TY - JOUR
T1 - When sensemaking remains local - implications for distributed sensemaking in reform implementation
AU - Filstad, Cathrine
AU - Olsen, Trude Høgvold
AU - Thomassen, Anja Overgaard
PY - 2023/4/20
Y1 - 2023/4/20
N2 - Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police reform. Design/methodology/approach: The authors studied how the position of police contact, a cornerstone of the recent Norwegian police reform, was interpreted and practised. The authors interviewed police contacts at two different times during reform implementation to explore how they made sense of and practised their job. Findings: The authors identified three interpretations of the position of police contact and describe them as ideal types: an administrative position, a professional position and a strategic position. The ideal types were reinforced rather than developing towards a shared understanding. Our data demonstrate that the sensemaking processes and experimentation to settle into the new position involved local actors internally in the police and externally in relation to local authorities, and reinforced local interpretations. Originality/value: This study supports the notion of sensemaking as distributed but extends previous research by suggesting that “ideal types” help us understand the content of interpretations. This study also extends the understanding by showing that distributed sensemaking takes place as individuals make sense of more open-ended problems. This challenges the understanding of the term distributed, because unless challenged, distributed sensemaking in isolated pockets of the organization remain local, and the authors suggest that the term local distributed sensemaking captures this phenomenon.
AB - Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police reform. Design/methodology/approach: The authors studied how the position of police contact, a cornerstone of the recent Norwegian police reform, was interpreted and practised. The authors interviewed police contacts at two different times during reform implementation to explore how they made sense of and practised their job. Findings: The authors identified three interpretations of the position of police contact and describe them as ideal types: an administrative position, a professional position and a strategic position. The ideal types were reinforced rather than developing towards a shared understanding. Our data demonstrate that the sensemaking processes and experimentation to settle into the new position involved local actors internally in the police and externally in relation to local authorities, and reinforced local interpretations. Originality/value: This study supports the notion of sensemaking as distributed but extends previous research by suggesting that “ideal types” help us understand the content of interpretations. This study also extends the understanding by showing that distributed sensemaking takes place as individuals make sense of more open-ended problems. This challenges the understanding of the term distributed, because unless challenged, distributed sensemaking in isolated pockets of the organization remain local, and the authors suggest that the term local distributed sensemaking captures this phenomenon.
KW - Organizational learning
KW - implementation
KW - local distributed sensemaking
KW - police reform
KW - sensemaking
KW - Police
KW - Exploration and exploitation
KW - Reform implementation
KW - Distributed sensemaking
KW - Ideal types
KW - Local distributed sensemaking
U2 - 10.1108/JWL-03-2022-0032
DO - 10.1108/JWL-03-2022-0032
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1366-5626
VL - 35
SP - 249
EP - 264
JO - Journal of Workplace Learning
JF - Journal of Workplace Learning
IS - 3
ER -