Imagined Worlds: the Role of Metaphors and Metaphorical Scenes in Sensemaking Accounts


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Abstract

This study develops the role played by metaphors in professionals’ sensemaking accounts of novel and complex events affecting their organizations. Using data from a sample of thirteen corporate communication professionals, I found that sensemaking accounts involve a specific form of metaphorical language whereby individual metaphors are combined together to form more specific metaphorical ‘scenes’ with actors carrying out certain activities, manipulating objects in a certain manner or moving in a certain direction, as if the event involved such physical acts and movements. The study also points to particular contextual conditions that influence the construction of sensemaking accounts: the magnitude of the perceived break between received cues and prior work experience, the conventionalization of metaphors in a particular professional community, and an individual’s view of his or her professional identity. 

 
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Pursey Heugens
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