Employees’ emotional sensemaking: a strategic imperative for empathetic organizations. An Italian case study
(2022) SKOM12 20221Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- Despite the entrenched and acknowledged rational and emotional duality characterizing the organizational nature, much academic research tends to favor both the former aspect and quantitative approaches to study organizational emotionality. As the process of organizing is itself emotional, this lack of problematizations on emotional organizational constructs calls for more qualitative studies that pose attention to the strategic role of emotions and feelings in organizational contexts, through bottom-up approaches. Therefore, this qualitative case study investigates employees’ emotional sensemaking to shed light and enhance strategic communication understanding of the role of emotions, especially during major organizational changes. CCO... (More)
- Despite the entrenched and acknowledged rational and emotional duality characterizing the organizational nature, much academic research tends to favor both the former aspect and quantitative approaches to study organizational emotionality. As the process of organizing is itself emotional, this lack of problematizations on emotional organizational constructs calls for more qualitative studies that pose attention to the strategic role of emotions and feelings in organizational contexts, through bottom-up approaches. Therefore, this qualitative case study investigates employees’ emotional sensemaking to shed light and enhance strategic communication understanding of the role of emotions, especially during major organizational changes. CCO perspectives on organizational emotional sensemaking are the theoretical background selected for this study, grounded on interpretivists’ traditions. The empirical material has been collected through digital focus groups among FutureBrand Milano employees. The analysis allowed for the reconstruction of employees’ emotional sensemaking on the shift to remote work in Italy. The results revealed how the latter abrupt organizational change triggered a complex and heterogeneous emotional sensemaking. Moreover, it disclosed the key role of organizational identification and emotional sharing in determining the peculiarities of employees’ emotional sensemaking. Indeed, emotional sharing participates in enhancing employees’ sense of inclusion in the organizational social dimension, hence their identification with the whole organization. This thesis has shown the importance of surfacing emotions through qualitative internal research, therefore enhancing the vital role of strategic communication practitioners as transdisciplinary, holistic, and inclusive professional figures. Increasing academic studies on emotional dimensions of organizational life can contribute to the growth of increasingly empathetic organizations, guided by empathy-driven strategies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9099726
- author
- Cereda, Paola LU
- supervisor
-
- Mats Heide LU
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- strategic communication, emotional sensemaking, empathetic organizations, organizational identification, emotions, qualitative case study
- language
- English
- id
- 9099726
- date added to LUP
- 2022-09-09 13:01:05
- date last changed
- 2022-09-09 13:01:05
@misc{9099726,
abstract = {{Despite the entrenched and acknowledged rational and emotional duality characterizing the organizational nature, much academic research tends to favor both the former aspect and quantitative approaches to study organizational emotionality. As the process of organizing is itself emotional, this lack of problematizations on emotional organizational constructs calls for more qualitative studies that pose attention to the strategic role of emotions and feelings in organizational contexts, through bottom-up approaches. Therefore, this qualitative case study investigates employees’ emotional sensemaking to shed light and enhance strategic communication understanding of the role of emotions, especially during major organizational changes. CCO perspectives on organizational emotional sensemaking are the theoretical background selected for this study, grounded on interpretivists’ traditions. The empirical material has been collected through digital focus groups among FutureBrand Milano employees. The analysis allowed for the reconstruction of employees’ emotional sensemaking on the shift to remote work in Italy. The results revealed how the latter abrupt organizational change triggered a complex and heterogeneous emotional sensemaking. Moreover, it disclosed the key role of organizational identification and emotional sharing in determining the peculiarities of employees’ emotional sensemaking. Indeed, emotional sharing participates in enhancing employees’ sense of inclusion in the organizational social dimension, hence their identification with the whole organization. This thesis has shown the importance of surfacing emotions through qualitative internal research, therefore enhancing the vital role of strategic communication practitioners as transdisciplinary, holistic, and inclusive professional figures. Increasing academic studies on emotional dimensions of organizational life can contribute to the growth of increasingly empathetic organizations, guided by empathy-driven strategies.}},
author = {{Cereda, Paola}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Employees’ emotional sensemaking: a strategic imperative for empathetic organizations. An Italian case study}},
year = {{2022}},
}