Sensemaking in Organizations

The teaching of organization theory and the conduct of organizational research have been dominated by a focus on decision making and the conception of strategic rationality. The rational model, however, ignores the inherent complexity and ambiguity of real-world organizations and their environments. Karl Weick's new landmark volume, Sensemaking in Organizations, highlights how the "sensemaking" process - the creation of reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves - shapes organizational structure and behavior. Some of the topics Weick thoroughly covers are the concept, uniqueness, historical roots, varieties and occasions, general properties, and the future of sensemaking research and practice.