Organisationsens

Organisationsens is a multidisciplinary concept and network concerned with how organizations generate and sustain a shared sense of purpose, structure, and action. Building on sensemaking and organizational learning theory, it treats meaning as something co-created by leaders, teams, and external stakeholders, which then guides strategic behavior.

The term is used to describe both a theoretical framework and a practice-oriented field. It provides tools for diagnosing misalignment between perception and action, such as mapping narratives, information flows, decision pathways, and governance processes, and for guiding interventions that strengthen collective sensemaking.

Origins and scope: Developed in the early 2010s by scholars in management studies and organizational psychology, Organisationsens emerged from research on how organizations interpret changing environments. It is not a single doctrine but a family of approaches tailored to different sectors, including business, government, and civil society.

Key concepts include sensemaking — how actors interpret ambiguous signals; sensegiving — leadership efforts to shape interpretation; storytelling and rituals that reinforce shared meaning; and organizational structures that enable rapid interpretation and feedback. Research methods range from qualitative case studies to mixed-method evaluations.

Applications include strategy alignment, change management, crisis response, and resilience building. In practice, Organisationsens emphasizes participatory governance, learning cultures, and adaptive design. Critics note variability in definitions and challenges in measuring subjective outcomes; proponents argue it offers a robust lens for complex, adaptive systems.

See also: sensemaking, organizational culture, organizational learning, sensegiving.