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Enactment, Sensemaking and Decision Making: Redesign Processes in the 1976 Reorganization of US Intelligence[Note 1. Address for reprints: James Douglas Orton, Department of Management ...]
Author(s) -
Orton James Douglas
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6486.00178
Subject(s) - sensemaking , multitude , organization studies , organizational theory , organizational architecture , epistemology , value (mathematics) , process (computing) , sociology , management science , psychology , management , computer science , social psychology , knowledge management , engineering , economics , philosophy , machine learning , operating system
Weick’s theories of organizing and sensemaking help enrich the assumptions in the organization design school. This study builds on Weick’s theories of sensemaking to illustrate how three fundamental organization design assumptions — dominant variables, causal laws and executive dictates — were found to be restrictive in the explanation of redesign processes in the 1976 reorganization of the US intelligence community. The assumption of dominant variables was challenged by the appearance of a multitude of events, or enactments, which were selected by organization members for further attention. The assumption of causal laws was challenged by the appearance of individual‐level cause maps which were filtered, through sensemaking processes, into organization‐level workable realities. The assumption of executive dictates was challenged by the appearance of attempts to punctuate redesign processes as organizational decisions. The study suggests value in moving from simple organization design assumptions to more reliable findings drawn from detailed observations of redesign processes.