ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE Organizing to counter terrorism: sensemaking amidst dynamic complexity AUTHORS Colville, Ian; Pye, Annie; Carter, Mike JOURNAL Human Relations DEPOSITED IN ORE 02 June 2014 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/14946 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication Organizing to Counter Terrorism: Sensemaking amidst dynamic complexity By Ian Colville, University of Bath,
[email protected] Annie Pye, University of Exeter
[email protected] & Mike Carter, University of Exeter
[email protected] Corresponding author: Annie Pye, Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter Business School, Streatham Court, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4PU, UK. Version 1 of the manuscript which was subsequently published in Human Relations (2013: 66(9) 1201–1223). This paper was subsequently awarded the Human Relations 2013 Paper of the Year Award which is “given to the article that the Editorial Team considers best encapsulates broad readership appeal, sound methods, and whose theory advances our understanding of human relations at work”. Abstract Organizations increasingly find themselves contending with circumstances that are suffused with dynamic complexity. So how do they make sense of and contend with this? Using a sensemaking approach, our empirical case analysis of the shooting of Mr Jean Charles de Menezes shows how sensemaking is tested under such conditions. Through elaborating the relationship between the concepts of frames and cues, we find that the introduction of a new organizational routine to anticipate action in changing circumstances leads to discrepant sensemaking.