Leadership Organizational Change And Sensemaking

Organizational change literature often focuses on the leaders role in giving sense to others of the need for change and there is a plethora of models and recipes on how to influence employees thinking about change, organizational design and performance. Notwithstanding this ready supply of advice, research has shown that up to 90% of change programs fail to deliver their expected outcomes. One of the reasons for this which has been neglected in the literature is that successful change in thinking starts with how leaders first make sense of the need for change and the challenges this poses to their own thinking. This book surfaces the elements behind leader sensemaking that add to or detract from their ability to critically question their current thinking. Leaders and interventionists have lacked practical and pragmatic advice on how to influence the process. This book is the culmination of 10 years of research spent working with leaders in organizations as they interpreted the need for change and made choices about engaging, or not, with transformational change methodologies. It reveals nine elements of sensemaking displayed by organizational leaders as they grapple with challenges to their current orthodoxies about how to lead and organize in times of change. The book shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of leadership, change, and organisational development.

Organizations are constantly evolving, and intelligent leadership is needed during times of transformation. Change leaders must help people become aware of, understand and find meaning in the new things which arise — they must oversee a sensemaking process. Addressing this need, Effective Organizational Change explores the importance of leadership for organizational change based on sensemaking. Combining a theoretical overview, models and conceptual discussions rich with in-depth examples and case studies, this book uncovers what it is that leaders actually do when they lead change through sensemaking. It presents the most current sensemaking research, extends earlier work by developing the concept of ‘landscaping’, and provides guidelines on how leaders can drive sensemaking processes in practice. This book is for undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students of organizational change, as well as managers embarking on change projects within their organizations.

Organizational change literature often focuses on the leaders role in giving sense to others of the need for change and there is a plethora of models and recipes on how to influence employees thinking about change, organizational design and performance. Notwithstanding this ready supply of advice, research has shown that up to 90% of change programs fail to deliver their expected outcomes. One of the reasons for this which has been neglected in the literature is that successful change in thinking starts with how leaders first make sense of the need for change and the challenges this poses to their own thinking. This book surfaces the elements behind leader sensemaking that add to or detract from their ability to critically question their current thinking. Leaders and interventionists have lacked practical and pragmatic advice on how to influence the process. This book is the culmination of 10 years of research spent working with leaders in organizations as they interpreted the need for change and made choices about engaging, or not, with transformational change methodologies. It reveals nine elements of sensemaking displayed by organizational leaders as they grapple with challenges to their current orthodoxies about how to lead and organize in times of change. The book shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of leadership, change, and organisational development.

Applies an invaluable sensemaking framework to organizational change in both a practical and accessible way, to present an instructive and informative view on the implications of change in the business world today.

The teaching of organization theory and the conduct of organizational research have been dominated by a focus on decision-making and the concept of strategic rationality. However, the rational model ignores the inherent complexity and ambiguity of real-world organizations and their environments. In this landmark volume, Karl E Weick highlights how the `sensemaking' process shapes organizational structure and behaviour. The process is seen as the creation of reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves.

Great literature provides didactic commentaries on universal themes in the drama of life and visceral lessons on leadership. The careful reading of timeless novels position readers to emerge as astute protagonists in their own stories in the context of the grander narrative and internalize universal themes of the human story. Students of the great works of literature also emerge culturally literate, with a better understanding of themselves and others in relation to nobler virtues, traditions, and purposes. In addition to demonstrating great works of literature as among the first formal books on leadership, this book makes explicit connections between the study of literature and the research found in leadership and management studies. This book: Provides a bridge between the robust literary world and the leadership and management genre. Demonstrates how language and literature uniquely develop leaders to have a sophisticated understanding of historical and contemporary cultures, events, and people. Documents how powerful narratives either promote or diminish human flourishing. Illustrates the usefulness of all great literature and stories in shaping engaging and compelling workplace narratives that inspire and engage the collective. Equips leaders and managers with the knowledge and skills to embrace the drama of leadership and engage in meaningful sensemaking to help organizations thrive. Encourages readers to be connoisseurs of great works of literature and include such works in their leadership libraries. This book is ideal for the initiated and uninitiated in the study of literature and leadership by making explicit complementary and relevant insights to make reading and leading much more meaningful. Those unfamiliar with great literature will gain a deeper appreciation for books serving as tutors and mentors in the ways of leadership and become more discerning readers. Those unfamiliar with the leadership genre will improve their acumen to use endearing and enduring narratives to influence people and organizations.

Grounded in the theory of sociologist Karl Weick, this edited volume explores key concepts of educational leadership and organizational learning. Chapter authors analyze and reflect on the implications of Weick’s thinking on leadership preparation and development. Providing a thorough understanding of the influence of his ideas in education, this volume unpacks the ways in which Weick’s ideas influence and shape organizational learning and educational leadership and policy today.

This book explains how change encompasses many different phenomena, occurs in a variety of ways, and can have widely divergent causes and driving forces. It also helps to develop a constructive theory dealing with planned organizational change. The book is divided into two main sections. Part 1 discusses how organizations can tackle change actively in order to meet the new challenges they are facing. The author provides an analysis model based on four elements: driving forces, the content and scope of change, the process of change and the context of change. Part 2 addresses how an organization can implement a planned change. Emphasis is placed on how those who are responsible for implementing the change – the change agents – can apply various change strategies, and how planned change processes can be managed. The author shows how various change strategies and different ways of managing change can be equally effective, but in different situations. The book uses an interdisciplinary outlook, and it is based on research in the fields of psychology and sociology as well as political science and economics. The extensive references to source materials also mean that it is useful for anyone who would like to study organizational change in more depth. Dag Ingvar Jacobsen is the author of several books in the fields of organization and management, political science and methodology. He is co-author of the book Hvordan organisasjoner fungerer (How Organizations Function), which is one of the most frequently read books in Scandinavia about organization theory. Jacobsen is a professor at the University of Agder, and is a very popular speaker.