Managing uncertainty in crisis : exploring the impact of institutionalization on organizational sensemaking

Abstract

This book studies the variety of organizational strategy selection when coping with critical uncertainties during a crisis. In dealing with uncertainties, some organizations rely on organizational routines developed over time, while some others analyze uncertainty in an ad hoc way to provide a workable interpretation of that uncertainty. However, we do not know why some organizations select a rule-based strategy to cope with uncertainties whereas others follow a more ad hoc-based strategy. This study addresses this question by formulating and applying an institutional sensemaking model to explain the selection of strategies to cope with uncertainties during a crisis. This study builds on the insight that organizational sensemaking might vary in different organizational contexts, which are defined by different levels of institutionalization. This research explores how different levels of institutionalization influence the selection of organizational sensemaking strategies during a crisis, thus explaining the selection of different strategies to cope with uncertainty in crises. The empirical chapters describe four major crises in the US and the major response organizations in these four major crises. The organizations are selected based on the level of institutionalization, and they are: the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the 2005 New Orleans Flood, the National Aeronautic Space Administration in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster, the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and BP in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. The dissertation finds that the level of institutionalization does not make a difference for strategy selection in the initial phase of responding to crises; three rigidity effects exist in the selection of sensemaking strategies after organizations had faced the failure of their selected strategies; the discontinuities in the feedback loop of sensemaking do not necessarily cause the switch of sensemaking strategies, but interact with institutionalization to contribute to the switch of sensemaking strategies This book provides a clear understanding on how organizations coped with uncertainties in crises and the role institutionalization plays in this process. It will apeal to scholars studying sensemaking, institutionalization, crisis management, as well the wider community of public administration students, organization analysts, and political sciencitists. It offers crisis managers working in public and private organizations valuable insights into coping with uncertainties in crises.