Sensemaking on, through and within digital technologies for organizing

As sensemaking forms the basis for organizing, it is one of the most investigated phenomena in management and organization studies. However, despite the rapid emergence of digital technologies (e.g. hardware, software, platforms and applications) that now permeate almost all aspects of organizing, how digital technologies are implicated in sensemaking has received little attention, and is, therefore, not well understood within the existing organization-technology sensemaking literature. In this paper, we investigate how emerging digital technologies are implicated in the making of sense in organizing. Specifically, we undertake three case studies of how sensemaking occurred in the accomplishment of meetings, which are quintessential organizational activities, on Yammer (enterprise social network), through Telepresence (video-based collaboration) and within Second Life (3D virtual world). Based on the findings, we propose a model that explains and articulates how digital technologies are implicated in sensemaking. The model comprises two central dimensions, multiple embodiment and malleable materials, which give rise to four sensemaking processes undertaken by actors using digital technologies: posturing, transitioning, augmenting and fabricating. Importantly, the model shows not only how digital technologies form a central constitutive element of sensemaking in organizing, but also significantly shape other constitutive elements (context, time, embodiment, and language) implicated in sensemaking.