A storm is coming? Collective sensemaking and ambiguity in an inter-organizational team managing railway system disruptions

Sander Merkus*, Thijs Willems, Danny Schipper, Alfons van Marrewijk, Joop Koppenjan, Marcel Veenswijk, Hans Bakker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
170 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper studies the ways in which members of inter-organizational teams collectively make sense of unexpected events and how they decide upon engaging in action. Frequently, ambiguity dominates such change processes aimed to create common understanding. Using the notion of the duality of intrinsic and constructed ambiguity, a detailed analysis of the collective sensemaking efforts of an inter-organizational team of railway coordinators in the Operational Control Center Rail was conducted. Building on team meetings observations during the days preceding a large and potentially disruptive winter storm in December 2013, the case study describes the process of collectively making sense of the disruptiveness of the storm. The findings show that contextual and temporal factors determine whether collective sensemaking unfolds as either a shared or a negotiated process.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)228-248
Number of pages21
JournalThe Journal of Change Management
Volume17
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Aug 2016

Keywords

  • ambiguity
  • change
  • Collective sensemaking
  • disruption
  • sense of urgency

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