Sensemaking Process Research Articles

“We’re All in This Together”: Farmers’ Reactions to the Farmer Suicide Crisis

ABSTRACT Farmer suicide rates continue to increase, with levels being 1.5 times higher than the national rate. This has led agricultural and public health groups to craft and distribute farm stress and suicide messages to help farmers. However, suicide rates remain at critical levels indicating that there may be a disconnect between existing efforts and farmer sensemaking of the crisis. Utilizing the Theory of Memorable Messages (ToMM), this study explored how farmers are reacting to messages and conversations about the farmer suicide crisis. Interviews with 25 participants found most had heard about farmer suicide concerns. When asked about their memorable conversations, farmers reflected a complex sensemaking process that included themes of memorable conversation types ranging from externalization to acceptance and message themes oriented around concern for self and others within these conversation types. Overall, most farmers externalized the risk of suicide to other farmers. However, even though participants did not see themselves at risk, their responses often showed deep concern for helping other farmers. These results are discussed in light of sensemaking and memorable conversations, with practical implications for future messaging efforts around farmer suicide.

Change readiness in organizations: an affective cognitive process for convergent sensemaking

PurposeThis conceptual paper aims to present a new, integrated model for change readiness that focuses on affective sensemaking among intra-organizational members. Change processes are often hindered by lack of preparedness, which can be justified by organizational members' emotional resistance to change and divergent understandings of its meaning. Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to change.Design/methodology/approachThe authors offer a conceptual process model that describes how employees prepare for organizational change. The model illustrates how emotionally laden narratives enable employees to make sense of organizational change communicated by middle managers.FindingsThe sensemaking process is initiated by the negative emotions employees often experience when organizational change is first presented. Then middle managers must transform the negative felt emotions into positive valence via the strategic use of narratives that contain an affective component. This is done to increase the likelihood that convergent sensemaking takes place. Until this stage, intra-organizational members holding different perspectives about the need to change, engage in discussions in which the conflicting views are supported by the instrumental and systematic use of emotional tools with different valence.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, we contribute to the change readiness literature by offering a detailed process for managers to influence individual readiness for change in their organizations. Our paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to change. Future work needs to empirically test our model.Practical implicationsWe contribute to the sensemaking literature by integrating positive and negative valence into the process for understanding organizational change. Finally, we contribute to our practical understanding of convergent sensemaking processes through the strategic use of narratives in organizations.Social implicationsOur paper proposes a normative model depicting the interactive process between middle-managers and employees until convergence of meaning is achieved and the organization is ready to organizational and social change.Originality/valueOur main contributions are three-fold. First, we contribute to the change readiness literature by offering a detailed process for managers to influence individual readiness for change in their organizations. Secondly, we contribute to the sensemaking literature by integrating positive and negative valence into the process for understanding organizational change. Finally, we contribute to our understanding of convergent sensemaking processes through the strategic use of narratives.

(De)Constructing the Disruption: Enacted Sensemaking and Sensegiving in Institutionally Plural Fields

Abstract If an event happens in the woods, and nobody responds to it, is it a disruption? In this paper, we address a gap in the organizational sociology literature about how events are constructed as “institutional disruptions” in institutionally plural fields. We integrate the disconnected literatures of sensemaking/sensegiving and institutional pluralism to argue that institutional disruptions in institutionally plural fields are not coterminous with exogenous events, but rather are the result of a process of fieldwide sensemaking and sensegiving mediated by intermediary organizations. We use the American higher education community’s response to the Trump administration’s 2017 ‘travel ban’ as a paradigmatic example that illuminates these dynamics with some clarity. In particular, we illuminate the relationships between conditions of institutional pluralism, extra-field events, the social construction of meaning within fields, the role of intermediary organizations, and the nature of organizational actions in response. Emerging from our theoretical exploration, we offer implications and avenues for future research for organizational sociologists. Collectively, our theorizing opens the door for scholars to re-examine previously taken-for-granted assumptions about disruptions and better theorize the earliest moments of institutional change.

Artificial intelligence and work transformations: integrating sensemaking and workplace learning perspectives

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the process of initial sensemaking that organizational members activate when they reflect on AI adoption in their work settings, and how the perceived features of AI technologies trigger sensemaking processes which in turn have the potential to influence workplace learning modes and trajectories.Design/methodology/approachWe adopted an explorative qualitative and interactive approach to capture free fantasies and imaginative ideas of AI among people within the industry. We adopt a conceptual perspective that combines theories on initial sensemaking and workplace learning as a theoretical lens to analyze data collected during 23 focus groups held at four large Swedish manufacturing companies. The data were analyzed using the Gioia method.FindingsTwo aggregated dimensions were defined and led to the development of an integrated conceptualization of the initial sensemaking of AI technology adoption. Specifically, sensemaking triggered by abstract features of AI technology mainly pointed to an exploitative learning path. Sensemaking triggered by concrete features of the technology mainly pointed to explorative paths, where socio-technical processes appear to be crucial in the process of AI adoption.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies that attempts to explore and conceptualize how organizations make sense of prospective workplace learning in the context of AI adoption.

Unearthing the disabling perplexities of a Filipino PLHIV online community on X’s #PLHIVDiaries as socially shared inquiry fostering pakikipagkapwa

Abstract Filipino People living with HIV (PLHIV) have used X, formerly Twitter, as an avenue to make sense of what it means to live with HIV in the Philippines. However, big data analyses do not provide a comprehensive investigation of X as a community. Grounded in the concepts of Alfonso’s (1992) socially shared inquiry (SSI), this paper discusses how this discursive process of sense-making and sense-giving occurs in an X hashtag called #PLHIVDiaries through analyzing and interpreting tweets (n = 1089) that narrate the daily experiences of Filipino PLHIV. This describes how their different struggles are framed and reframed through SSI process which unravels disabling perplexities such as problem, barrier, conflict, absence, dilemma, and error. Among the non-disabling frames that serve as a foil to disabling perplexities, we identified a variety of tweets that contained testimonies, personal triumphant stories, and answers to problems that were endorsed and authenticated by community members.

Scaffolding Feedback Literacy: Designing a Feedback Analytics Tool with Students

Feedback is essential in learning. The emerging concept of feedback literacy underscores the skills students require for effective use of feedback. This highlights students’ responsibilities in the feedback process. Yet, there is currently a lack of mechanisms to understand how students make sense of feedback and whether they act on it. This gap makes it hard to effectively support students in feedback literacy development and improve the quality of feedback. As a specific application of learning analytics, feedback analytics (analytics on learner engagement with feedback) can offer insights into students’ learning engagement and progression, which can in turn be used to scaffold student feedback literacy. This study proposes a feedback analytics tool, designed with students, aimed at aiding students to synthesize feedback received from multiple sources, scaffold the sense-making process, and prompt deeper reflections or actions on feedback based on data about students’ interactions with feedback. We held focus group discussions with 38 students to learn about their feedback experiences and identified tool features. Based on identified user requirements, a prototype was developed and validated with 16 students via individual interviews. Based on the findings, we envision a feedback analytics tool with the aim of scaffolding student feedback literacy.

Prospective Sensemaking in the Front End of Innovation of AI Projects

Overview: Using artificial intelligence (AI) to help develop new complex systems poses challenges for less tech-savvy organizations and may prolong the front end of innovation phase. Complications arise from diverging understandings of AI functionality and requirements among involved actors and the difficulties of determining the usefulness of AI in such a complex setting. This article explores a cross-industry project that entailed developing a functional prototype of an AI tool for planning (complex) energy systems in new city districts, engaging both system (domain) actors and AI developers. By analyzing prospective collective sensemaking processes in two episodes from the project, we discovered misaligned sensemaking processes between system actors and AI developers. During the project these actors alternated between “seeking” and “disengaging” sensemaking behavior. We highlight how various prototypes supported alignment in sensemaking processes concerning AI and progress in the project. Practitioners can use the managerial implications to better understand sensemaking dynamics in AI projects and implement suitable measures, like education or support at various stages of the project duration, to mitigate the problems that can arise due to misaligned sensemaking processes.

The implementation of compulsory relationships and sex education in English secondary schools: qualitative research in the 2022–23 school year

ABSTRACT The quality of sex education varies. In England from 2020, the government attempted to improve provision by making lessons a statutory requirement. We assessed implementation in 25 secondary schools in 2022–23, framed by May’s general theory of implementation. This identifies processes of sense-making, cognitive participation, collective action and reflexive monitoring, influenced by an intervention’s capability, stakeholder potential (individual and collective commitment), and institutional capacity (norms, and material and cognitive resources). Interview data from staff leading relationships and sex education (RSE) were coded thematically informed by May’s concepts. Those leading implementation ‘made sense’ of statutory guidance, finding it relevant and clear. ‘Cognitive participation’ among participants was strong, promoted by individual support for RSE but undermined by social norms prioritising academic attainment, limited skills among non-specialist teachers, and lack of ‘collective commitment’ among some staff and students. ‘Collective action’ varied across schools, influenced by availability of material resources and specialist staff. Schools undertook internal the ‘reflexive monitoring’ of provision, supported by school leaders’ awareness work would be assessed by government inspectors. On its own, statutory status is likely insufficient to achieve a step-change in RSE implementation. Other forms of support may be needed including training and offering support to more specialist teachers.

Code switching patterns in Kazakh-Russian hybrid language practice: An empirical study

The study investigates Kazakh-Russian and Russian-Kazakh code switching in the framework of hybrid language practice to provide insights into the sense-making process among bilinguals. The unique characteristics of the synchronic linguistic situation in Kazakhstan stem from historically rooted ethnic bi- and multilingualism. Language switching has evolved into a tool for addressing communicative partners and sustaining communication in bilingual culture, rather than being viewed as a deviant pattern. It appears to be a dynamic resource for ensuring mutual understanding and harmonised communication. The study aims to reveal the motivations behind individuals’ language switching, how Kazakh and Russian speakers explain hybrid communication, and their sentiments towards it. Data from two surveys conducted in January-February of 2021 and January of 2024 are presented. Each survey involved 50 respondents with higher education, ranging in age from 21 to 40, who have resided in Kazakhstan for an extended period, with many being native-born residents. We argue that switching between the Kazakh and Russian languages serves as a communicative tool utilised by Kazakh and Russian speakers to signify their belonging to a specific sociocultural community. The study posits that hybrid language practice can be viewed from two underlying perspectives: from a ‘deficit’ perspective, signalling limited proficiency in Russian or/and Kazakh, and from a more complex sense-making communicative perspective, assisting interaction. As part of the sense-making process and in sustaining interaction with communication partners, code switching serves an instrumental function. Importantly, hybrid language practice is not portrayed as a sign of cultural decline. There is no strong correlation between the mixing of Russian and Kazakh and social, cultural, and educational barriers. Further implications for research are prompted by the rapidly changing situation. The development of the Kazakh language as a state language is becoming a major goal and central focus in this evolving context, which inevitably raises the issues of linguistic ideology. Distinguishing between ideologically neutral analysis and critical analysis of language use as a tool of symbolic power for specific social groups would provide a more gradient picture of the dynamics in Kazakhstan’s bi- and multilingual situation.

Making sense of digital communication between students, parents, teachers and school leaders in Danish state schools

Communication in Danish schools takes place with the aid of digital platforms developed and/or subsidised by the public sector and has done so for more than two decades. Within the same time frame, commercial social media platforms have emerged and become successfully integrated with key communicative practices. In order to understand how these communicative practices come about, we conducted interviews with students (from two different age groups), parents, teachers and school leaders in two primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark. The interviews focus on sense-making processes in digital communication and were analysed using Lomborg’s concept of communicative genres in social media. The analysis yielded four analytical categories through which the meaningfulness of using different digital platforms was assessed: (1) importance, (2) precision, (3) speed and (4) frequency. The findings are discussed in the framework of platformisation as well as the notion of technology paternalism. We argue that critical reflection on the use of commercial platforms in public institutions is needed. When key communicative practices in this arena rely on the services of data broking commercial actors, we risk further normalisation of problematic datafication.

The clash between physical and digital realm: hybrid movement training during the pandemic

This article is based on ethnographic research conducted in one of the physical training institutions that offer the Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies (LBMS) certification program in 2021. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the training was held in a hybrid format in which some participants were in the studio while others were attending remotely via Zoom. Zoom-mediated movement training for long hours revealed how the intervention of telematic technologies challenged practitioners’ sensorial experience and sense-making process. Moreover, bringing co-located and remote participants’ experiences together in the hybrid setting disclosed different modes of interaction dynamics in the studio and online. Overall, participants described their hybrid experience as a clash. In the article, starting from unfolding those clashes from the enactive perspective, I discuss how remote intercorporeality through an audio–video streaming system, Zoom, challenges participants’ sensorial experience and how remote interaction affects the shared sense-making process in the hybrid format setting.

Struggles and Strategies in Understanding Information Visualizations.

While the visualization community is increasingly aware that people often find visualizations difficult to understand, there is less information about what we need to do to create comprehensible visualizations. To help visualization creators and designers improve their visualizations, we need to better understand what kind of support people are looking for in their sensemaking process. Empirical studies are needed to tease apart the details of what makes the process of understanding difficult for visualization viewers. We conducted a qualitative study with 14 participants, observing them as they described how they were trying to make sense of 20 information visualizations. We identified the challenges participants faced throughout their sensemaking process and the strategies they employed to help themselves in overcoming the challenges. Our findings show how details and nuances within visualizations can impact comprehensibility and offer research suggestions to help us move toward more understandable visualizations.

Self-Improvising Memory: A Perspective on Memories as Agential, Dynamically Reinterpreting Cognitive Glue.

Many studies on memory emphasize the material substrate and mechanisms by which data can be stored and reliably read out. Here, I focus on complementary aspects: the need for agents to dynamically reinterpret and modify memories to suit their ever-changing selves and environment. Using examples from developmental biology, evolution, and synthetic bioengineering, in addition to neuroscience, I propose that a perspective on memory as preserving salience, not fidelity, is applicable to many phenomena on scales from cells to societies. Continuous commitment to creative, adaptive confabulation, from the molecular to the behavioral levels, is the answer to the persistence paradox as it applies to individuals and whole lineages. I also speculate that a substrate-independent, processual view of life and mind suggests that memories, as patterns in the excitable medium of cognitive systems, could be seen as active agents in the sense-making process. I explore a view of life as a diverse set of embodied perspectives-nested agents who interpret each other's and their own past messages and actions as best as they can (polycomputation). This synthesis suggests unifying symmetries across scales and disciplines, which is of relevance to research programs in Diverse Intelligence and the engineering of novel embodied minds.

Sensemaking and medical professional identity within the context of strategic change

Objective of the study: To identify how the physicians of a major Brazilian hospital perceive the proposed change in payment models for services provided and whether the proposed change affects elements of the professional identity of the physicians interviewed. Methodology / approach: This study draws on the sensemaking theory, medical professional identity and implementation of strategies in complex organizations. It was carried out a qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with a group of physicians who works in a large Brazilian hospital that was facing changes in the reimbursement model. Originality / Relevance: Research addressing the reasons why physicians tend to resist is important to help strategists to design an approach to obtain professional adherence. Main results: The research participants perceive threats to their autonomy in two attributes, Clinical Autonomy and Financial Autonomy. Regarding the change in the payment model for services rendered, some interviewees perceive their need, but demonstrate a desire for more active participation in the discussion and elaboration of new models, thus configuring the need to maintain their Political Autonomy. Theoretical / methodological contributions: This work contributes to the literature by advancing the process of understanding sensemaking triggers and demonstrating how and why threats to professional identity can hamper the process of implementing strategies in complex organizations. Social / management contributions: The implementation of strategies in hospital organizations is a topic of great relevance for the managers of the healthcare industry, due to its multiplicity of actors and interests, in addition to exponential technological evolution.

The politics of sensemaking: Framing contests in border control during the EU “migration crisis”

Organizing an effective crisis response requires that actors collectively make sense of a situation by exchanging their interpretations and understandings. Current sensemaking studies predominantly adopt a short-term perspective on this process, focusing on how actors recognize and respond to deviant cues. This focus tends to obscure how organizational politics influences the sensemaking process. In this paper, we study how actors exert influence over sensemaking processes by analyzing how organizational members frame situations and challenge one another's understandings. Empirically, we focus on the response of Dutch Border Security Teams to the “migration crisis” at Chios, Greece, drawing from a 2-year multisite study consisting of two field visits and 47 interviews. Our analysis shows that organizational members used discursive, symbolic, and situated framing practices to influence one another's sensemaking. Based on these theoretical constructs, we are able to explain how frame hegemony emerged that entirely countered initial adaptive sensemaking at the frontline. We contribute to the sensemaking literature by theorizing the politics of sensemaking in turbulent environments.

‘Let him die in peace’: understanding caregiver’s refusal of medical oxygen treatment for children in Nigeria

IntroductionEfforts to improve oxygen access have focused mainly on the supply side, but it is important to understand demand barriers, such as oxygen refusal among caregivers. We therefore aimed to...

Queering a Trans Life Story: The Unnatural Potential of Weak Narrativity in succubus in my pocket

ABSTRACT: Discussing similarities between antimimetic and queer/trans narratives, as well as interlacing subjects of interest in the respective fields of unnatural and queer/trans narratology, this article suggests the importance of experimental texts for theorizing trans narratives. It presents its arguments by focusing on one case study, a mixed genre manuscript written in 2004 and published in 2015, succubus in my pocket by the late trans poet kari edwards (1954–2006). My approach mines queer narratology (Susan Lanser), trans poetics (Trace Peterson), unnatural narratology (Brian Richardson), and the study of narrative poetry (Brian McHale) for conceptual tools to discuss how an extremely antimimetic narrative entwines transgressions of narrative expectations with transgressions of expectations about sex and gender. The work invites narrative interpretations of sequential events based on causal expectations while consistently refuting default interpretive strategies. This article shows how weak narrativity can be deployed as a critique of narrative sense-making processes in general and, more particularly, of conventional progression in narratives about trans lives.

A Closer Look at Instructor Use and Sensemaking Processes of Analytics Dashboards

There is a growing interest in the research and use of automated feedback dashboards that display classroom analytics; yet little is known about the detailed processes instructors use to make sense of these tools, and to determine the impact on their teaching practices. This research was conducted at a public Midwestern university within the context of an automated classroom observation and feedback implementation project. Fifteen engineering instructors engaged in this research. The overarching goal was to investigate instructor teaching beliefs, pedagogical practices, and sensemaking processes regarding dashboard use. A grounded theory approach was used to identify categories related to instructor perceptions. Results revealed that instructor experiences inform both their present use of the dashboard and consequential future actions. A model is presented that illustrates categories included in instructor pre-use, use, and post-use of an automated feedback dashboard. An extension to this model is presented and accompanied by recommendations for a more effective future use of automated dashboards. The model’s practical implications inform both instructors and designers on effective design and use of dashboards, ultimately paving a way to improve pedagogical practices and instruction.

A Closer Look at Instructor Use and Sensemaking Processes of Analytics Dashboards

There is a growing interest in the research and use of automated feedback dashboards that display classroom analytics; yet little is known about the detailed processes instructors use to make sense of these tools, and to determine the impact on their teaching practices. This research was conducted at a public Midwestern university within the context of an automated classroom observation and feedback implementation project. Fifteen engineering instructors engaged in this research. The overarching goal was to investigate instructor teaching beliefs, pedagogical practices, and sensemaking processes regarding dashboard use. A grounded theory approach was used to identify categories related to instructor perceptions. Results revealed that instructor experiences inform both their present use of the dashboard and consequential future actions. A model is presented that illustrates categories included in instructor pre-use, use, and post-use of an automated feedback dashboard. An extension to this model is presented and accompanied by recommendations for a more effective future use of automated dashboards. The model’s practical implications inform both instructors and designers on effective design and use of dashboards, ultimately paving a way to improve pedagogical practices and instruction.

Making Sense of Cyberbullying: Stories of Men and Women at Work

This article explores how women and men appraise and interpret their experiences of cyberbullying at work and how they respond to such behaviours within a gendered cultural space, using the theory of sensemaking. Within the interpretive research paradigm, data was collected through in-depth, in-person interviews from 10 male and 25 female employees who had experienced cyberbullying. The findings indicated the similar and different ways that sense was made by men and women employees about their cyberbullying experiences. While making sense of cyberbullying experiences has been a very social endeavour for women, it has been a relatively private and individual process for men. Further, women had been more assertive and had relentlessly attempted to clear their image and regain their fractured identities as respectable women, while men mainly had been passive in trying to protect their fractured identities as good performers. Further, gender role stereotypes and gender scripts appeared to have influenced the sensemaking process and the participants’ reactions. This article contributes to the limited literature on cyberbullying at work and develops existing understandings of how men and women understand and react to cyberbullying experiences in a gendered cultural context.