Sensing from the Middle: Middle Managers’ Sensemaking of Change Process in Public Organizations

Blakcori, Feim and Psychogios, Alexandros (2021) Sensing from the Middle: Middle Managers’ Sensemaking of Change Process in Public Organizations. International Studies of Management & Organization, 51 (4). pp. 328-353. ISSN 0020-8825

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Abstract

At the core of sense-making is its fundamental function of creating discursive order to equivocal occurrences. Although researchers have emphasized the organizational and managerial factors that trigger sense-making in settings, fewer things are known on how middle managers’ discursive sensemaking is constructed during the process of change in the public sector. In this empirical study, we explore middle managers’ sense-making in public organizations, that constrain the flow of change in reforming public governance. The research draws on qualitative data garnered from 31 interviews with middle managers in three public organizations in two periods of time (2016 and 2017). We illustrate managing divergences and strategizing sensemaking of the change process as intricate and multidimensional means of middle managers’ sense-making framework of ensuring change in the public sector. We argue that middle managers intensify their commitment to learning from change and therefore live the organizational life that sometimes demands commiserating the lack of exerting structural power by highlighting the contextual myopic circumstances of institutional dependence. Theoretical and practical implications are also elaborated.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.2021.1969136
Dates:
DateEvent
5 May 2021Accepted
21 October 2021Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords: Change, middle managers, public organizations, sense-making
Subjects: CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-02 - business studies
CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-04 - management studies
CAH17 - business and management > CAH17-01 - business and management > CAH17-01-05 - human resource management
Divisions: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > Birmingham City Business School > Centre for Applied Finance and Economics
Depositing User: Alexandros Psychogios
Date Deposited: 06 May 2021 14:41
Last Modified: 12 Jan 2022 14:17
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/11605

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