Notes: sensemaking in organizations
Inhoudsopgave
Week 1 ........................................................................................................................................................... 3
Notes college 0 ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Reading: Goffman 1959 ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Reading: Fournier & Grey 2000 .......................................................................................................................... 3
Notes college 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 4
Reading: Jones 1996........................................................................................................................................... 5
Reading: Ybema, Yanow & van Hulst 2015 ........................................................................................................ 7
Reading: Ybema, Yanow, Wels & Kamsteeg 2009 ............................................................................................. 7
Reading: van de Waal 2009 ............................................................................................................................... 8
Notes college 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 9
Week 2 ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Reading: Ybema 2018 ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Reading: Ailon-Souday & Kunda 2003.............................................................................................................. 11
Reading: Brown & Humphreys 2003 ................................................................................................................ 12
Notes college 3 ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Reading: Becky 2006 ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Reading: Ortner 1984 (pp. 144-160) ................................................................................................................ 14
Notes college 4 ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Reading: Collinson 1999 ................................................................................................................................... 17
Reading: Pratt 2000 ......................................................................................................................................... 18
Reading: Bate 1997 .......................................................................................................................................... 19
Notes college 5 ................................................................................................................................................. 21
Week 3 ......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Reading: Elias 1978 (p. 66-98) ...................................................................................................................... 22
Reading: Handel IV intro + chapter 13 ............................................................................................................. 23
Reading Handel chapter 14 .............................................................................................................................. 24
Reading Handel intro V .................................................................................................................................... 24
Reading: Fleming and Spicer 2014 (p. 237 – 247) ............................................................................................ 25
Notes college 6 ................................................................................................................................................. 26
Reading Handel intro part X & chapter 27 (Kunda).......................................................................................... 27
Humphreys & Watson 2009 ............................................................................................................................. 27
Notes college 7 ................................................................................................................................................. 28
Week 4 ......................................................................................................................................................... 29
, Reading: Grant, Hardy, et al. 2004................................................................................................................... 29
Reading: Boje 1991 .......................................................................................................................................... 31
Notes college 8 ................................................................................................................................................. 32
Reading: Kamsteeg 2001 ................................................................................................................................. 32
Notes college 9 ................................................................................................................................................. 33
Week 5 ......................................................................................................................................................... 34
Reading: Brannan 2017 .................................................................................................................................... 34
Reading: Young 1989 ....................................................................................................................................... 34
Reading: Handel intro X ................................................................................................................................... 35
Notes college 10 ............................................................................................................................................... 35
Week 6 ......................................................................................................................................................... 37
Reading: Sonenshein 2010 ............................................................................................................................... 37
Reading: Ybema 2010 ...................................................................................................................................... 37
Notes college 11 ............................................................................................................................................... 38
Reading: Fineman 2000 ................................................................................................................................... 39
Notes college 12 ............................................................................................................................................... 39
2
,Week 1
Notes college 0
- The main topics in sensemaking are: culture, identity, power and emotion.
- Referring to the ‘iceberg’ slide: frontstage v.s. backstage.
Reading: Goffman 1959
Front and back regions of everyday life
Frontstage ßà Backstage
Make work: people acting like they are busy even when there is no work to be done when in
the presence of a superior.
Make no work: people acting like they are not working (example of traditional household:
women who were not supposed to work).
Frontstage/backstage performances can be seen everywhere from kitchens, traditional
households, offices and work sites. In some cases (such as the work site) employees will ‘make
work’ to make it look like they are extra productive. In other cases (for example, the traditional
household) people pretend to not be working while backstage actually doing work.
Frontstage
When one’s activity occurs in the presence of other persons, some aspects of the activity are
expressively accentuated and other aspects, which might discredit the fostered impression,
are suppressed.
Backstage
A place, relative to a given performance, where the impression fostered by the performance
is knowingly contradicted as a matter of course.
Reading: Fournier & Grey 2000
At the critical moment: conditions and prospects for critical management studies
History of critical management
Critical management emerged in the UK in the 1990’s as a result of the ‘second managerial
revolution’. During the managerialization of the public sector management was glamorized,
and managers were thought to have special skill sets which could be applied in a wide range
of issues.
3
, Managerialization meant techniques of accountability and market simulation to bring the
public sector to the reality of the market by translating the problem of the provision of public
services into questions of calculability and efficiency. As management became a more popular
and glamorous subject, it automatically gained interest from people that seek to analyze work
and organizations.
During the 1980’s social science academics found more funding and job opportunities in
management schools, but they brought with them a commitment to the traditions of their
erstwhile disciplines, thus complementing the already existing cross-fertilization of
management studies and critically oriented social science.
What is ‘critical’ management
To be engaged in critical management studies means, at the most basic level, to say that there
is something wrong with management, as a practice and as a body of knowledge, and that it
should be changed. However, the plural in CMS points out that there is no ultimate way of
tracing boundaries between critical and non-critical work. CMS are a political project that aims
to unmask power relations around which social and organizational life are woven.
Three main critical management pointers:
1. (Non) performativity: CSM questions the alignment between knowledge, truth and
efficiency and is not necessarily concerned with performativity.
2. Denaturalization: CSM is about the deconstruction of organizational ‘reality’ and the
‘truthfulness’ of organizational knowledge.
3. Reflexivity: As the word critical implies – taking nothing for granted, being reflexive at
all times.
Notes college 1
Sensemaking is done by
- The researched: how do individuals make sense in organizations?
o Theories, concepts, interpretive schemes to interpret data.
- The researcher: How do organizational scholars make sense of organizations?
o Research methods and strategies to generate data.
COM = How do managers (positively or negatively) influence an organization?
Two organizational forms:
- Bureaucratic: standardization & formalization, horizontal and vertical differentiation,
tough control.
- Post bureaucratic: dynamic enterprise, boundary crossing, non-hierarchic, soft control.
A metaphor for organizations: the theatre
- Dramaturgical perspective: everything and everyone in an organization plays their own
role. As a neutral observer at first you are behind enemy lines and not yet a part of the
roleplay within the organization.
4
Inhoudsopgave
Week 1 ........................................................................................................................................................... 3
Notes college 0 ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Reading: Goffman 1959 ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Reading: Fournier & Grey 2000 .......................................................................................................................... 3
Notes college 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 4
Reading: Jones 1996........................................................................................................................................... 5
Reading: Ybema, Yanow & van Hulst 2015 ........................................................................................................ 7
Reading: Ybema, Yanow, Wels & Kamsteeg 2009 ............................................................................................. 7
Reading: van de Waal 2009 ............................................................................................................................... 8
Notes college 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 9
Week 2 ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Reading: Ybema 2018 ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Reading: Ailon-Souday & Kunda 2003.............................................................................................................. 11
Reading: Brown & Humphreys 2003 ................................................................................................................ 12
Notes college 3 ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Reading: Becky 2006 ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Reading: Ortner 1984 (pp. 144-160) ................................................................................................................ 14
Notes college 4 ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Reading: Collinson 1999 ................................................................................................................................... 17
Reading: Pratt 2000 ......................................................................................................................................... 18
Reading: Bate 1997 .......................................................................................................................................... 19
Notes college 5 ................................................................................................................................................. 21
Week 3 ......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Reading: Elias 1978 (p. 66-98) ...................................................................................................................... 22
Reading: Handel IV intro + chapter 13 ............................................................................................................. 23
Reading Handel chapter 14 .............................................................................................................................. 24
Reading Handel intro V .................................................................................................................................... 24
Reading: Fleming and Spicer 2014 (p. 237 – 247) ............................................................................................ 25
Notes college 6 ................................................................................................................................................. 26
Reading Handel intro part X & chapter 27 (Kunda).......................................................................................... 27
Humphreys & Watson 2009 ............................................................................................................................. 27
Notes college 7 ................................................................................................................................................. 28
Week 4 ......................................................................................................................................................... 29
, Reading: Grant, Hardy, et al. 2004................................................................................................................... 29
Reading: Boje 1991 .......................................................................................................................................... 31
Notes college 8 ................................................................................................................................................. 32
Reading: Kamsteeg 2001 ................................................................................................................................. 32
Notes college 9 ................................................................................................................................................. 33
Week 5 ......................................................................................................................................................... 34
Reading: Brannan 2017 .................................................................................................................................... 34
Reading: Young 1989 ....................................................................................................................................... 34
Reading: Handel intro X ................................................................................................................................... 35
Notes college 10 ............................................................................................................................................... 35
Week 6 ......................................................................................................................................................... 37
Reading: Sonenshein 2010 ............................................................................................................................... 37
Reading: Ybema 2010 ...................................................................................................................................... 37
Notes college 11 ............................................................................................................................................... 38
Reading: Fineman 2000 ................................................................................................................................... 39
Notes college 12 ............................................................................................................................................... 39
2
,Week 1
Notes college 0
- The main topics in sensemaking are: culture, identity, power and emotion.
- Referring to the ‘iceberg’ slide: frontstage v.s. backstage.
Reading: Goffman 1959
Front and back regions of everyday life
Frontstage ßà Backstage
Make work: people acting like they are busy even when there is no work to be done when in
the presence of a superior.
Make no work: people acting like they are not working (example of traditional household:
women who were not supposed to work).
Frontstage/backstage performances can be seen everywhere from kitchens, traditional
households, offices and work sites. In some cases (such as the work site) employees will ‘make
work’ to make it look like they are extra productive. In other cases (for example, the traditional
household) people pretend to not be working while backstage actually doing work.
Frontstage
When one’s activity occurs in the presence of other persons, some aspects of the activity are
expressively accentuated and other aspects, which might discredit the fostered impression,
are suppressed.
Backstage
A place, relative to a given performance, where the impression fostered by the performance
is knowingly contradicted as a matter of course.
Reading: Fournier & Grey 2000
At the critical moment: conditions and prospects for critical management studies
History of critical management
Critical management emerged in the UK in the 1990’s as a result of the ‘second managerial
revolution’. During the managerialization of the public sector management was glamorized,
and managers were thought to have special skill sets which could be applied in a wide range
of issues.
3
, Managerialization meant techniques of accountability and market simulation to bring the
public sector to the reality of the market by translating the problem of the provision of public
services into questions of calculability and efficiency. As management became a more popular
and glamorous subject, it automatically gained interest from people that seek to analyze work
and organizations.
During the 1980’s social science academics found more funding and job opportunities in
management schools, but they brought with them a commitment to the traditions of their
erstwhile disciplines, thus complementing the already existing cross-fertilization of
management studies and critically oriented social science.
What is ‘critical’ management
To be engaged in critical management studies means, at the most basic level, to say that there
is something wrong with management, as a practice and as a body of knowledge, and that it
should be changed. However, the plural in CMS points out that there is no ultimate way of
tracing boundaries between critical and non-critical work. CMS are a political project that aims
to unmask power relations around which social and organizational life are woven.
Three main critical management pointers:
1. (Non) performativity: CSM questions the alignment between knowledge, truth and
efficiency and is not necessarily concerned with performativity.
2. Denaturalization: CSM is about the deconstruction of organizational ‘reality’ and the
‘truthfulness’ of organizational knowledge.
3. Reflexivity: As the word critical implies – taking nothing for granted, being reflexive at
all times.
Notes college 1
Sensemaking is done by
- The researched: how do individuals make sense in organizations?
o Theories, concepts, interpretive schemes to interpret data.
- The researcher: How do organizational scholars make sense of organizations?
o Research methods and strategies to generate data.
COM = How do managers (positively or negatively) influence an organization?
Two organizational forms:
- Bureaucratic: standardization & formalization, horizontal and vertical differentiation,
tough control.
- Post bureaucratic: dynamic enterprise, boundary crossing, non-hierarchic, soft control.
A metaphor for organizations: the theatre
- Dramaturgical perspective: everything and everyone in an organization plays their own
role. As a neutral observer at first you are behind enemy lines and not yet a part of the
roleplay within the organization.
4
