arson are unforeseeable. This research focuses on these uncertainties affecting the preparatory practices of forest fire managers in Brandenburg, Germany, and how they are anticipated and dealt with. Qualitative content analysis of expert interviews and focus group discussions generate in-depth insights into the role of uncertainties in the prevention phase and during the control of the event. Findings shows that uncertainties pose barriers to preparatory action. Coping mechanisms rely on individual sensemaking that are in turn influenced by one’s role, knowledge and experience as well as organizational habits and values. Analysis of German firefighters’ perceptions of and coping with uncertainty shows that practices of imagination help to anticipate uncertain futures and to cope with dynamic, complex disasters.

How medical learners and educators decide what counts as mistreatment: A qualitative study.

The mistreatment or abuse (maltreatment) of medical learners by their peers and supervisors has been documented globally for decades, and there is significant research about the prevalence, sequelae and strategies for intervention. However, there is evidence that learners experience maltreatment as being less clear cut than do researchers, educators and administrators. This definitional ambiguity creates problems for understanding and addressing this issue. The objective of this study was to understand how medical learners and educators make sense of less-than-ideal interactions in the clinical learning environment, and to describe which factors influenced their perception that the encounter constituted maltreatment. Using constructivist grounded theory, we interviewed 16 medical students, 15 residents or fellows, and 18 educators associated with a single medical school (n= 49). Data collection began with the most junior learners, iterating with analysis as we progressed through the project. Constant comparative analysis was used to gather and compare stories of 'definitely', 'maybe' and 'definitely not' maltreatment across a variety of axes including experience level, clinical setting and type of interaction. Our data show that learners and educators have difficulty classifying their experiences of negative interpersonal interaction, except in the most severe and concrete cases. While there was tremendous variation in the way they categorised similar experiences, there was consistency in the elements drawn upon to make sense of those experiences. Participants interpreted negative interpersonal interactions on an individual basis by considering factors related to the interaction, initiator and recipient. Only the most negative behaviour is consistently understood as maltreatment; a complex process of individual sense-making is required to determine the acceptability of each interaction. The differences between how individuals judge these interactions highlight an opportunity for administrative, research and faculty development intervention.

Sensemaking in the construction industry: what is small-business social responsibility?

PurposeSocially responsible firms are known to improve competitive advantage and create workplaces that protect employees and the society in the long-term. Yet, the transitionary and project-based nature of the construction industry makes it difficult to espouse socially responsible practices. This study aims to adopt a person-centric conceptualisation of social responsibility by drawing on processes of individual sensemaking to gain a deeper understanding of small-business social responsibility (SBSR).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 people from the construction industry in Sri Lanka to develop retrospective narratives.FindingsThe findings suggest that individuals in small-business construction firms rely on intraindividual, organisational and wider societal considerations to make sense of SBSR. What drives these interviewees to be responsible is determined not so much by profitability or reputation but by their own SBSR sensemaking process.Originality/valueThis study examines how individuals make sense of social responsibility in transitionary project-based small businesses in the construction industry.

The influence of collective and individual sensemaking on how facilitators and teachers implement a professional development program

ABSTRACT This study takes a sociocultural approach in examining how mathematics professional development facilitators and teachers enacted a professional development program in a statewide network of trainings. Facilitators (N = 11) and teachers (N = 62) were surveyed before and after implementation to capture how facilitators understood and then implemented the program with teachers, and how teachers interpreted and then enacted the program with students. Differences in uptake (intended use) and implementation (actual use) were investigated in two separate analyses that looked for differences (1) across levels of iteration (i.e., from original program to facilitators to teachers) and (2) between groups of teachers who participated in the trainings. Results showed substantial variation across levels and between groups such that, although less true of some groups than others, intention to use the program was higher than actual use. Insights are offered into how collective and individual sensemaking processes influence program implementation.

Incorporating ‘Fashion Identity’ Into the Right to Privacy

We need a concept of the right to privacy and identity that incorporates an individual’s perception and self-relationality. This paper scrutinises the meaning of the right to privacy in terms of identity construction, focusing on the meaning of ‘identity’ in fashion studies. This investigation delves into the value of privacy as a shield against unwarranted intrusions, an enabler of dynamic boundary negotiations, as well as a social framework for an individual’s autonomy to analyse the European Court of Human Right’s (ECtHR) interpretation of Article 8(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The right to privacy suffers from two problems regarding the role of parameters and conditions for identity-building in the digital age. First, profiling technologies necessitate an understanding of normative barriers that are not reactive to societal attitudes, but which maintain an internal sense of privacy. Second, profiling technologies’ relation to the conditions of identity-building suggests that we need to move away from a structural account of privacy and investigate the meaning of an individual’s self-relationality in individual sense-making. I suggest that a definition of ‘fashion identity’ could clarify the right to privacy, stipulating how aspects of identity are affected by social constraints in the management and perception of appearance.

Listening to and Living With Networked Media During a Pandemic

This article explores mediated listening from the perspective of intimacy during the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. The theoretical frame builds on the literature on listening and presence in mediated environments, audience engagement, and intimacy as meaningful connections. Methodologically, the study is connective ethnography, and the data was collected by collaborative autoethnography. Our data show that listening was an individual sensemaking strategy of the outside world and a means to form connectedness. Threading between different screens on digital platforms caused the collapse of public and private contexts, and through these, particular types of intimacy arose. When the position of academic mothers is often that of a ‘knower,’ the severe crisis compels them to look for receptive ways of knowing, such as careful listening of others. Listening is a means to form belonging and understanding, but from a silent position. We should pay more attention to the silent presences and audiences in contemporary mediated environments.

Navigating Ethical Quandaries with Close Personal Contacts in Qualitative Research

There are a variety of ethical situations that qualitative communication researchers must navigate. This point is especially true when the research involves close personal contacts, such as friends and family members. In order to problematize the ethical frameworks that guide qualitative inquiry and illuminate the complexities of relational ethics, we—the authors—reflected on our past experiences engaging in research with close personal contacts. Specifically, we took a collaborative autoethnographic approach that involved sharing personal stories, drafting autoethnographic narratives, and engaging in individual and collaborative sensemaking. In doing so, we highlight the following three quandaries specific to conducting research with close personal contacts: (1) challenging/affirming identity anchors, (2) challenging/affirming power relations, and (3) challenging/affirming ownership. We explicate each of these themes using autoethnographic vignettes and conclude by offering five lessons learned of relational ethics, which are organized using the phases of qualitative research: conceptualization and design, data collection, and representation.

'Fostering critical engagement rather than blind devotion': calling for transdisciplinary microbiology research.

'Fostering critical engagement rather than blind devotion': calling for transdisciplinary microbiology research.

EXPLORATORY AND EXPLOITATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT: HOW PRODUCT AND ENGINEERING MANAGERS’ PERCEPTIONS DIFFER: A CASE OF TWO LARGE HIGH-TECH CORPORATIONS

Ambidexterity has been a focus for many researchers in the past few decades, and multiple angles of ambidexterity have been studied to understand how to achieve it, its antecedents, and its impact on organisations. While personal ambidexterity has been studied with respect to the tensions the individuals might experience as they juggle exploratory and exploitative innovation projects, little is known about their individual sensemaking prior to their exercise of ambidexterity. This paper aims at narrowing this gap in the literature by offering an insight, based on personal construct theory, as to why managers from product management and engineering management functions in software organisations may not be applying exploratory techniques on exploratory innovation projects. A key finding from this research indicates that managers do not differentiate between types of project in a sufficiently explicit and propositional manner, and as a result, do not choose techniques appropriate to the situation. Instead, they tend to apply exploitative techniques on exploratory innovation projects with slight variations. Recommendations to practitioners to address the issues uncovered are proposed.

Working in the Eye of the Pandemic: Local COVID-19 Infections and Daily Employee Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed many aspects of our society and work life. In this study, we assess how daily variations in employees’ work engagement are affected by daily variations in infection rates in employees’ communities. Applying the conceptual framework of event system theory, we argue that surging COVID-19 cases have an impact on employee engagement, depending on the individual sensemaking processes of the pandemic. We assume that employee age and received leader support are key context factors for these sensemaking processes and that particularly older employees and employees who receive little leader consideration react with lower work engagement levels toward rising local COVID-19 infections in their proximity. We find support for most of our proposed relationships in an eight-day diary study with largely a representative data set of the German workforce, which we integrate with official COVID-19 case statistics on the county level. We discuss the implications of these results for the literature on extreme events and individual workplace behavior. Furthermore, these findings also have important implications for companies and executives who are confronted with local COVID-19 outbreaks or further pandemic waves.

Working in the Eye of the Pandemic: Local COVID-19 Infections and Daily Employee Engagement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed many aspects of our society and work life. This study assesses how daily variations in employees' work engagement are affected by daily variations in infection rates in employees' communities. Applying the conceptual framework of event system theory, we argue that surging COVID-19 cases have an impact on employee engagement, depending on the individual sensemaking processes of the pandemic. We assume that employee age and received leader support are key context factors for these sensemaking processes and that particularly older employees and employees who receive little leader consideration react with lower work engagement levels toward rising local COVID-19 infections in their proximity. We find support for most of our proposed relationships in an 8-day diary study of German employees, which we integrate with official COVID-19 case statistics on the county level. We discuss the implications of these results for the literature on extreme events and individual workplace behavior. Furthermore, these findings have important implications for companies and executives who are confronted with local COVID-19 outbreaks or other extreme societal events.

Sensemaking in the Time of COVID‐19

Abstract When people encounter surprising or confusing events, they engage in sensemaking to answer the questions, ?what?s the story?? and ?now what?? (Weick et al , 2005) Sensemaking is a socially constructed process in which individuals interact with their environment and with others to create meaning and enable action The COVID-19 pandemic has created an environment that is dynamically uncertain ? routines are upended, normal interactions are disrupted, and risk must be reassessed on an ongoing basis

Investigating Paradigms of Group Territory in Multiple Display Environments

Multiple-display environments (MDEs) have promise in helping co-located sensemaking tasks by supporting searching, organizing, and discussion tasks. Co-located sensemaking occurs when two or more sensemakers forage for useful information within a dataset, creating and leveraging knowledge structures individually and together. Group territories in MDEs support communicating and assembling findings, but questions remain regarding how to best represent individual sensemaking efforts in the group territory to support the sensemaking collaboration. This paper empirically examines exploration of a large Twitter dataset using three group territory paradigms: parallel, connected, and merged. Results reveal that merging group work increases task complexity while separating individuals' sections in the group territory supports monitoring, and more interactions are performed when individual work is not connected in the group territory.

Compassion capability in resource-limited organizations in South Africa

ABSTRACTCompassion in organizations benefits the giver and receiver of compassion, and the organization as a whole. Organizations with resource limitations, however, face risks and liabilities for compassion organizing. In South Africa, an emerging economy with a challenged socioeconomic environment, human service organizations face resource limitations. Organizations providing health and social services, such as home-based care, child- and youth care and medicine, in the context of a high burden of disease and limited material resources, face personal resource limitations, such as compassion fatigue and burnout. This article discusses individual staff capacities required for compassion in organizations in resource-limited human service organizations. It applies individual and participatory sensemaking, with embodied experience, as capacities to distinguish between the experiences of empathic concern and personal distress when working with others who are suffering. It serves as a foundation for professional development and supervision of agents working in these circumstances – and should be of primary concern to the HR and Coaching fraternities.

Running Rotterdam: on how locals\u2019 participation in running events fosters their sense of place

Building on the insights of scholarship highlighting specific aspects of the forming of place meanings and experiences during running (events), this paper aims at applying a more holistic perspective on how meanings attached to and experiences of place by local runners are shaped through both individual and collective sense-making. Conceptually, the paper combines (post-)phenomenological and symbolic interactionist approaches. Empirically, the paper focuses on the Dutch city of Rotterdam and draws on extensive fieldwork conducted at the 2018 edition of the NN Marathon Rotterdam, and two smaller scale, non-commercially oriented running events organized by a local running club in 2017. Based on this qualitative research, the paper demonstrates that individual local runners’ understandings and embodied experience of the physical and social environment is always situated in, and interwoven with, broader social meanings and instances of shared embodiment. At the same time, the paper reflects on the methodological challenges faced by research on running (events) and calls for a more explicit acknowledgement of the multiple character of the running world(s) studied, and of the trade-offs between the different research techniques applied.

A chorus of dissent: exploring the aims and audiences of online dissent

In this study, we examined online dissent as expressed by members and former members of a U.S. based megachurch. Our interpretive analysis of the data illuminated three audiences of dissent (i.e., self, others, the pastor) and uncovered three clear aims (i.e., individual sensemaking, community defense, providing corrective direction) of dissent processes in this non-secular organization as enacted online. Taken together, these audiences and aims complicate several taken-for-granted assumptions embedded in current models of dissent processes and extend scholarly insight into dissent in religious organizations.

Counselling formerly heterosexually partnered gay fathers raised with religion

ABSTRACT Formerly heterosexually partnered gay fathers raised with religion are an under-researched group of LGBTQ parents. This group have potentially complex coming out journeys, which can result in them seeking counselling. This research qualitatively explores the counselling experiences of 12 such men and offers suggestions for working therapeutically with them. The key finding of the qualitative analysis of the participants' interviews was that they wanted therapists to not assume a “best” outcome for them as either gay or “straight”. Instead, they wanted therapists to respect and assist them to explore their own individual sense-making around their identities and to reject fixed notions from both ex-gay and gay affirmative therapy of what it means to be a “well-adjusted” gay father.

Examining Spontaneous Perspective Taking and Fluid Self-to-Data Relationships in Informal Open-Ended Data Exploration

Engaging learners with complex unfamiliar datasets is a known challenge in Data Science education. One promising phenomenon investigated in related work is perspective-taking. A first-person “actor” perspective can help facilitate group and individual sensemaking by mediating observations and actions taken by learners. Here we investigate how museum visitors made use of an actor perspective when exploring an open-ended, interactive data map museum exhibit. We use a mix of qualitative and quantitative empirical methods to explore how actor perspective-taking (APT) may mediate joint sensemaking around data visualizations. By applying interpretive coding to 54 conversations wherein APT naturalistically emerged, we identify 3 distinct self-to-data relationships constructed via APT: role-play, projection, and orientation. A further analysis explores how APT was embedded in joint sensemaking of the visualized data. Twelve APT-mediated sensemaking processes are identified; two (extrapolating and noticing absence) were used in conjunction with multiple APT self-to-data relationships, while the remaining ten (e.g., enacting, spatially characterizing, generalizing) were exclusively used with specific self-to-data APT relationships. We use these empirical findings to generate hypotheses about how APT and associated sensemaking processes may support Data Science learning goals.

Organising a culture of argumentation in elementary science

ABSTRACTMost of the research on argumentation in science education has documented the myriad flaws in students’ argumentation, and the difficulties teachers have organising productive arguments in the classroom. We apply a sociocultural framework to argue that productive argumentation emerges from a classroom culture in which its practice meaningfully serves classroom goals. We present a case study using interaction analysis to contrast two elementary teachers’ efforts to organise productive scientific argumentation in their classrooms. One teacher used discourse moves to orient students to each other’s contributions in ways the other did not, reflecting differences in underlying aims for collective versus individual sense-making. This analysis shows that connecting discourse practices specifically to a goal of collective sense-making promotes productive argumentation.