Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing

Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing is the first in a series of volumes which explore perspectives on process theories, an emerging approach to the study of organizations that focuses on (understanding) activities, interactions, and change as essential properties of organizations rather than structures and state – an approach which prioritizes activity over product, change over persistence, novelty over continuity, and expression over determination.

Process and sensemaking may be seen as mutually interlocking phenomena and, as such, are cornerstones in process thinking, This volume brings together contributions from an international group of scholars energized by process organization studies. The collection offers perspectives from different disciplines, insights from diverse theoretical traditions and contexts, and parallels made with a range of cultural forms, including art, poetry, and cookery. At the same time, the chapters exhibit a clear emphasis on a process ontology, process theorizing, and narrative thinking. Across this rich and varied collection recurrent themes emerge that distinguish process theorizing from the more logico-scientific, variance-oriented research that dominates organization studies today. This book will appeal to academics, researchers, and graduate students in management, organization studies, and sociology who wish to better understand the emergent, changing, and flow-like character of organizational life and expand their understanding of the nature of sensemaking as a basis for organizing.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introducing “Perspectives on Process Organization Studies”
Chapter 2. Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing: An Introduction
Chapter 3. Stop Making (Philosophical) Sense: Notes towards a Process Organizational-Thinking beyond “Philosophy”
Chapter 4. Co-Constitution, Causality, and Confluence: Organizing in a World without Entities
Chapter 5. Adopting a Process Orientation … in Practice: Chiasmic Relations, Language, and Embodiment in a Living World
Chapter 6. The Poetics of Process: Theorizing the Ineffable in Organization Studies
Chapter 7. Rediscovering Becoming: Insights from an Oriental Perspective on Process Organization Studies
Chapter 8. Going Back to Go Forward: On Studying Organizing in Action Nets
Chapter 9. Actor-Network Theory, Callon’s Scallops, and Process-Based Organization Studies
Chapter 10. Organizational Learning though Problem Absorption: A Processual View
Chapter 11. Temporal Sensemaking: Managers’ Use of Time to Frame Organizational Change
Chapter 12. Studying Metaphors-in-Use in their Social and Institutional Context: Sensemaking and Discourse Theory
Chapter 13. Future-oriented Sensemaking: Temporalities and Institutional Legitimation