Making Sense of the Organization, Volume 2

Making Sense of the Organization elaborates on the influential idea that organizations are interpretation systems that scan, interpret, and learn. These selected essays represent a new approach to the way managers learn and act in response to their environment and the way organizational change evolves. Readers of this volume will find a wealth of examples and insights which go well beyond thinking and cognition to explain action. The author's ideas are at the forefront of our thinking on leadership, teams, and the management of change. This book engages the puzzle of impermanence in organizing. Through rich examples, evocative language, artful literature citing, and imaginative connecting, Weick re-introduces core ideas and themes around attending, interpreting, acting and learning to unlock new insights about impermanent organizing. The wisdom in this book is timeless and timely. It prods scholars and managers of organizations to complicate their views of organizing in ways that enrich thought and action. - Jane E. Dutton, Robert L. Kahn Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan

Making Sense of the Organization elaborates on theinfluential idea that organizations are interpretation systems thatscan, interpret, and learn. These selected essays represent anew approach to the way managers learn and act in response to theirenvironment and the way organizational change evolves.Readers of this volume will find a wealth of examples and insightswhich go well beyond thinking and cognition to explainaction. The author's ideas are at the forefront of ourthinking on leadership, teams, and the management of change."This book engages the puzzle of impermanence inorganizing. Through rich examples, evocative language, artfulliterature citing, and imaginative connecting, Weick re-introducescore ideas and themes around attending, interpreting, acting andlearning to unlock new insights about impermanent organizing.The wisdom in this book is timeless and timely. It prods scholarsand managers of organizations to complicate their views oforganizing in ways that enrich thought and action." - Jane E.Dutton, Robert L. Kahn Distinguished University ProfessorUniversity of Michigan

Preface viiAcknowledgments ixPart I Introduction 11. Organized Impermanence: An Overview 32. Mundane Poetics: Searching for Wisdom in Organizational Theory 93. Faith, Evidence, and Action: Better Guesses in an Unknowable World 27Part II Attending 454. Managing the Unexpected: Complexity as Distributed Sensemaking 475. Information Overload Revisited 65Kathleen M. Sutcliffe and Karl. E Weick6. Organizing for Mindfulness: Eastern Wisdom and Western Knowledge 85Karl E. Weick and Ted PutnamPart III Interpretation 1077. Making Sense of Blurred Images: Mindful Organizing in Mission STS-107 1098. Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking 129Karl E. Weick, Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, and David Obstfeld9. Impermanent Systems and Medical Errors: Variety Mitigates Adversity 153Part IV Action 17310. Hospitals as Cultures of Entrapment: A Re-analysis of the Bristol Royal Infirmary 175Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe11. Enacting an Environment: The Infrastructure of Organizing 18912. Positive Organizing and Organizational Tragedy 207Part V Learning and Change 22313. Emergent Change as a Universal in Organizations 22514. Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies 24315. Leadership as the Legitimation of Doubt 261Epilogue 273References 275Index 281