David Boje’s influence on management and organization has been innovative and inspirational. His critical postmodern storytelling breathes life into the field, transforming complex theories into vibrant, dynamic explorations. However, this article is primarily a story of mentorship, from the personal to the field level. David’s kind and gently assertive mentorship has inspired students and colleagues to push boundaries, think critically, and develop a scientific field while advocating for social justice and practical solutions to real-world problems.

This article begins with a reflective account of George Kelly’s profound influence on the authors’ thinking and practice, aligning closely with the central theme of this collection. We illustrate the personal impact of Kelly’s ideas, demonstrating how his work not only reshapes the theore tical approaches of researchers but also profoundly influences their personal development. This starting point for the paper introduces readers to Kelly’s theory by grounding it in lived experience while highlighting its broader implications for understanding human sensemaking and behavior.
Next, drawing on Kelly’s biography and his Personal Construct Theory (PCT), the article examines his contributions to understanding sensemaking through a systematic and epistemological lens. Kelly’s PCT does not merely offer a theory but provides a comprehensive framework for inquiry – one that bridges qualitative and quantitative methodologies and emphasizes the dynamic interplay between constructs, validation, and identity. Kelly’s epistemology redefines knowledge creation as an iterative, construct­driven process of sensemaking.
This article underscores the transformative potential of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) for applications in counselling, coaching, and organizational contexts. In conclusion, we offer Kelly’s legacy as a bridge between theory and practice, enabling a richer understanding of both personal and organizational dynamics.

Stories as sensemaking opportunities both support and are supported by interpersonal relationships. Deconstructing the traditional views of stories as necessarily constrained to a linear form with transparent and fixed beginning, middle, and end, we extend the metaphor of free stories to include the emergent and improvisational freedom to both express ourselves and to respect one another.

The ethical consumer occupies a significant position in the current capitalist system as the market-based answer to a whole range of negative externalities. Unfortunately, she has been proven to behave out of sync with her ethical values and thus has been taken apart by scholars as a mere myth. Yet, businesses and politicians continue to believe in her abilities. This, we argue, is not caused by them being blind to her failures but because the category of the ethical consumer represents an ideal solution in the neoliberal discourse that embraces the holy trinity of an unregulated market, personal emancipation and the freedom of choice. Unfortunately, the ethical consumer has turned out to be a poorly suited solution to the negative externalities as ecological and social critiques continue to emerge. In response, a neocommunitarian discourse seems to gain strength, replacing the neoliberal version of the market as a bifurcation point between customers and suppliers instead bringing together businesses and consumers in a new type of network formation overcoming the bifurcation between consumers and producers.

The evaluation of organizational change is a thorny issue. Firstly, accurate data depicting the organization's response to a change process are very difficult to collect, and the process can be corrupted by the Macnamara Fallacy. Secondly, the evaluative conclusions derived from the data are complex high-inference chains of reasoning based on implicit, taken-for-granted beliefs and values. Specifically, ontological and epistemological paradigms broadly determine the context for the conclusions of the evaluative inference, even though they are rarely made explicit. This paper presents two sets of ontological and epistemological paradigms; one set is modernist, and the other is postmodernist. It then applies them to organizational change data to demonstrate the divergent evaluations that can be constructed.

There is no doubt that health management can improve employee well-being and can have positive outcomes for the organization. But, the mere goodness of such programmes has to be questioned. First, the paper shows how health management activities fit in processes of discipline in our society as extensively analysed by Foucault particularly in his genealogical works. Second, it discusses possible normative implications of such a Foucauldian analysis. What is the alternative to taking care of employee health in organizations?

Trends in organisation and in organisational activity, which have resulted in increasing dependence on the discretionary efforts, initiatives and judgements of employees, have left management with the problem of how to ensure that such discretion is exercised appropriately in the service of the organisation. The Human Resource Management approach, relying as it does on strategic integration and underpinned by a value-driven approach seemed to be an ideal mechanism, particularly when designed as encouragement to commitment via social identification and a shared sense of meaning.

If culture is the enacted manifestation of organisational identity, management aspiration is that the 'good' employee is one who will learn the cultural reality and enact it appropriately. Expectations of 'good' employees are that they will exhibit not only the appropriate competence, but will also possess the necessary commitment, via identification and emotional engagement, so that they can be trusted to regulate themselves, take decisions that are in the best interests of the organisation and even go that extra mile for the company and the customer. This paper gives attention to such expectations and explores their implications.

Traditional structural-functional approaches to organizational change, as well as critics of those approaches, often offer overly structured and rationalised views of how change occurs. This paper attempts to build upon processual studies of change and critiques of overly hegemonic views of managerial control by seeking to capture the complex, emotive and fluid character of organisational 'changing'. In pursuit of this aim, the paper documents these characteristics of change through a personalised ethnography of a micro-incident -- a critical change meeting -- in an Australian steel making plant undergoing cultural change. In conclusion, it is argued that even the more sophisticated studies of the emergent process-like character of organisational change fail to fully capture the ambiguous, ironic, emotional, and uncertain character of events in the 'blender' of change.

Time has become increasingly utilized as a tool for organizations to increase productivity and control workers. Since the advent of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth century, time has structured organizational experience. This increased precision has lead to the standardization of efficiency. The struggle for greater efficiency creates an organizational environment where the worker is dissociated and dehumanized-subsumed by the machine. Time and technology work in concert to improve efficiency In addition to the mechanical clock, computers and the Internet have also contnbuted to the conquering of time in the organizational sense. It is the instantaneousness of communication that has lead to the initial feeling of time being conquered. Social interaction is one of the fundamental drives of humanity, and this interaction is threatened by the standardization of efficiency. Implications for organizations are discussed, followed by an exemplar involving the changing nature of investing. Finally, ideas for reclaiming the pre-modern conceptualization of organizing are suggested.

This paper is a generalized discussion related to the nature and implications time, story and organizational culture play in corporate decision-making, CEO selection; treatment of long-term employees; the change process and the language used to present andpromote the corporation. The paperprovides a beginning point for revisiting how unrecognized (societal and individual) assumptions affect choice and decision-making. Practically, the paper also provides a starting point for organizations to self assess their external and internal approaches and whether they align superficially or whether the mission and vision are lived in mundane daily activities. The paper is based on qualitative, experiential and anecdotal evidence gathered by the author.

The rhetorical vision of the independent Nation of Hawai'i, a sovereignty group seeking independence from the United States, was analyzed via fantasy theme analysis of two artifacts in their website. Spirit, Kupuna, and Lili'uokalani symbolized positive dramatis personae themes; the United States Government and haole invaders represented villains against Native Hawaiian people. Cultural preservation, political determination, and environmental protection of all Hawai'ian 'aina is deemed paramount for Hawaiian survival. This study demonstrates that the use of symbolic themes has been developed to persuade the public to support an Independent Nation of Hawaii, which is a symbolic vision of the future.

On a theoretical level, complexity theory offers an emergence-based insight into organizing. The unicity of events, the undetermined nature of creative change, and the multifarious nature of circumstances are all honored. But how can (successful or unsuccessful) self-organizing be studied? If organizing really can be self-organizing, how could a researcher perceive it? Either the observer is entirely outside of the change process and is unmoved or unaltered by it -- i.e. only able to see the change from its exterior; or the observer changes with the change process and is part and parcel of it. If one is inside the change, how can one observe it; and if one is outside, how could one experience it? If self-organization really can occur, how could self-organization organize organization without betraying emergence and becoming just another form of control? To examine these issues a case is presented and then interpreted with use of a perspective inspired by (some aspects of) Luhmann, and via Luhmann, Serres (Luhmann, 1997, 2003; Serres, 1982).

This paper is concerned with the theatre of organisational life. It gives particular attention to the work of the playwright Antonin Artaud and his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. In every aspect of his life, Artaud was a man of extremes. His attempts to theatricalize his personal tortures and to find expression for them are excessively brutal and intensely physical. His relationship with the Catholic Church is likewise passionate and one of extremes. From daily communicant to heretic and blasphemer, back to communicant, then to repudiator, is a pattern of oscillation which runs throughout his life. His theatrical works reflect this tension. In later life, he comes to believe that he himself was crucified as a punishment for his disordered life. At times in his life he seems to crave the community of the Church and other times to despise the moral order the Church imposes on him. This paper attempts to look at Artaud's desire to examine experience in its raw state. The paper concludes by considering the way in which this oscillation is apparent in ambivalent attitudes to the organising power of the corporation and in the quasi Catholicism of organizational rituals and performances.

This article is about why organizations should take time to understand and care for employees and why they probably do not. The discussion is set against the backdrop of stories from 28 people separated from the job in August 2000 during a downsizing event at TREBCO (pseudonym), a manufacturing automotive firm based in a large midwestern U.S. city. A total of 1,100 white-collar workers were sent away at that time. The first author presents findings from a qualitative study she conducted in 2001 to explore these workers' experiences of the same downsizing event and their perceptions about whether or not TREBCO knew that its decision might adversely affect some lives. She ends her section by suggesting that because of the varied experiences that emerged from the study and because of the unique relevancy structures from which each emerged, TREBCO should have taken time to know these employees as persons and found alternative means of achieving corporate profitability ends. The second author then presents a counter-argument based on some of the organizational literature that questions why TREBCO should care, from an organization's perspective. He also presents a position from a labor point of view, which argues that the proposed action may actually be detrimental to those same employees. The purpose of this paper is not to resolve this perspectival dilemma; rather, it is to promote dialog toward possible transformation.

This paper investigates sensemaking by rural community residents concerning a large scale, broad band computer network - the Alberta SuperNet. Our goal is to understand the impacts of this broad band network on rural communities and to use critical theory to understand these impacts. Data were collected during 9 town hall meetings held in rural communities. Discussions during the meetings were recorded, transcribed and digitized. We identified key themes in the discussions and focused on opportunities and risks rural residents conceived as emerging from SuperNet. We investigate the personal and collective identities constructed during the town hall meetings. We then interpret the data in terms of Habermasian critical theory and the risk society thesis of Ulrich Beck.

Alors que 2007 a été déclarée année européenne pour l'égalité des chances, un nombre toujours plus important d'entreprises affichent leurs engagements en termes de lutte contre la discrimination et de valorisation de la diversité. Les actions promouvant l'égalité entre les sexes ou l'intégration des personnes handicapés, sont ainsi très largement avancées comme une preuve du caractère responsable des entreprises. Dans le même temps, la prise en compte de la diversité confessionnelle laisse place à un silence pesant. Or, selon une étude de la Commission Européenne réalisée en 20071 , sur l'état des discriminations en Europe, la France est le pays des 25 où l'existence de discrimination liée aux convictions religieuses est le plus fortement ressentie. A travers une approche transdisciplinaire mêlant apports de la sociologie, de l'anthropologie et des sciences de gestion, un travail de déconstruction a, à ce propos, été entrepris. Au plus loin des « effets cosmétiques » des autres actions engagées sous couvert de diversité, la diversité confessionnelle donne lieu à de réelles pratiques, dans les entreprises françaises aujourd'hui. Or, si ces pratiques semblent répondre à un réel besoin des entreprises comme de leurs salariés, elles apparaissent toujours plus ou moins occultées. S'appuyant sur une contextualisation du questionnement actuel sur la diversité confessionnelle en France, une approche itérative associant analyse théorique et expression des acteurs de terrains (responsables de la diversité et responsables de cabinet spécialisés dans la gestion de la diversité), pourra permettre d'éclairer les raisons du silence des organisations vis-à-vis d'une problématique essentielle au tissage d'un lien social durable vis-à-vis d'une population salariale hétérogène.

These articles are about the currencies of sensemaking. Currency has a double meaning. First it means value in interpersonal or interorganizational exchange. For example, stories are the primary sensemaking currency in exchanges. Secondly, currency means currents, as in flows that pull swimmers, boats and debris where the current takes it.

Recently scholars have begun to explore the influence of materiality on organizations. For example, Gagliardi (1996) notes that the physical setting cultivates human senses and Gieryn (2002) asserts that buildings are a stabilizing influence in social life and are objects of (re)interpretation, with meanings or stories flexibly interpreting the walls and floors they describe. As a counterpoint to the materiality of organizations represented by places and spaces, the materiality of worker identity is noted in embodiment. While organizational studies address a plethora of individual constructs (e.g., motivation, self-efficacy, personality) the embodied identity of workers is a topic largely absent from the field. As individuals manufacture identities in organizational life, what role does the materiality of the body play? The embodied-self influences cognition and emotion (Varella, Thompson, and Rosch, 1991). This paper explores the influence of embodiment on individual identities, actions, decisions and experiences. Examples from a case study highlight issues of embodied selves at work, illuminating the significance of embodiment in workers' processes of manufacturing identities.