Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.701849 |
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Title: | Understanding sensemaking in organisational change : a cognitive mapping approach | ||||||
Author: | O'Connor, Maureen |
ISNI:
0000 0004 5993 8693
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Awarding Body: | University of Birmingham | ||||||
Current Institution: | University of Birmingham | ||||||
Date of Award: | 2017 | ||||||
Availability of Full Text: |
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Abstract: | |||||||
In this thesis I argue for consideration of an anticipatory level of sensemaking that influences how individuals think about and respond to organisational change. In asking how knowledgeable agents understand an altered environment, I adopt a holistic view of organisational and cognitive sensemaking literatures, to produce a sensemaking template identifying four key relational influences: Equilibration, Intentionality, Temporal Context, and Knowledge Structures. The sensemaking template is used to inform the design of an interpretive study. A single local authority in the West Midlands region of England is the setting for the field research which was working to meet increasing demands for local services against a backdrop of austerity budgets and decreasing resources in 2012-2013. I employ cognitive mapping as part of a multi-method approach to identify previously tacit frames of reference used by research participants in making sense of self-selected episodes of change in the organisation. In arguing that organisational change emerges through the enactment of cognitive agency, I use empirical data to expound on a previously invisible sensemaking process that is complex and nuanced, and which offers methodological, theoretical and analytical contributions to knowledge.
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Supervisor: | Not available | Sponsor: | Not available | ||||
Qualification Name: | Thesis (Ph.D.) | Qualification Level: | Doctoral | ||||
EThOS ID: | uk.bl.ethos.701849 | DOI: | Not available | ||||
Keywords: | BF Psychology ; HD28 Management. Industrial Management ; JS Local government Municipal government | ||||||
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