IDENTITY, IMAGE, AND ISSUE INTERPRETATION - SENSEMAKING DURING STRATEGIC CHANGE IN ACADEMIA

This study investigates how top management teams in higher education i nstitutions make sense of important issues that affect strategic chang e in modern academia. We used a two-phase research approach that progr essed from a grounded model anchored in a case study to a quantitative , generalizable study of the issue interpretation process, using 611 e xecutives from 372 colleges and universities in the United States. The findings suggest that under conditions of change, top management team members' perceptions of identity and image, especially desired future image, are key to the sensemaking process and serve as important link s between the organization's internal context and the team members' is sue interpretations. Rather than using the more common business issue categories of ''threats'' and ''opportunities,'' team members distingu ished their interpretations mainly according to ''strategic'' or ''pol itical'' categorizations.(.)