Making Sense Before Making Change
(2026) MGTN59 20261Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- In today’s business world, organisations must constantly adapt and remain flexible in order to succeed. In the complex situation that organisational change entails, middle managers play a key role, as they are positioned between top management and employees and are responsible for communication between these levels. Middle managers occupy a dual role, in which they are required to interpret change initiatives while mediating that interpretation to their employees. Their understanding of organisational change provides guidelines on how to practice their leadership.
Through qualitative research, based on semi-structured interviews with middle managers across various organisations, we have explored and gained an in-depth understanding... (More) - In today’s business world, organisations must constantly adapt and remain flexible in order to succeed. In the complex situation that organisational change entails, middle managers play a key role, as they are positioned between top management and employees and are responsible for communication between these levels. Middle managers occupy a dual role, in which they are required to interpret change initiatives while mediating that interpretation to their employees. Their understanding of organisational change provides guidelines on how to practice their leadership.
Through qualitative research, based on semi-structured interviews with middle managers across various organisations, we have explored and gained an in-depth understanding about how middle managers make sense of organisational change and how they perceive that their understanding of change influences their leadership. Our findings indicate that middle manager’s sensemaking entails a dynamic process, where they continuously interpret and reinterpret change through reflection, dialogues, and past experiences. There seem to be several aspects affecting the sensemaking process, in which a clearly stated purpose and goals appear to facilitate the meaning making. However, as organisational demands are balanced against employees' needs, this sometimes seems to lead to internal conflict.
Taken together, our discoveries suggest that middle managers should not be seen as passive implementers of change, but rather they constantly analyse, dispute, and value the initiative before leading through it. These suggestions amplify the worth of understanding people within organisations, if we are to understand organisations themselves. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9231361
- author
- Backe, Ebba LU and Gunnarson, Filippa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- Middle managers' sensemaking & leadership during organisational change
- course
- MGTN59 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Organisational Change, Change Leadership, Middle Managers, Change Agents, Sensemaking
- language
- English
- id
- 9231361
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-29 14:32:58
- date last changed
- 2026-06-29 14:32:58
@misc{9231361,
abstract = {{In today’s business world, organisations must constantly adapt and remain flexible in order to succeed. In the complex situation that organisational change entails, middle managers play a key role, as they are positioned between top management and employees and are responsible for communication between these levels. Middle managers occupy a dual role, in which they are required to interpret change initiatives while mediating that interpretation to their employees. Their understanding of organisational change provides guidelines on how to practice their leadership.
Through qualitative research, based on semi-structured interviews with middle managers across various organisations, we have explored and gained an in-depth understanding about how middle managers make sense of organisational change and how they perceive that their understanding of change influences their leadership. Our findings indicate that middle manager’s sensemaking entails a dynamic process, where they continuously interpret and reinterpret change through reflection, dialogues, and past experiences. There seem to be several aspects affecting the sensemaking process, in which a clearly stated purpose and goals appear to facilitate the meaning making. However, as organisational demands are balanced against employees' needs, this sometimes seems to lead to internal conflict.
Taken together, our discoveries suggest that middle managers should not be seen as passive implementers of change, but rather they constantly analyse, dispute, and value the initiative before leading through it. These suggestions amplify the worth of understanding people within organisations, if we are to understand organisations themselves.}},
author = {{Backe, Ebba and Gunnarson, Filippa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Making Sense Before Making Change}},
year = {{2026}},
}