Enactment, sensemaking and decision making: Redesign processes in the 1976 reorganization of US intelligence

Weick's theories of organizing and sensemaking help enrich the assumptions in the organization design school. This study builds on Weick's theories of sensemaking to illustrate how three fundamental organization design assumptions dominant variables, causal laws and executive dictates - were found to be restrictive in the explanation of redesign processes in the 1976 reorganization of the US intelligence community. The assumption of dominant variables was challenged by the appearance of a multitude of events, or enactments, which were selected by organization members for further attention. The assumption of causal laws was challenged by the appearance of individual-level cause maps which were filtered, through sensemaking processes, into organization-level workable realities. The assumption of executive dictates was challenged by the appearance of attempts to punctuate redesign processes as organizational decisions. The study suggests value in moving from simple organization design assumptions to more reliable findings drawn from detailed observations of redesign processes.