Sensemaking and discourse analyses in inter-organizational research: A review and suggested advances

SummaryThis paper reviews studies which investigate inter-organizational encounters from sensemaking and discourse analytical perspectives and extends this line of reasoning by proposing a research method and agenda. Sensemaking methodologies address discursive processes of meaning construction and analyze the effects of shared as well as divergent ways of making sense. Critical discourse analyses focus on wider societal discourses as relevant resources that are drawn upon and reconstructed in inter-organizational sensemaking and sensegiving processes. We outline the rationales, methodologies and main findings of extant research and contribute to this body of work by integrating Karl Weick's sensemaking approach and Jürgen Link's critical interdiscourse analysis. This integrative methodology is particularly suited for investigating the role of mediating instruments such as figures, graphs and other ‘interdiscursive charts’ as relevant, thus far under-researched sensemaking resources in inter-organizational encounters.

► The paper reviews sensemaking and discourse analytical approaches to inter-organizational encounters.
► We combine micro-level sensemaking and macro-level discourse analysis.
► The developed methodology focuses on the use and effects of ‘mediating instruments’.
► The methodology is illustrated by the example of risk matrixes in inter-organizational collaborations.