Identity, Image, and Issue Interpretation: Sensemaking During Strategic Change in Academia
研究美国372所高校611位高管在学术变革中如何解读重要议题，发现高管对组织身份和形象（尤其是期望的未来形象）的感知是意义建构的关键，且他们主要按战略或政治分类来解读议题，而非常见的威胁与机会分类。
We would like to acknowledge helpful reviews on earlier drafts of this paper from Michael Dooris, Janet Dukerich, Marlene Fiol, Kristian Kreiner, Ajay Mehra, and Majken Sqhultz. We also acknowledge the assistance of Shawn Clark, David Ketchen, Lee Ann Joyce, and Mark Youndt in the data analysis. This study investigates how top management teams in higher education institutions make sense of important issues that affect change in modern academia. We used a two-phase research approach that progressed from a grounded model anchored in a case study to a quantitative, generalizable study of the issue interpretation process, using 611 executives from 372 colleges and universities in the United States. The findings suggest that under conditions of change, top management team members' perceptions of identity and image, especially desired future image, are key to the sensemaking process and serve as important links between the organization's internal context and the team members' issue interpretations. Rather than using the more common business issue categories of threats and opportunities, team members distinguished their interpretations mainly according to strategic or political categorizations.'