The contributions to this special issue focus on links among sensemaking, organizing, and storytelling. They are re-examined in terms of to what the authors pay attention, with what, and for what. In pursuit of linkages, authors attend to accounts of consulting failure, hearings about the recent financial crisis, life history storytelling by elite actors, conflict in a rugby team on tour in Australia, and recurring stories told by jazz musicians. With analyses of dominant stories, discursive devices, life stories, documentaries, and oral tradition, these authors aim for a deeper understanding of order, constraint, conflict, legitimation, embodiment, and distributed improvisation. An assessment of these efforts shows how they deepen, extend, and consolidate our understanding of interpretive work.
BojeDM (1991) Organizations as storytelling networks: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm. Administrative Science Quarterly36(1): 106–126.
5.
BojeDM (2001) Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. London: SAGE.
6.
BrownAD (2004) Authoritative sensemaking in a public inquiry report. Organization Studies25(1): 95–112.
7.
ChiaR (2003) Organization theory as a postmodern science. In: TsoukasHKnudsenC (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 113–140.
8.
CohenMD (2009) Reading Dewey: Some implications for the study of routine. In: AdlerP (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 444–463.
9.
ColvilleIDBrownADPyeAJ (2009) Human Relations special issue call for papers: Sensemaking, organizing and storytelling. Human Relations62(9): 1427–1429.
10.
ColvilleIDBrownADPyeAJ (2012) Simplexity: Sensemaking, organizing and storytelling for our time. Human Relations65(1): 5–15.
11.
CorleyKGioiaD (2011) Building theory about theory building: What constitutes a theoretical contribution?Academy of Management Review36(1): 12–32.
12.
CrowB (2005) Jazz Anecdotes: Second Time Around. New York: Oxford University Press.
13.
CunliffeACouplandC (2012) From hero to villain to hero: Making experience sensible through embodied narrative sensemaking. Human Relations65(1): 63–88.
14.
CzarniawskaB (2008) A Theory of Organizing. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
15.
CzarniawskaB (2010) Going back to go forward: On studying organizing in action nets. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing. New York: Oxford University Press, 140–160.
16.
DeweyJ (1902) Attention. First published inWhite and Blue5(7): 4–8.
17.
DreyfusHLDreyfusSE (2005) Expertise in real world contexts. Organization Studies26(5): 779–792.
18.
DuttonJEDukerichJM (1991) Keeping an eye on the mirror: Image and identity in organizational adaptation. Academy of Management Journal34(3): 517–554.
19.
FaulknerRRBeckerHS (2009) Do You Know…?: The Jazz Repertoire in Action. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20.
GeigerDAntonacopoulouE (2009) Narratives and organizational dynamics: Exploring blind spots and organizational inertia. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science45(3): 411–436.
21.
GephartRPTopalCZhanZ (2010) Future-oriented sensemaking: Temporalities and institutional legitimation. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing. New York: Oxford University Press, 275–312.
22.
HansenH (2008) Abduction. In: BarryDHansenH (eds) The Sage Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 454–463.
23.
HernesTMaitlisS (2010) Process, sensemaking, and organizing: An introduction. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing. New York: Oxford University Press, 27–37.
24.
HopflHMatilalS (2005) Complexity and catastrophe: Disentangling the complex narratives of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. Complexity and Catastrophe7(3/4): 64–73.
25.
HumphreysMUcbasaranDLockettA (2012) Sensemaking and sensegiving stories of jazz leadership. Human Relations65(1): 41–62.
26.
JamesW (1987) Writings: 1902– 1910. New York: Library of America
27.
JeongH-SBrowerRS (2008) Extending the present understanding of organizational sensemaking: Three stages and three contexts. Administration and Society40(3): 223–252.
28.
LangleyATsoukasH (2010) Introducing ‘perspectives on process studies’. In: HernesTMaitlisS (eds) Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing. New York: Oxford University Press, 4–26.
29.
MacleanMHarveyCChiaR (2012) Sensemaking, storytelling and the legitimization of elite business careers. Human Relations65(1): 17–40.
30.
MeyerLB (1956) Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
31.
NäslundLPemerF (2012) The appropriated language: Dominant stories as a source of organizational inertia. Human Relations65(1): 89–110.
32.
PatriottaG (2003a) Detective stories and the narrative structure of organizing: Towards an understanding of organizations as texts. In: CzarniawskaB (ed.) Narratives We Organize By. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 149–170.
33.
PatriottaG (2003b) Sensemaking on the shop floor: Narratives of knowledge in organizations. Journal of Management Studies40(2): 349–376.
34.
RoeESchulmanPS (2008) High Reliability Management: Operating on the Edge. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books.
35.
StarbuckWHMillikenFJ (1988) Executives’ perceptual filters: What they notice and how they make sense. In: HambrickDC (ed.) The Executive Effect: Concepts and Methods for Studying Top Managers. Greenwich, CT: JAI, 35–65.
VaughanD (2005) Organizational rituals of risk and error. In: HutterBMPowerM (eds) Organizational Encounters with Risk. New York: Cambridge University Press, 33–66.
38.
WeickKE (2008) Sensemaking. In: CleggSRBaileyJR (eds) International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies, vol. 4. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1403–1406.
39.
WhittleAMuellerF (2012) Bankers in the dock: Moral storytelling in action. Human Relations65(1): 111–139.
