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Keywords Critical thinking, Executive functions, Interviews, Method study, Narratives, Phenomenology
Abstract This paper attempts to answer the research question, "how do senior executives in my organisation make sense of their professional life?" Having reviewed the sensemaking literature, in particular that of the pre-eminent author in this field, Karl E Weick, I adopt a phenomenological, interpretist orientation which relies on an ideographic, inductive generation of theory. I situate myself both as researcher and chief executive of the organisation studied, in the narrative of sensemaking. Using semi-structured interviews and a combination of grounded theory and template analysis to generate categories, seven themes of sensemaking are tentatively produced which are then compared with Weick's characteristics. The methodological approach is then reflected on, criticised and alternative methodologies are briefly considered The conclusion reached is that the themes generated by the research may have relevance for sensemaking processes, but that the production of formal theory through social research is problematic.
Introduction
We take for granted the social and cognitive processes that we employ to socially construct the organisations in which we work. Our beliefs, assumptions, stories and interactions with others help us to bring order to what is going on, to make sense of our own reality. This article is concerned with an interpretative case study of how executives in my organisation purport to make sense and a critical evaluation of the methods available to the researcher in seeking to answer this question.
Although there is a long history of social psychological literature on aspects of sensemaking, even a cursory glance at current research reveals one pre-eminent author in this field, Karl E. Weick. His seminal book Sensemaking in Organisations (Weick, 1995) is the standard reference work from which most deductive research begins. And for me, there's the rub. I can find no inductive study in sensemaking since 1995; all published sources that I have discovered look for Weick's distinguishing characteristics in various settings. Indeed, as resonant and well-referenced as Weick's work undoubtedly is, much of it, including the pivotal study of the Hawick cashmere industry, is secondary research.
My own research is embedded in what Lincoln and Guba (1985) describe as the "naturalist paradigm" and Bryman (2001) labels "interpretism", the characteristics of which will be discussed in...