Making sense of organizational change: Is hindsight really 20/20?

• Date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2208
• Author: Linda Duxbury,Laura Gover
• Published date: 01 January 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Making sense of organizational change: Is hindsight really

20/20?

Laura Gover

1

|Linda Duxbury

2

1

Faculty of Management, Vancouver Island

University, Naimo, BC, Canada

2

Sprott School of Business, Carleton

University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Correspondence

Laura Gover, Faculty of Management,

Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth Street,

Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5S5, Canada.

Email: laura.gover@viu.ca

Funding information

Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Grant/

Award Number: KAL‐114089

Summary

This qualitative study explores the conceptual links between 2 different approaches to manage-

rial cognition, sensemaking and cognitive bias, in the context of organizational change. A longitu-

dinal case study utilizing both real‐time assessments and retrospective sensemaking data from

interviews with 26 hospital employees at 3 points in time was undertaken. Patterns related to

individuals' retrospective accounts and real‐time assessments were identified and used to con-

struct 4 prototypical narratives. Data analysis revealed that organizational change was not a

markedly negative experience for most informants, which is contrary to the prevailing theme in

the literature. This and other findings are discussed in terms of sensemaking and cognitive bias.

This study makes 2 contributions to our understanding of how individual's experience and make

sense of organizational change over time as (a) little is known about how the process of change

unfolds over time at the individual level and (b) extant research has not investigated the extent

to which individuals' retrospective sensemaking about organizational change reflects or diverges

from their real‐time assessments over the course of the change. More broadly, the study provides

insights and focused advice for management researchers regarding the use of retrospective data

to understand individuals' perceptions of situations that have already occurred.

KEYWORDS

cognitive bias, organizational change, paradox, retrospective, sensemaking

1|INTRODUCTION

In today's competitive business environment, organizations often

undertake planned transformational change in an effort to thrive

and/or survive. These types of large‐scale changes or “reorientations”

(Nadler & Tushman, 1989) require long‐term, sustained effort from

multiple stakeholders (Smith, 2003). Each business unit needs time to

understand and integrate the changes that accompany the transforma-

tion, and implementation time is often extensive and variable

(Heracleous & Barrett, 2001; Riesenmy, 2010). This process of

understanding and integrating changes throughout the organization is

driven by sensemaking processes at the individual level (Stensaker,

Falkenberg, & Gronhaug, 2008). It follows, therefore, that research

about organizational members' sensemaking over time would allow

researchers and practitioners to better understand the context and

process of change implementation.

Sensemaking is an iterative process that individuals and groups

use to make plausible sense retrospectively of their situation (Weick,

Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2005). Organizational change is popular among

sensemaking scholars (Maitlis & Sonenshein, 2010) as the uncertainty

invoked by change provides a salient context for sensemaking (Weick,

1995). This extant research, however, is limited by its reliance on

retrospective accounts and/or on longitudinal data that examine a

limited portion of the change process (typically 2 years or less).

Also problematic is a lack of research comparing individuals'

retrospective sensemaking to their real‐time assessments. Real‐time

and retrospective data are commonly used together in organizational

change studies because the phenomenon (i.e., change) is intertwined

with its context (i.e., the environment; Pettigrew, 1990). The literature

on sensemaking about organizational change includes numerous

studies that use retrospective interview data along with real‐time data

such as observations (Rouleau, 2005), documents (Chreim, 2006), or

both (Sonenshein,2010) to capture collective sensemaking activities at

the group or organization level over time. Theliterature does not, how-

ever, include research that compares individuals' mind‐setsin the midst

of changeto their views after changehad occurred. This longitudinalcase

study addresses this issue by comparing employees' real‐time assess-

ments duringchange with their retrospectivesensemaking after change.

Received: 12 March 2016 Revised: 13 May 2017 Accepted: 30 May 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2208

J Organ Behav. 2018;39:39–51. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 39