THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL POSITION ON SENSEMAKING ABOUT ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lockett, Andy; Currie, Graeme; Finn, Rachael; Martin, Graham; Waring, Justin
• 署名单位: University of Warwick; University of Leicester; University of Nottingham
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2011.0055
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 1102-1129
• 关键词: STRATEGIC CHANGE; ENABLING ROLE; IDENTITY; institutions; context; interventions; legitimacy; continuity; leadership; expertise

摘要

Traditionally, scholars have examined the influence of actors' sensemaking on context; in this paper, we explore the reverse. Employing Bourdieu's theory of practice we explore how actors' unique contexts, as encapsulated by their social positions, provide the important raw materials for their sensemaking about organizational change. Drawing on a case study of three focal actors, located in different social positions in the National Health Service in England, but tasked with enacting a common organizational change, we explore how actors' capital endowments and dispositions shape their sensemaking about organizational change. We conclude by developing a theoretical model of the influence of social position on sensemaking about organizational change and discuss the practical implications of paying closer attention to the social positions of actors engaged as change agents.