page 1 micro-level sensegiving: facilitating and triggering coordinated action in organizations timo...
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Micro-Level Sensegiving: Facilitating and Triggering Coordinated Action in OrganizationsTimo VuoriArctic Workshop12.11.2009
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Introduction
Making people execute strategies in coordinated ways is crucial for organizational success
Research on sensemaking and sensegiving provides a useful theoretical starting point- Sensemaking = organizing = coordinated action (e.g. Weick 1979)- Can often collapse (e.g. Weick 1993)
Sensegiving = influencing the sensemaking of others (Gioia & Chittipeddi, 1991)
How can managers create optimal conditions for coordinated action?
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Theoretical background (1)
Coordination- Different individuals actions are consistent with each other, even mutually
reinforcing
Coordination mechanisms- Rules (e.g. Thompson 1967)- Interaction and tacit coordination in dynamic situations (e.g. Rico et al. 2008)
Shared understanding- ensures that people are going to the same direction (e.g. Huber & Lewis 2010)
Trust and faith- Effort = f (belief (effort success)) (e.g. Vroom)
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Theoretical background (2) First impressions, positive cycles
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Initial perception of task and team-mates
Effort put in one’s own action and consistency
Others’ perceptions of the first person
Effort put in one’s own action and consistency
First person’s perceptions of the others
Cf. Weick, 1995Dietz, today
Doz, 1996
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Theoretical background (3)Sensegiving
Sensemaking- Action, extract cues, interpret, act again and influence the situation
(Weick 1995, Weick et al. 2005)
Sensegiving- Purposeful influencing on the sensemaking of others (Gioia &
Chittipeddi 1991)- Micro-studies: metaphors, narratives, emotional tone, etc. (e.g. Hill &
Levenhagen 1995, Maitlis 2005)- What cues are given and what not (Weick et al. 2005)- Models recognizing different phases (e.g. Pratt 2001)
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Research design overview
An in-depth investigation of the sensegiving tactics of an executive in a large Finnish corporation- 100+2 days of participant-observation- The first 100 days general focus on the sensemaking and sensegiving in the organization;
familiarity with the context, and through theoretical samplic, more focus on the executive- During the two days, 10 hours of microscopic focus on the sensegiving of the executive
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Data collection
General part- 100 days of participant-observation; general field notese- 19 interviews with different people in the organization- Several hundred informal discussions
The focused part- 10 hours of observation in meetings: ”Near-verbatim” hand-written notes- 3 interviews sense-receivers about what happened in the meetings (20-30 minutes each)- 2 interviews with the sensegiver (45 minutes each)
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Data analysis
Following Strauss & Corbin (1998), Siggelkow (2007), and Vuori (2009)
Iterative development of theoretical model- Open coding of interviews and field notes (first-order categories)- Axial coding to recognize second-order categories- Recognizing themes through diagramming and memoing- Refining the theoretical model through selective coding
Data and systematic analysis provide inspiration and structure for the model development
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Open coding
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Findings
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Logical description
Stakeholder views
Concrete next steps
Crediting people
Savoring the idea
- Draws present situation- Describes present situation- Further explains the problem- Sharpens the idea- Explain how a thing works
- Explains the motive of another person- Predicts how people will behave- Explains how one should play with people- Explains how a 3rd person will view the issue
- Explains why some people are good to work with
- Talks (good) about people- Tells that a non-trusted person will not
participate- Tells who participated in an earlier
meeting and committed
- Reinforces the right interpretation- Explains why the idea would be
good (after decision)- Stabilizes the idea- Emphasizes that the arrived solution
is the best possible
- Proposes an action- Concrete next steps- Concrete deadline- Asks for a concrete action
Building understanding
Building faith
Triggering action
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Memoing
Memo: Crediting people. Part of action taking is a belief that the action will result in desired outcomes. When one is talking about coordinated actions by many a number of people, this means that the first person needs to also believe that the others will do their part as agreed, since the outcome depends on everyone’s effort. Therefore, if a sensegiver is able to give credit to people who are to become members of the next coordinated effort, he increases the probability that those members present in the focal sensegiving situation will put more effort in the actions needed for the coordinated action. In my observation, this theme emerged in some meetings, as the sensegiver mentioned who had been talking with the idea he was promoting in the focal meeting, and how those people were credible and committed to the idea. This theme also emerged in one meeting when one sense-receiver asked whether or not a certain disliked person was part of the future coordinated action, and kept repeating the question even though the sensegiver said he wasn’t. This highlights the point that the motivation of the sense-receiver to put effort in coordinated actions with a third person depends on whether he trusts the third person or not. In this case, the disliked person was not trusted and he therefore wanted to ensure that he would not have to work with him.
Memo: The executive is the one most interested in action. It seemed, when listening to the meetings, that the executive I was following was the person most concerned about concrete next steps and actions. Other members seemed more interested in speculating and deliberating the meaning of things and pondering other alternatives and analyzing details, whereas the executive (sensegiver) often kept saying, that it is not necessary to go through all the details here, and was more focused on defining the concrete next steps and people responsible for them. This indicates that the actual executive ability comes from the ability to trigger action, rather than from the ability to intellectualize things. Of course, the background may be in the requisite variety of the executive, as he is able to see more than others, and consciously ignore irrelevant things, while focusing on the most relevant ones. And it is the most relevant things that need to be acted on, while not worrying about the less important things.
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Diagramming
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Findings
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Building understanding-Logical description-Stakeholders views
Building faith-Crediting people-Savoring the idea
Triggering-Concrete next steps
”Action potential”
Coordinated action
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1. Building understanding
1.1. Logical description- Explain the whole situation, its problems and possibilities, and how the
suggested solution would be good- Explain the historical development of things (narrative continuance seems
logical)- Synthesize fragmented information and give meaning
1.2. Stakeholders’ points of view- Explain how different stakeholders see the situation, and how they would react
to different action alternatives
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1.1. Logical description
Re-calibrating collaboration with Firm Y- [17] “I think that, realistic for you, when one thinks we as a company, around the Baltic Sea and those
others are small. A solution is needed where the near regions around Finland, and all of them are quite small … Therefore, the [global] model won’t suite us. Few users elsewhere. And our culture isn’t mature enough, for example, English language is a problem. [continues the description and ultimate arrives at a conclusion that a certain way is to be preferred]”
Synthesizing fragmented information- “Sometimes he blows the whistle after a long conversation and says that ‘have I understood it correctly
that things are now like this and this, and if it is like that, doesn’t it mean that we shall do like that’ […] He does not start politicking, but says things as they are and draws logical conclusions from that.” [Interview transcript, sense-receiver speaking]
Joking about the transition from old manual service to new electronic service- [16] “Soon we’ll have the empty warehouses; Firm X could put servers there.”
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1.2. Stakeholders’ points of view
Framing an office move- [1b] “Person A and B and I were talking … It seem to be a larger than life question to person A … [4] It
wasn’t about [logical reasons] but he just doesn’t want to move because of comfort reasons. I don’t want to annoy him, but we can’t follow his desires like this. .. Therefore, say that we are only planning” … [16] “Let’s talk about plan. To have everyone in the same [space]. First everyone will resist, and then notice that it is good.”
Joking about how to motivate people to move- J:” Let’s say there’s mold.” - [13] “I’ll spray [paint to make the room look like having mold].”- A: “And, I’ll start coughing”
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2. Building faith
2.1. Crediting people- Describe how the people who are to take part in the coordinated action are likely
to do their part well
2.2. Savoring the idea- Build additional faith by providing additional reasons why the action to be taken
is going to be good and successful, after you have decided the action is to be taken
- Faith in the idea and in the ability to make the idea happen
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2.1. Crediting people
New collaboration project with Firm X; ensuring that they are committed- [1] “The CEO and some other dude from firm X [large, respected company], came to visit
me and [strategy director], they suggested that we [co-operate with them]”- [12] “[Firm X is committed], especially since their CEO was also in the meeting.”- [P asks, for the third time, whether a non-trusted person from X was also in the meeting,
and the sensegiver answers, for the third time, [19]: “No it wasn’t that one, I’ve met [the new person] sometimes earlier.”
Outsourcing to Firm Z- ”Start doing, I whink it would be rather easy thing to do. They are really good people in
[Firm Z] ... They did the [product] so that they just came to present a demo without us having asked ... If we did it with them, so that they would do it [in a similar way]”
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2.2. Savoring the idea
Collaboration with Firm X; after the participants have agreed to take action- [21] “[This will be good], yes, if we take the not the technology but the [core idea].” - P: “So win/win, they get […] and we get […]. “
Joking about how the new service/product will be good- [11] “We would provide the additional value by […]”. - P: “The perfect communication solution” - J: You no longer have to leave from the computer” - P: “…The guy disappeared in 2001, and the wife reported him missing in 2005” - A: “Something is missing from the couch.”
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3. Triggering concrete action
Faith and understanding provide the potential for coordinated action- The potential must be realized by triggering people to take actions- The sensegiver emphasized this point in interviews and aimed to conclude every meeting
by agreeing on the concrete next steps- Even though intellectually simple, the concrete actions are the essence of sensegiving
Example: Timing of extra holidays- ”We should get from people, supervisors should go thorugh, that the timing will be agreed,
so that they [employees] don’t make holiday reservations ... Cuold you write an email to the supervisors, where you say [...]?”
Intentionality- “This is the typical way for me [being explicit about next steps]. I look at the time and bring
up the next steps. This way we can get things organized. What is going to be done and by who.” [Fieldnotes, sensegiver speaking to me]
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Discussion
Contribution - Moving sensegiving studies beyond cognitive framing to collective action as the
outcome- ”It’s not about whether we think our strategy is good, but about whether we act on it
collectively or not”
- This makes several additional sensegiving tactics relevant- E.g. Savoring and crediting people only become understandable from this point of view- The instrumental value of shared understanding
- ”3rd party effects” in Dietz’s model
Limitations and future research- Small sample, more data collection and theoretical work needed
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Thank you
Questions?
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