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" Making sense in testing times : "
Reissner, Stefanie Constanze
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1095619
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| Doc. No
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TLets404331
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| Main Entry
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Reissner, Stefanie Constanze
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| Title & Author
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Making sense in testing times :\ Reissner, Stefanie Constanze
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| College
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Durham University
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| Date
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2004
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| student score
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2004
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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The main themes of this thesis focus on organisational change and learning indifferent geo-political contexts, bound together in a common moment ofglobalisation. These topics are explored through three case-studies from themanufacturing sector, one each from the United Kingdom, the Republic of SouthAfrica and the Russian Federation. The project, on which this thesis is based. had aqualitative and interpretive design and took a comparative, narrative approach. Itargues on the basis of this comparison, that organisational learning has to be relatedto the wider environment in which companies operate; individualistic models oflearning are inadequate to explain the complex processes involved in learning inorganisations.The thesis demonstrates that learning is most productively viewed as a form of sensemaking,which is particularly important in periods of change. This way of thinkingabout work-based learning subsumes all previous analytical descriptions of learningat work and all methods of promoting it, as sub-sets of a more generic process:making sense of experience. This approach of conceiving learning draws attention tothe fact that learning involves the whole person, their sense of self, theirunderstanding of the past and their grasp of the skills and relationships involved intheir jobs. The concept of sense-making is explored at three levels - the macro-levelwith a focus on globalisation, the meso- or organisational level with an emphasis onstrategic change and the micro- or personal level highlighting individual experiencesof change and learning at the workplace.Narrative analysis is a powerful tool in organisational research to recover accounts oflearning because it is through stories that people construct and make sense of theworld. The comparative frame to this study highlights the cultural, historical andsituated nature of narratives. This thesis shows that globalisation and strategicchange are not impersonal phenomena, but become real and meaningful toeverybody in an organisation through stories. Comparisons help to make otherwisetacit issues explicit.
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| Subject
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Law Law enforcement Prisons International trade
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| Added Entry
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Durham University
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