Séminaire Eero Vaara

Présentation d’un article : Affective dynamics and takeoff in strategic sensemaking - Ouvert à tout DRM (doctorants compris)
Franck, H., Vaara, E. & Gylfe, P.,
This paper adopts a sensemaking perspective to better understand how strategic ideas may take off in organizations undergoing strategic change. In particular, we focus on the crucial but underexplored role of affective dynamics in strategic sensemaking. Based on a video-ethnographic analysis of strategic change in a broadcasting company, we identify and elaborate on three types of sensemaking dynamics: progressive, regressive and ambivalent sensemaking. Progressive sensemaking is characterized by a movement toward a positive active group affect, and this type is associated with the subsequent takeoff of strategic ideas in terms of concrete decisions and actions. Regressive sensemaking follows the opposite pattern in the sense that the sensemaking leads to a negative active group affect, often effectively killing strategic ideas. Ambivalent sensemaking means a fluctuation in terms of how group affect evolves from one sensemaking episode to the other. We then elaborate on three ways in which emotional sensemaking may be steered by sensegiving: framing and reframing, emotional manipulation, and emotional containment.