Sensemaking Process Research Articles

A Faith-based Entrepreneurial Sensemaking Lens: Empowerment, Risk, and Agency

Starting a business is an endeavour that requires the ability to identify an opportunity, match the necessary resources and manage the uncertainty and risk associated with doing so. Using a qualitative methodology, we explore the role that faith plays in this new venture creation as regards Christian entrepreneurs in South Africa and how it affects their sensemaking process. We find that that their faith influences the entrepreneurial sensemaking process in complex ways and demonstrate the formation of a shared sense of agency between God and the entrepreneur - a paradox of agency. This agency shifts from the entrepreneur in the creation phase to a faith-aligned agency over time, which helps mitigate identity conflict and uncertainty. We demonstrate the dynamics and webs of association between the economic and the social realms both in terms of the initial decision-making process but also the entrepreneurs’ desire for both an economic and social impact.

Experiences and Sense-Making Processes of Online Teaching Internship: A Master of Teaching Programme

Teaching requires a student-teaching internship for the license and registration, usually completed from the face-to-face and on-campus components. However, due to the covid-19 pandemic, many classrooms have switched to online platforms, regardless of the levels. This study aims to understand student-teachers’ experiences of an online-based student-teaching internship and how such internships influence the sense-making processes of student-teachers in online school environments. In line with the self-efficacy theory and social cognitive career and motivation theory, the case study method was used to invite a group of Master of Arts in Teaching students (a total of 18) to share their experiences and sense-making processes of their online student-teaching internship. Semi-structured interviews, focus group activities, and member-checking interviews were used to collect data from the participants. Based on the qualitative data, three themes were categorised: 1) positive experiences, 2) technology education is the trend, and 3) preparation for online classroom environments. The study may provide support or ideas to university leaders, supervisors, department heads, student-teachers, and policymakers to reform and polish their teaching qualification programmes with different types of delivery modes in order to meet the needs and educational trends of the coming decades. Keywords: case study, Master of Arts in Teaching, online learning, self-efficacy, sense-making process, social cognitive career, motivation theory, student-teaching internship

Decolonising Qualitative Analysis: Collectively Weaving Understanding Using Talanoa and Fa’afaletui Pacific-Indigenous Research Methods

Sense-making processes shape the messages and impacts of qualitative research. Using qualitative data analysis methods embedded within a Pacific-Indigenous research paradigm decolonises research. This article discusses the Pacific-Indigenous data analysis processes of talanoa and fa’afaletui employed within a study of Pacific elder care in Aotearoa New Zealand, conducted by scholars of Pacific/Moana heritage. While research literature has primarily identified talanoa and fa’afaletui as data collection methods, we discuss our use of talanoa and fa’afaletui as methods of analysis. Talanoa and fa’afaletui were engaged as collective processes of orality weaving understanding from the researchers’ lived experiences and navigating across languages. Enhancing authenticity and actionability are identified as benefits of talanoa and fa’afaletui collective data analysis. Considerations for implementing these methods are language, logistics and location.

Using feedback loops from computational simulations as resources for sensemaking: a case study from physical chemistry

Sensemaking is an important way of learning and engaging in science. Research has shown that sensemaking activities, such as questioning, hypothesizing, and model building, are pivotal in developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills in science education. This paper investigates the role of computational simulations in facilitating sensemaking in chemistry education, specifically examining how these simulations can sustain the sensemaking process. Through a detailed case study in a physical chemistry course, we explore the interplay between students' real-world experiences, theoretical knowledge, and computational simulations. This analysis reveals that computational simulations, by providing interactive and visual representations of chemical phenomena, can create a conducive environment for sensemaking, where students actively engage in exploring and resolving conceptual uncertainties. Based on these results, we argue that computational tools, when effectively integrated into educational settings, can facilitate sensemaking in science education.

COLLECTIVE SENSEMAKING AND INTERSEMIOTIC DISSONANCE: A STUDY OF CRISIS DISCOURSE ON TIKTOK

Social media applications are an important medium of crisis information exchange. Of growing importance and use is TikTok, an application with a multi-modal curation structure that enables users to share content of various interests. Previous TikTok scholarship on crisis research has not considered how the application sustains a cultural understanding of a crisis event. Using a semiotic analysis approach, this study explores TikTok’s role in crisis communication by examining the process of collective sensemaking of the Port of Beirut, Lebanon explosion on August 4th, 2020. The preliminary findings reveal intersemiotic dissonance obscuring crisis discourse, thus negatively influencing the process of collective sensemaking. The results of this study motivate further research that examines tacit guidelines for crisis communication on TikTok and similar applications.

Communicative Leadership among Local Leaders in Indonesia during covid-19 Crisis Management

The covid-19 pandemic is one of the health crises that demand effective communication and timely, accurate, and culturally sensitive communication to reach coordinated and more effective responses. Regarding this function, communicative leadership becomes critical in reaching the success of a health crisis, particularly among local communities which are frequently associated with resistance towards health initiatives. This research is intended to explore the communicative leadership performed by local leaders in managing covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022. To meet this aim, the present study employed interviews with 6 local leaders in Kabupaten Pasuruan, Jawa Timur as informants. This research revealed that in responding health crisis due to covid-19 pandemic, leadership involved communication to construct and negotiate meaning through shared narratives about covid-19. This leadership had been performed to help communities in the sense-making process about the pandemic through a series of strategies comprising (1) operating religious frame and local values to construct a shared reality about covid-19 pandemic and how to respond to it, (2) providing narratives as the evidence, (3) performing openness, presence and empathy. This research also found that maintaining sustainable coordination with the authorities is performed by local leaders to assure communities about the pandemic response plan, thus, community involvement in covid-19 measures could be developed easily. This study confirmed some previous research highlighting the importance of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in communication intervention in the health context and research on the importance of narrative to persuade people to adopt new health behaviours.

THE POLITICS OF PLATFORM IMAGINARIES

Examining the competing images, values, and purposes attached to digital health tracking platforms, this paper analyzes how platform imaginaries are constructed and negotiated in complex intersectional realities. It pursues this inquiry through a case study on how Fitbit and Apple Health have become involved in recent societal negotiations over female digital health tracking in the US. Female health tracking has a well-documented history of negotiation and contestation. Developing this case study, we build on and rethink the concept of socio-technical imaginaries. We propose to consider the articulation of platform imaginaries not as a one-sided sense-making process, but as negotiations between multiple stakeholders of which platforms are but one. This conceptual perspective allows us to analyze the construction of imaginaries as a dynamic process, open to constant renegotiation, shaped by power differences between stakeholders, and affected by the intersectional positioning of user groups within platforms. The research is operationalised through a combination of critical discourse analysis of user and platform content and walkthroughs of Fitbit and Apple Health. The analysis highlights how digital health tracking platforms have become centrally imbricated in crucial societal issues, such as female bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. And it shows how quickly platform imaginaries of female self-determination and autonomy, associated with health-tracking apps, can be overthrown and reversed.

Understanding and Text Properties: Investigating Readers’ Sense-making Processes

Literary reading and the comprehension of literary text(s) has long been a key part of education. While reading comprehension in general has received a fair amount of attention, empirical research on comprehension processes of literary texts is still relatively rare; and yet, it is advisable to gain a thorough understanding of comprehension processes along with potential difficulties and hurdles to understanding specifically of literary texts. To address this issue, we analyse such comprehension processes in a group of university students of English as a second language, drawing on a test based on Shakespeare’s sonnet 43 which employs standardised, open-ended questions. Our research has two goals: firstly, to analyse readers’ approaches that result in a more or less successful decoding of the text they are presented with, and, secondly, to explore whether different textual phenomena help or hinder understanding. We find that strong and weak readers employ similar reading strategies, they do differ, however, with regard to their literary response, with weak readers more likely to draw on irrelevant associations not warranted by the text. In addition, we are able to show that some textual phenomena are more difficult to understand than others. We discuss possible implications of our findings for teaching.

The frontstage-backstage of organizational identity and management control system: the tale of British Petroleum’s embarrassment in DWH

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the dynamic interplay between the management control system (MCS) and organizational identity (OI) in the Deepwater Horizon incident involving British Petroleum (BP). It examines how the MCS manages challenges, particularly those addressing the embarrassment stemming from identity disparities between external portrayal (frontstage) and internal operations (backstage), with a focus on the often-underestimated influence of the media.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds upon the frameworks developed by Ravasi and Schultz (2006) and Malmi and Brown (2008) to construct a theoretical framework that profoundly investigates the relationship between MCS and OI. The framework developed guided the research design and incorporated a qualitative approach complemented by an illustrative case study. The research data was rigorously gathered from diverse sources, including official BP documents and influential media outlets, with a particular focus on well-established American and British newspapers.FindingsBP’s MCS plays a dual role: it exposes discrepancies in safety, leadership and values, causing embarrassment and identity damage, yet catalyses a sense-making process leading to organizational transformation and shifts in the OI. This transformation influences sense-giving and prompts changes in MCS. The study reveals an intricate interplay in identity management between frontstage audiences (e.g. influential media) and backstage actors (e.g. BP’s senior management). It highlights interdependencies both within and between MCS and OI, emphasizing their roles in interacting within identity management. The longitudinal recovery is intricately tied to mutual political interests between BP and the USA, which are significantly facilitated by the media’s role.Research limitations/implicationsThis study acknowledges limitations that point future research opportunities. Interviews could provide a more dynamic understanding of MCS changes and organizational transformations. Investigating the role of leadership, particularly the new chief executive office, and the influence of political versus organizational factors in shaping identity claims is essential. Additionally, the effectiveness and historical context of interdependencies should be quantitatively assessed. Theoretical limitations in the OI and MCS frameworks suggest the need for context-specific categorisations. This research serves as a foundation for further exploration of the intricate dynamics between MCS, OI and organizational responses to crises.Practical implicationsThis study offers valuable insights with practical implications for organizations facing identity challenges in the wake of significant incidents. Organizations can better navigate crises by recognizing the multifaceted role of MCS in identity damage and restoration. It underscores the importance of addressing both frontstage and backstage aspects of OI while managing identity discrepancies, thereby enhancing transparency and credibility. Additionally, understanding the intricate interdependencies within OI and MCS can guide organizations in implementing more effective identity restoration strategies. Furthermore, the study highlights the significance of media influence and the need to engage with it strategically during crisis management.Social implicationsThis study’s findings have significant social implications for organizations and the broader public. By recognizing the multifaceted role of MCS in shaping identity, organizations can enhance transparency and credibility, rebuilding trust with the public. Additionally, the study highlights the critical role of media in influencing perceptions and decision-making during crises, emphasizing the importance of responsible and ethical reporting. Understanding the intricate interplay between MCS and OI can inform better crisis management strategies and improve how organizations respond to and recover from incidents, ultimately benefiting society by promoting more accountable and responsible corporate behaviour.Originality/valueThis study’s distinctness lies in its innovative exploration of MCS, which transcends traditional methodologies that focus narrowly on front or backstage aspects of OI and often adhere to predetermined MCS practices. It underscores the importance of concurrently addressing both the front- and backstage audiences in managing the embarrassment caused by identity discrepancies and restoration. The research uncovers multifaceted interdependencies within MCS and OI, and these extend beyond simplistic relationships and emphasize the complex nature of identity restoration management.

A phenomenographic exploration of course leaders’ understandings of interdisciplinarity

ABSTRACT The number of interdisciplinary courses being developed in higher education across different countries is increasing. The people responsible for developing and enacting interdisciplinary courses can have significant design and teaching autonomy, but little is known about how they understand interdisciplinarity. This study uses phenomenographic interviews to address the question: how do interdisciplinary course leaders understand interdisciplinarity? This includes exploration of the relationships between different understandings of interdisciplinarity. Findings from interviews with 23 interdisciplinary course leaders reveal understandings of interdisciplinarity expressed in relation to (A) definitions, (B) knowledge spaces, and (C) situated knowledge work practices. Understandings were multiple and heterogeneous; they varied between participants and more importantly participants each expressed understandings belonging to multiple categories. Findings show that academics’ views about what interdisciplinarity means are rarely exclusively aligned with normative definitions, but instead are marked by individuals’ construction of meaning through processes of acquisition, sense-making and situational judgment. The study’s findings could be used in future educational design and planning work to elicit and discuss different stakeholder understandings of interdisciplinarity.

(Un)translatable Identities: Dialogic Monolingualism in Wong Bik-wan’s ‘Nausea’ 

Colonial Hong Kong (1842-1997) was a multilingual, multicultural ‘migrant society’, and its identity is complex and intersectional. Based on a close reading of Wong Bik-wan’s ‘Nausea’ (1994), this essay discusses how characters from drastically different backgrounds encounter one another in the multicultural space of Hong Kong. These two characters, a Black-Asian biracial woman and a native Hong Kong Chinese man suffered various forms of oppression, geographical dislocation, and political alienation in the postcolonial world. This created a mysterious bond between them, and as the narrative unfolds, the male character gradually contracted the woman’s disease of nausea. A dialogism of empathy emerged, as the characters experience each other’s trauma intersubjectively. At the same time, ‘Nausea’ simultaneously dialogs with Jean-Paul Sartre’s La Nausée (1938) through possessing the voice of the Sartean hero while also injecting the voices of a female character/author. This results in a literary double-voicedness, which in turn animates the text’s own deterritorialization and puts Hong Kong literature in dialog with a wider literary discourse of existentialism. Ultimately, the dynamic processes of sense-making and emotive exchanges in ‘Nausea’ resembles ‘untranslation’, defined as the interminable process of translation between incommensurable languages.

Uždaros visuomenės fenomenologija Antano Vienuolio „Paskenduolėje“: antropologiniai profiliai

The inquiry formulates the fundamentals of the hermeneutics of narrative against the background of the history of reception of the work under examination, “The Drowned Girl” by Antanas Vienuolis, and draws on the relevant phenomenological descriptions and resources of structural analysis to foreground the operative mechanisms of closed society. Such mechanisms are foregrounded on three planes: (1) social, of the rules of relationships between people, which in the story constitute a hierarchal system of power relations modelled on the structure of the traditional family of the agricultural holding, (2) significative, comprising sense-making discourses (traditional customs and Christianity) whereby the culture, in this story, configures the world without transcending corporeally perceivable horizons of the actually lived present, and (3) anthropological, where sociocultural praxis and self-perception are grounded in the essentially unhuman nature which the culture tries to assimilate and erase without recognising its essential otherness. This threefold configuration emerges at the crossroad of the (author’s and reader’s) Modern and (the represented) archaic cultural self-conceptions, which produces the conflict of interpretations and facilitates both the cathartic effect and the ongoing process of sense-making. All these configurations are derived from the story’s poetics, simultaneously exposing the discursive operative mechanisms of closed society.

Predicting instabilities: an embodied perspective on unstable experiences with art and design.

Predictive Processing (PP) provides a theoretical framework that describes perception as a process attempting to increase the predictability of stimulations by updating predictions or exploring new sensations. Moreover, perception and action are assumed to be closely linked within this process. While organisms seem to strive for predictability, we sometimes expose ourselves to objects and situations that challenge sense-making-such conditions often break perceptual habits or offer multiple possible meanings. This paper updates a previous qualification of these experiences of 'Semantic Instability' (SeIns) by following an embodied and situated understanding of perception and cognition. We suggest that art perception essentially differs from problem-solving as in engaging with art, we typically integrate contradictory elements dynamically and without the ultimate goal of resolving the contradictions-on the contrary, SeIns itself can generate aesthetic hedonics and interest. We discuss how current embodied accounts of PP might help understand what motivates such unstable yet insightful and pleasurable nonlinear sense-making processes. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

Reconciling duty: a theory and typology of professionalism

BackgroundProfessionalism is expected of health professionals and advocated by professional regulators in the United Kingdom (UK). Concepts of professionalism have evolved in sociological discourse and its meaning for dentistry is unclear. It is, none-the-less, considered a core domain of dental education and professional practice by the United Kingdom regulator, the General Dental Council. This paper reports the sense-making process, or social process, of professionalism in practice within England.AimTo explore the research question ‘What does dental professionalism mean in practice?MethodsTaking a constructivist grounded theory approach, involving purposive and theoretical sampling, 24 dental professionals were recruited to participate in this qualitative study. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted by one interviewer (AT). Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed leading to the development of a theory grounded in the data.ResultsA focus on the social-professional constructs used by participants to make sense of their experiences, resulted in a grounded theory where Reconciling Duty emerged as the core category. This represents a process of meeting professional duties to different parties that are often mutually exclusive. It is comprised of three supporting categories: Applying order to the system, where individuals attempt to identify what constitutes professional attitudes and behaviours, Rationalising what is fair, where individuals make judgements on how the conflict between duties should be resolved, and finally Responding to the System, where individuals attempt to actualise these desired resolutions in the context of the complex social system in which they practice. Three dentist archetypes (typologies) emerged, which involved a personal (Type 1), patient (Type 2), or a societal (Type 3) compromise.ConclusionProfessionalism can be conceptualised as process of reconciling multiple, competing, legitimate duties to different parties, in seeking a fair solution. Once this has been identified, individuals need to work within the complex system of dentistry to make their identified outcome a reality. The findings suggest that using the theory of Reconciling Duty helps us to engage with the meaning that the participants drew from the term ‘professionalism’, and anchors it in the lived, everyday professional experiences and challenges faced. A novel typology is proposed, commensurate with calls for a systems approach to the topic.

Exploring the Evolution of Sensemaking Strategies in Immersive Space to Think.

Existing research on immersive analytics to support the sensemaking process focuses on single-session sensemaking tasks. However, in the wild, sensemaking can take days or months to complete. In order to understand the full benefits of immersive analytic systems, we need to understand how immersive analytic systems provide flexibility for the dynamic nature of the sensemaking process. In our work, we build upon an existing immersive analytic system - Immersive Space to Think, to evaluate how immersive analytic systems can support sensemaking tasks over time. We conducted a user study with eight participants with three separate analysis sessions each. We found significant differences between analysis strategies between sessions one, two, and three, which suggest that immersive space to think can benefit analysts during multiple stages in the sensemaking process.

Sensemaking through the storm: How postpartum depression shapes personal work-family narratives.

Many women experience psychological and emotional challenges during their transition to becoming a working mother. Postpartum depression (PPD) is one common, salient aspect of motherhood that can serve as a work-life shock event and profoundly shape women's work and nonwork lives yet has evaded discussion in the organizational sciences. Taking a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 41 women who experienced PPD as well as key informants who provided additional insights about PPD (e.g., an obstetrician, women working for organizations that support postpartum health). Our analysis highlights how being diagnosed with PPD activates a complex sensemaking process in which women process an imposing identity-a concept we introduce to the identity and work-family literatures reflecting an unexpected, undesirable identity that imposes upon existing (e.g., work) and/or provisional identities that may or may not be fully elaborated (e.g., motherhood), ultimately shifting how women think about the intersection of work and family. We also delineate how supports and antisupports (i.e., overt acts dismissive of women's PPD) shape the aforementioned processes. Combined, our research aims to advance the discussion of PPD within organizational scholarship, rendering significant implications for both theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

On Enmity, Terror and Fear

In this article, HARM presents a small excerpt from Ernst E. Boesch’s book “Von Kunst bis Terror - Über den Zwiespalt in der Kultur” [From art to terror - On the dichotomy in culture], published in 2005. The editors of HARM want to draw attention to a psychologist and social theorist who saw himself as a cultural psychologist and, as such, wanted to show how much more complex, ambivalent, opaque and unpredictable human thinking, feeling, behaviour, and actions are than mainstream psychology — which models and primarily quantifies and measures — would have us believe. This, according to one of his convictions which continues to shape modern cultural psychology, is because it recognises humans not primarily as natural creatures, but also as cultural beings who, as beings gifted with special language, are entangled in an indissoluble network of meaningful symbolic worlds and thus are capable of manifold processes of sense-making. In order to depict and reconstruct these entanglements and to understand their significance for human experience, attitudes and actions, Boesch argues that hermeneutic-interpretative procedures are required which, we are convinced, also contribute significantly to refining the depiction and analysis of phenomena that are relevant in the context of HARM. — Boesch’s text is preceded by a brief introduction to his life, his thinking and the selected text.

Competing institutional logics in hospital management during the COVID-19 pandemic – lessons for the future

Hospitals had to adapt quickly when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in January 2020. This article analyses the organisation of the crisis management efforts of Oslo University Hospital (OUH). The analysis is based on theories that organising is a process of sensemaking, especially in the face of unexpected events. Crises stress test organisations and can highlight important decision patterns and otherwise hidden underlying logics. Theories of emergency and crisis management distinguish between anticipation and resilience. In the analyses of the OUH case, two different emergency logics, planned and ad hoc was identified. The different logics create tension in priorities and the choice of problems and solutions during the pandemic. The analysis was based on 19 in-depth interviews that took place in three clinics at OUH between December 2020 and November 2021, as well as internal audits and documents from OUH and published works. The analysis of OUH show that the resilient, ad hoc emergency logic was mostly present in the first phase of the pandemic and allowed flexibility and fast centralised decision-making. This process-based organising is particularly suitable to tackle crises but face difficulties in normal operations. To learn from past crisis management experiences and develop robust hospitals for the future, a greater awareness of the relationship between different emergency logics and sensemaking in crises is needed.

What is the right thing to do? The constitutive role of organizational ethical frameworks in collective ethical sensemaking

In the complex realm of ethical decision making, organizations are increasingly developing comprehensive ethical frameworks as guides. These frameworks prescribe ethical principles and decision-making processes to steer organizational actors toward addressing the elusive question of “what is the right thing to do?” in specific situations. However, the interplay between these prescriptive frameworks and collective processes of ethical sensemaking remains underexplored. Based on an extensive qualitative study within publicly funded healthcare organizations, we examine how organizational actors, confronted with the challenge of making exceptional funding decisions, enact an organizational ethical framework. Our findings reveal the manifold ways through which such a framework both streamlines ethical sensemaking and induces new and unexpected interpretive challenges. These challenges generate ethical equivocality, which decision makers seek to reduce through particular sensegiving interventions, and, on occasion, through problematizing the abstract principles prescribed by the framework, based on what is intuitively felt right in situ. We contribute to the literature by developing a conceptual model of three distinct modes in which organizational actors enact the prescriptions of an ethical framework. Our article sheds new light on the unintended consequences of using organizational ethical frameworks in real-world ethical deliberations.

Islanders Come Back to the Mainland: Social Identity in the People of Jeju in Mainland Korea

This study investigates the social identity and self-efficacy of a group of people from Jeju who have come to the mainland Korean peninsula for their university education. Two research questions guided this study: (a) how do the people of Jeju describe their social identity in the mainland Korean peninsula, particularly as university students in South Korean university environments, and (b) how do the people of Jeju describe their challenges and problems due to their unique Jeju dialects and sociocultural practices, particularly as university students in South Korean university environments. Based on a general inductive approach, 16 participants were invited. The findings indicated (a) I am a South Korean citizen, (b) my spoken language and living style, and (c) social stigma and discrimination as the primary themes. The participants indicated that due to the islandness of Jeju, they had developed their self-identity as people of Jeju and South Korean citizens, but not mainland Korean from the Korean peninsula. Although not all participants spoke fluent Jeju dialect and followed the traditional local religion in Jeju, their sociocultural development and customs played significant roles in their self-identity, self-efficacy, and sense-making processes, as people of Jeju.