Of Organizing and Sensemaking: From Action to Meaning and Back Again in a Half-Century of Weick’s Theorizing

Abstract

The themes of organizing and sensemaking have reverberated throughout Weick’s remarkable career and constitute one of the hallmarks of his contribution. We review his major works and show how Weick differentially emphasizes organizing and sensemaking over time and, eventually, arrives at a fuller integration of meaning and action. Initially, Weick (1969; 1979) models their relationship as linear, focusing on how organizing functioned as a context for sensemaking, an approach we labelSensemaking in Organizing. Later, however, Weick (1995a; 2005) construes their relationship in more dynamic, interactive, and reciprocal cycles, modelling sensemaking as the process whereby organizing is achieved, an approach we labelSensemaking as Organizing. We explore the evolution and implications of these approaches and discuss their impact on management scholarship. Finally, we draw out potential future research directions at the interface of organizing and sensemaking.