Interpretation and Sensemaking

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Interpretation and Sensemaking

• COMM 254 Organizational Communication

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Goals

• Search for symbolic behavior that has
  organizational (cultural) significance.
• Each organization functions in a unique symbolic
  world.
• Discover the symbolic behavior that drives
  organized activity for a particular organization.
• Identify and facilitate sensemaking.

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The General Approach

• Principle One Rely on careful observation and
  intuition
• Make the familiar strange
• Make the mundane interesting
• Make the simple complex
• Make the invisible visible

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The General Approach

• Principle Two Recognize that the analyst IS the
  instrument for analysis
• Must be an inside outsider
• Must be an outside insider

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The General Approach

• Principle Three Provide a strong case (rather
  than proof) for findings with thick description

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Planning an AnalysisStep 1 Identify Boundaries

• Symbolic realities may differ across subcultures
  in organizations.
• Consider time and resources available for
  analysis.

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Planning an AnalysisStep 2 Establish a Focus

• Examples Origins, manifestations, outcomes,
  management.
• Focus on one, some, or all of these areas.

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Planning an AnalysisStep 3 What Constitutes
Data?

• What sorts of messages will be of interest?
• Messages may be verbal (i.e., written, spoken,
  electronic, etc.).
• Messages may be nonverbal (i.e., dress,
  environment, rituals, etc.).
• Some common types of data for interpretive
  analysis . . .

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Accounts

• Statements provided by someone when his/her
  actions have been challenged in order to justify
  those actions.

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Stories/Narratives

• Shared descriptions of a particular experience
  with some connection to actual past or present
  events which include characters and a complete
  cycle of action.

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Metaphors

• Verbal expressions which establish an
  interactive relationship between two elements
  (objects, emotions, experiences, situations,
  etc.) normally considered to be different from
  each other and which are an essential process for
  perceiving, experiencing, and understanding the
  world.

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Planning an AnalysisStep 4 How Will Data Be
Gathered?

• Participant observation (notes, recordings,
  photos, etc.)
• Document analysis
• In-depth interviewing

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Planning an AnalysisStep 5 How Will Data Be
Generated?

• Asking why?
• Obtaining critical incidents
• Soliciting stories
• Facilitating introspective activity (mental maps,
  collages and assemblages, metaphor play, etc.)

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Planning an AnalysisStep 6 How Will Data Be
Interpreted?

• A negotiated, cooperative activity between
  analyst(s) and organizational members
• Need to be verified as valid and useful by
  organizational members
• No interpretation is final!