Making Sense of Organizational Change: The Impact of Contextual Factors on Middle Managers’ Sensemaking Processes and Room for Negotiation : A Case Study Exploring Organizational Change from a Change Recipient Perspective

Abstract: Throughout their existence, organizations face endless change. Organizational change programs, despite often being initiated by top management, inevitably involve employees at multiple levels in the organization, including middle managers, which could be argued to play an especially important role as they are both receivers and implementers of the change. The middle managers try to make sense of the changes initiated by top management while they simultaneously are expected to sell it down the organizational line, meaning that the middle managers are forced to balance multiple and sometimes competing roles during change. Moreover, negotiations arise during the unstable times of change for the new social order to be determined and for organizational work to take place. To better understand these phenomena, this study applies a change recipient perspective, specifically that of middle managers. The phenomena were explored through a case study, which included qualitative interviews with managers in an organization that during the study was undergoing multiple changes, with the aim to gain a better understanding of these complex social processes by recognizing the impact from contextual and cultural factors. The findings of the study illustrate that while the middle managers negotiated within themselves to make sense of the change, they did not get the same opportunity to negotiate with their superiors. Further, the middle managers made sense of the change in ways that were unique to them, depending on their individual experiences and backgrounds. Hence, there was no single “best way” to facilitate all middle managers’ sensemaking processes, rather, the middle managers needed differing support at differing points in time. The study concludes that the contextual factors, such as the organizational culture and subcultures, power relations and social dynamics, were what affected the middle manager's sensemaking processes and their room for negotiation. Therefore, these factors could be further addressed in theory and in practice before initiating change.