Sensemaking Process Research Articles

Searching for meaning through conspiracy theories. Considerations on the state of the art of psychological literature and definition of a research agenda from a semiotic dynamic cultural perspective

Why do conspiracy theories abound in critical times? The purpose of this article is to provide an extensive critical review of research perspectives that focus, in the age of crisis, on the human processes of sensemaking in the creation and diffusion of conspiracy theories. Correlational methods of study are not enough to highlight psychic and collective dynamics. The authors trace some paths through various contributions from different disciplines (from social psychology to psychoanalysis, from neuroscience to cultural psychology), and link some of the psychic mechanisms and factors that have emerged as fundamental in a broad and flexible theoretical framework based on affective semiosis.

Tracing language teacher professional development through Perezhivanie: an argument for praxis

ABSTRACT In this paper, we build an argument for studying and promoting teacher development in dialectical teacher-researcher partnership, praxis, which is informed by perezhivanie, a dialectical unity of emotion and intellect . We will study the developmental trajectory of an in-service L2 teacher striving to give her learners agency in the teaching-learning process while navigating institutional structures. We guide the reader through this teacher’s development in a year-and-a-half praxis with two researchers, illustrating the joint process of sense-making to resolve tensions stemming from institutional constraints, learner expectations, and own practices. The data come from (a) teacher-researcher discussions, (b) a teacher interview, and (c) data sessions. Perezhivanie informed the design, researchers’ mediation, and data analysis. We illustrate how the teacher moved towards and realised her commitment to enabling learner agency in language teaching. We discuss the implications of making perezhivanie a central concept in teacher education with in-service L2 teachers, realised through praxis.

Safety Listening in Organizations: An Integrated Conceptual Review

Failures of listening to individuals raising concerns are often implicated in safety incidents. To better understand this and theorize the communicative processes by which safety voice averts harm, we undertook a conceptual review of “safety listening” in organizations: responses to any voice that calls for action to prevent harm. Synthesizing research from disparate fields, we found 36 terms/definitions describing safety listening which typically framed it in terms of listeners’ motivations. These motivational accounts, we propose, are a by-product of the self-report methods used to study listening (e.g., surveys, interviews), which focus on listening perceptions rather than actual responses following speaking-up. In contrast, we define safety listening as a behavioral response to safety voice in organizational contexts to prevent harms. Influenced by cognitive, interactional, and environmental factors, safety listening may prevent incidents through enabling cooperative sensemaking processes for building shared awareness and understanding of risks and hazards.

How does ethical leadership influence work engagement in project-based organizations? A sensemaking perspective

PurposeProject-based organizations (PBOs) face challenges to enhance employee work engagement because of dynamic and constant role configuration. Accordingly, this study aims to explore how ethical leadership enhances employee work engagement from a sensemaking perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a questionnaire-based quantitative research design to collect data from 194 full-time employees in PBOs. The data were analyzed via partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to test hypotheses.FindingsThe findings show a positive relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement. Additionally, the relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement is mediated by two sensemaking mechanisms, i.e. goal commitment and prosocial.Originality/valueThis study deepens the understanding of how ethical leadership enhances work engagement in PBOs by providing two sensemaking mechanisms. By exploring the sensemaking process through which ethical leaders help employees construct identity, the findings contribute to the current literature on how ethical leadership enhances work engagement in PBOs.

Sensemaking Process of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Identification of Specific Clusters of “Sense of Grip”

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) represents a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent atypicalities in social communication and social interactions across different domains of life, often with restricted, repetitive, stereotyped patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities. A large corpus of previous research shows that parental involvement in caregiving is perceived as stressful and challenging, in many cases resulting in poorer parental quality of life. The authors present a quali-quantitative mixed method research on sensemaking process of 34 parents (16 mothers and 18 fathers) of children with ASD. The interviews were collected and analyzed according to the “Sense of Grip” (SoG) methodology. SoG indeed refers to the sensemaking processes that a person realizes to manage the relationship with diseases or disorders by organizing several degrees of flexibility, differentiation, and adaptation to the variability of experiences and contexts of life. This construct of health psychology—semiotically and clinically oriented—is based on specific narrative functions (i.e., temporal, integrative, emotional, sharing, and agentive functions). The cluster analysis procedure allowed to identify three different SoG profiles: (a) enterprising (parents who are able to construct flexible and dynamic familiar routines), (b) opposing (parents who experience the ASD disorder as a deep unacceptable crisis, hindering the rest of familiar and professional activities), and (c) condescending (parents who organize family life completely on adherence to medical prescriptions and care protocols). These profiles show interesting implications for clinical practice and support as showing specific aspects of treating, managing, and sharing children conditions within family and relational contexts of life.

Robotic misinformation in dementia care: emotions as sense-making resources in residents' encounters with robot animals.

Robot animals, designed to mimic living beings, pose ethical challenges in the context of caring for vulnerable patients, specifically concerning deception. This paper explores how emotions become a resource for dealing with the misinformative nature of robot animals in dementia care homes. Based on observations of encounters between residents, care workers, and robot animals, the study shows how persons with dementia approach the ambiguous robots as either living beings, material artifacts, or something in-between. Grounded in interactionist theory, the research demonstrates that emotions serve as tools in the sense-making process, occurring through interactions with the material object and in collaboration with care workers. The appreciation of social robots does not solely hinge on them being perceived as real or fake animals; persons with dementia may find amusement in "fake" animals and express fear of "real" ones. This observation leads us to argue that there is a gap between guidelines addressing misinformation and robots and the specific context in which the technology is in use. In situations where small talk and play are essential activities, care workers often prioritize responsiveness to residents rather than making sure that the robot's nature is transparent. In these situations, residents' emotional expressions serve not only as crucial resources for their own sense-making but also as valuable indicators for care workers to comprehend how to navigate care situations.

Future past tense of abusive supervision: a narrative inquiry

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to examine the narratives of victims of abusive supervision. We explore the meaning or “lessons” victims derive from those experiences and how they shape the victims’ views of self, work and organization in relation to navigating their subsequent jobs.Design/methodology/approachWe analyzed how appraisals of supervisory abuse transform victims’ narratives and their consequent work attitudes through sensemaking processes. Semi-structured interviews with the past victims of abusive supervision generated a four-stage model of how sensemaking shapes victims’ future work attitudes. Our interpretations were guided through narrative thematic analysis based on the constructionist approach.FindingsVictims’ lessons learned are predominantly framed by their retrospective post-event appraisal of abuse (based on its severity) once individuals are no longer subject to abusive supervision. With greater distance from the abuse, victims can process the abuse and better understand the motivation of the abuser, enabling the process of causal attributions. These attributions further shape victims’ narratives and future work attitudes through a complex interplay of retrospective and prospective sensemaking mechanisms. The victims broadly reported proactive (with higher self-awareness and endurance) and reactive (self-protection, and emotional scars) lessons. A four-stage model was proposed based on our findings.Originality/valueAbusive supervision remains a persistent issue experienced by many individuals at some point in their working life. However, little is known about how victims make sense of the event post-abuse and how this sense-making guides their future work behaviors. Understanding this phenomenon provides insight into how employees navigate through adversity and construct a more positive future. The contribution of this narrative inquiry is threefold. First, it explores how individual appraisals of supervisory abuse frame their (1) mechanisms of narrative construction; and (2) future work attitudes. Second, our findings demonstrate how narrative construction is a fluid process often informed by the process of retrospective and prospective sensemaking. Finally, our research suggests two broader categories of lessons that victims internalize and carry forward to their subsequent jobs.

Generative AI in Responsible Conversational Agent Integration: Guidelines for Service Managers

Responsible integration of conversational agents (CAs) like chatbots is crucial for service firms to mitigate risks and foster positive outcomes. This article provides managerial guidelines through a Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) lens, focusing on CDR Culture, Management Structure, and Digital Governance across the service firm, software provider, and customers/society. It examines how organizational sensemaking processes of creation, interpretation, and enactment are triggered by CA-related issues and events. The research highlights the role of generative AI (GenAI) in implementing CDR factors and responsible CA software development lifecycle phases during development and integration. Guidelines are provided for leveraging GenAI to enhance CDR Culture, incorporate ethical considerations into CDR Management Structure, and enable robust Digital Governance mechanisms to prioritize customer/societal well-being. A multilevel framework illustrates reinforcing the guidelines through organizational sensemaking processes, and fostering responsible CA integration aligned with ethical principles and societal values.

Emotional configurations of grief: Narratives from childhood

Being human involves encountering losses to which grief is a common response. No one can escape grief—it is the price of affection and love. In this paper, we aim to understand how grieving unfolds as described in university students’ short narratives of their childhood. Applying a cultural-historical approach, especially the notion of emotional configuration, we explore the interplay of emotion, sense-making, and practice in grief-related childhood life events. Our research problematizes the binary classification of “little and large griefs” and shows that focusing only on death-related grief may devalue losses in childhood that are not related to death. Our findings demonstrate that grief is never isolated, but configured with a variety of other emotions and feelings, and strongly related to children’s own sense-making and worldviews. Attention to emotional configuration shifts our focus from individual grief to the wider cultural-historical practices and sense-making processes in which grief is always intertwined.

Ethnographic Insights into Bead Jewellery Traditions of the Women of the Van Gujjar Community of Uttarakhand

Van Gujjars are a nomadic community of herders in Uttarakhand. This ethnographic study examines the tradition of bead jewellery among Van Gujjar women to build an understanding of gendered identity in the Van Gujjar community. Our primary focus is to analyze the beliefs, ideas, and communal perspectives that influence the lives of these craftswomen, ultimately providing a nuanced understanding of how gender roles manifest, negotiate, and perpetuate within the unique socio-cultural context of the Van Gujjar community. Employing ethnographic methods and observation techniques, we engaged with a group of itinerant Van Gujjars near Byulyaad, in Uttarkashi district. Immersive interview techniques were employed to collect data, shedding light on the lived experiences, subjectivity, and sense-making processes of Van Gujjar women engaged in bead crafts. By analyzing the beliefs, ideas, and communal views that underpin the lives of these craftswomen, we aim to provide a nuanced understanding of how gender roles are manifested, negotiated, and reproduced within the unique context of the Van Gujjar community.

Why Talking Is Not Cheap: Adverse Events and Informal Communication.

Healthcare management faces significant challenges related to upward communication. Sharing information in healthcare is crucial to the improvement of person-centered, safe, and effective patient care. An adverse event (AE) is an unintended or unexpected incident that causes harm to a patient and may lead to temporary or permanent disability. Learning from adverse events in healthcare is crucial to the improvement of patient safety and quality of care. Informal communication channels represent an untapped resource with regard to gathering data about the development of AEs. In this viewpoint paper, we start by identifying how informal communication played a key factor in some high-profile adverse events. Then, we present three Critical Challenge points that examine the role of informal communication in adverse events by (1) understanding how the prevailing trends in healthcare will make informal communication more important, (2) explaining how informal communication is part of the group-level sensemaking process, and (3) highlighting the potential role of informal communication in "breaking the silence" around critical and adverse events. Gossip, as one of the most important sources of informal communication, was examined in depth. Delineating the role of informal communication and adverse events within the healthcare context is pivotal to understanding and improving team and upward communication in healthcare organizations. For clinical leaders, the challenge is to cultivate a climate of communication safety, whereby informal communication channels can be used to collect soft intelligence that are paths to improving the quality of care and patient safety.

“What do I stand for?” - A phenomenological account of an identity crisis in the climate classroom

This single-participant idiographic study examines the implications of a student’s identity crisis in the climate classroom through the lens of existential phenomenology. The study analyses the ontological sense-making process of a mixed-race, bisexual female student reckoning with the racial dimensions of climate change during an environmental course in a liberal arts college in the Netherlands. By delving into the ontological implications of the participant’s experience of the course, the analysis shows that environmental education can meaningfully impact the mind-body relationship and self-identification of students with marginalized identities. The findings challenge some of the assumptions of popular frameworks for understanding marginalization in environmental education, like intersectionality, and post-humanist perspectives. The authors conclude that attending to human sense-making in environmental education can benefit students with marginalized identities by grounding environmental education in practices that make space for these identities.

Co-producing AIED Ethics Under Lockdown: an Empirical Study of Deliberative Democracy in Action

It is widely documented that higher education institutional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated not only the adoption of educational technologies, but also associated socio-technical controversies. Critically, while these cloud-based platforms are capturing huge datasets, and generating new kinds of learning analytics, there are few strongly theorised, empirically validated processes for institutions to consult their communities about the ethics of this data-intensive, increasingly algorithmically-powered infrastructure. Conceptual and empirical contributions to this challenge are made in this paper, as we focus on the under-theorised and under-investigated phase required for ethics implementation, namely, joint agreement on ethical principles. We foreground the potential of ethical co-production through Deliberative Democracy (DD), which emerged in response to the crisis in confidence in how typical democratic systems engage citizens in decision making. This is tested empirically in the context of a university-wide DD consultation, conducted under pandemic lockdown conditions, co-producing a set of ethical principles to govern Analytics/AI-enabled Educational Technology (AAI-EdTech). Evaluation of this process takes the form of interviews conducted with students, educators, and leaders. Findings highlight that this methodology facilitated a unique and structured co-production process, enabling a range of higher education stakeholders to integrate their situated knowledge through dialogue. The DD process and product cultivated commitment and trust among the participants, informing a new university AI governance policy. The concluding discussion reflects on DD as an exemplar of ethical co-production, identifying new research avenues to advance this work. To our knowledge, this is the first application of DD for AI ethics, as is its use as an organisational sensemaking process in education.

Counter-hostility as defensive strategy in a hostile takeover: The acquisition of Hillards supermarket chain by Tesco

Hillards was a retail supermarket firm based in Yorkshire in the North of England between 1885 and 1987, when it was subject to a hostile takeover from Tesco. Using archival and interview data this article explores how Hillards pursued a sensemaking process to engage in a strategy of counter-hostility to the takeover attempt. Ultimately the firm was acquired by Tesco. By examining Hillards’ defence strategy, this paper contributes to the understanding of the nature of strategy-making within a takeover. The article shows how in defeat Hillards was able to secure a partial victory in the form of a substantially increased cost of acquisition, so maximising shareholder value. This contributes to the history of the supermarket sector, and the history of family firms in the UK.

For whom the bell (really) tolls: A grounded theory of millennial academic supervisors’ sensemaking of communitarian values as a springboard to enrich their transformational leadership attributes

ABSTRACT The emergence of millennials in strategic positions of academic organizations paved the way for a peculiar execution of leadership practices due to their work ethic and generational stereotypes. Scholars argue that one of the neo-charismatic modalities that they embrace is transformational leadership. By and large, the said leadership paradigm becomes a multifaceted phenomenon if viewed from the specific generational and professional lenses. There is a paucity of studies that discovers its translation on developing countries that imbue a communitarian schema of values. Through a Glaserian grounded theory, the qualitative inquiry purported to provide a model which would uncover the process of sensemaking of communitarian values to enrich the transformational leadership attributes of the millennial academic supervisors. Twenty (20) information-rich cases from various comprehensive universities in the Philippines participated in the inquiry. Interestingly, the study revealed four (4) distinct yet interwoven stages of Build up, Engage in, Lean on, and Live through. The ‘BELL Model of Culturally Sensitive Transformational Leadership Attribute Enrichment among Millennial Academic Supervisors’ can serve as a pragmatic framework that could assist the teacher-leaders hailing from communitarian societies with a scaffolding that resonates with their modern-day sensibilities and celebrates their indigeneity.

Medicalization of Neurodivergence and the Embodied Experience of ADHD

ABSTRACT Medicalization shapes, and in some cases legitimizes, individuals’ embodied experiences even as it molds the landscape of healthcare and treatment. In this essay I provide a layered account that moves between my experiences as a neurodivergent person and academic theorizing to explore how processes of medicalization inform public discourses and personal sensemaking. In the case of ADHD, medicalization has contributed to societal narratives that focus on symptoms of hyperactivity rather than the etiology of dopamine dysregulation. Such narratives fail to fully account for the lived experience of ADHD and inadvertently stigmatize neurodivergent individuals. I urge scholars and practitioners to direct more attention to the communicative dimensions of medicalization including both the rhetorical nature of the diagnostic process and how diagnoses, in turn, are rhetorically framed with varying consequences.

Transferred expectations of human presence: Folk theories among older adults who are inexperienced users of online services

This study analyses the expectations of older adults who are inexperienced users of online media and services, examining their sense-making processes when using the internet for informational and practical purposes. Research on older users often focuses on access and abilities, but this study instead explores older adults’ expectations of what it means to interact online. We apply a ‘folk theory’ framework to illuminate underlying perceptions that guide behaviours, by asking which folk theories older adults draw on to make sense of their experiences with the internet. The empirical data originates from qualitative in-depth interviews and participant observation sessions with 25 people aged 65–98 years in Norway. We identify four interconnected folk theories under the shared theme of transferring expectations from the offline world: expecting human involvement, expecting visibility, lack of a human safety net, and human limitations and social conventions. Our analysis shows how such folk theories inform user decisions, including hindrances and problem-solving, as older adults adapt to digital services in everyday life.

Understanding Diaspora Pasifika (Sāmoan and Tongan) Intergenerational Sense-Making and Meaning-Making through Imageries

This article presents imagery representative of Pasifika (Sāmoan and Tongan) diaspora (nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa/ tu‘a Tonga) intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making. The main author, Ruth (Lute) Faleolo, presents a selection of eleven photographs shared with her by Pasifika knowledge holders across Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and the United States, alongside six personally photographed people/events in Aotearoa. Collectively, these images show important Pasifika meaning-making and sense-making processes that are occurring intergenerationally in tu‘a Tonga/ nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa. These selected images were collected as part of an ongoing larger study of Pasifika migration and mobilities (2013-2023). The second author, Sh’Kinah Tuia‘ana Nauna Faleolo, presents pieces from her art collection (2015): Two Woven Identities and discusses her meaning-making and Indigeneity enfolding these pieces while growing up in Aotearoa. The third author, Lydiah Malia-Lose Faleolo, presents her Identity artwork (2019) and Duality design pieces (2023) that demonstrate her current and continued Indigeneity as a Sāmoan Tongan woman, living and studying in Australia. The fourth author, Nehemiah Thomas Faleolo’s artistic expressions captured in his annotated sketches and sculpture work were selected from a collection he had created in Australia. Nehemiah’s respected artwork and meaning-making, carefully documented by him in 2020 was (posthumously) selected by Faleolo family members, from his private exhibition and collection (Brisbane). Scanned documents and photographs stored on his mobile device have been contributed to this article on his behalf, with permission. For many Pasifika living in Aotearoa, Australia and the United States, the processes of intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making occur in the diaspora contexts of faith, family, community, and education. The imageries presented by Ruth (Lute) Faleolo follow these thematic contexts, with short analyses about the intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making observed per photo. The purpose of her contribution to the discussion is to promote imageries as a way of conveying Pasifika understandings and knowledge. Sh’Kinah Tuia‘ana Nauna Faleolo, Lydiah Malia-Lose and Nehemiah Thomas Faleolo’s contributions present personal accounts of intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making as experienced through their artistic expressions, within nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa/ tu‘a Tonga contexts of Aotearoa and Australia.

Interweaving Creative Critical Sense-Making through a Body of Koloa

Storytelling through the arts is embedded in Pacific cultural ways and is meaningfully expressed by interweaving history, genealogy, cultural values, and beliefs. My investigation into Pasifika students’ success as Pasifika in visual arts was revealed through the students’ artworks and stories. Visual art teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and pedagogical practices were also examined to illuminate the critical role they play in affirming Pasifika student success as Pasifika. The inclusion of my own experiences and artworks as a visual artist of Tongan and German descent, grounds the research project and offers voice to my creative critical sense-making process. This article also presents an exploratory examination of falanoa, alongside Caroline Scott Fanamanu’s analysis, as an intergenerational arts-based research method, specifically in the context of my own body of koloa, a personal collection of treasured artworks generated across a 30-year period. Recognising my duality of distinct ancestral worlds, this article suggests that falanoa can be a valuable method for arts-based research, particularly in the context of creative critical sense-making, cultural preservation, and intergenerational knowledge.

Storytelling and public engagement in Brazil: TV coverage on regenerative medicine

Public access to media contributes to public understandings of science and medicine. This paper explored patterns in television coverage on Brazilian regenerative medicine, as presented in You Tube videos that reproduce some of the main recent scientific and medical news in TV national or regional programmes regularly broadcast at peak times. The study built upon the coproduction approach to civic epistemologies in an emerging economy – i.e. the way the wider public makes sense of public policies and demands proof of their validity, as well as, verification of their implementation. The coproduction approach was discussed in relation to twoof its main analytical concepts: the public understanding of science and public engagement in science. Using textual analysis, the article chose selected narratives on scientific sense-making processes according to the representations of reporters, scientists, as well as patients and their families. Among other, similarities were found between global and local reporting of scientific and medical news in the videos studied: news segments validated benefits while downplayed uncertainties and legal, ethical and social concerns. Sense-making in TV news coverage was based onreductionist imaginaries of science and medicine. Also, news contents transmitted a top-down communication model that influenced the shaping of public understandings.