简介: |
Decision making is traditionally viewed as a sequential process of problem classification and definition, alternative generation, alternative evaluation, and selection of the best course of action (Simon, 1976). This process is about strategic rationality, aimed at reducing uncertainty (Daft and MacIntosh, 1981; Weick, 1993). Uncertainty can be reduced through objective analysis because it consists of clear questions for which answers exist (Daft and Lengel, 1986). In contrast to decision making, Sensemaking is about contextual rationality, built out of vague questions, muddy answers, and negotiated agreements that attempt to reduce ambiguity and equivocality (Muhren and Van de Walle, 2010). The genesis of Sensemaking is a lack of fit between what we expect and what we encounter (Weick and Meader, 1993). With Sensemaking one does not look at the question of "which course of action should we choose?", but instead at an earlier point in time where users are unsure whether there is even a decision to be made, with questions such as "what is going on here, and should I even be asking this question just now?". Sensemaking is thus about how people give meaning to what is happening in order to reduce the equivocality and ambiguity that surrounds them (Weick and Meader, 1993). These meanings ``are constituted and reconstituted through the dynamic, reciprocal, and iterative processing of environmental information'' (Sutcliffe, 2001). In this seminar, I will focus on both aspects of rational and contextual rationality, and the alternating roles of decision making and sensemaking in disaster management. |
