ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND INDIVIDUAL SENSEMAKING - A SCHEMA-BASED PERSPECTIVE

Organizational culture encompasses both individual and group-level phe nomena. However, to date, the individual-level dynamics of organizatio nal culture have remained relatively neglected. This paper addresses t his neglect by focusing on culture's manifestation in individuals' sen semaking structures and processes. Building off the social cognition l iterature, I propose that organizational culture's influence on indivi dual sensemaking is revealed in the operation of a patterned system of organization-specific schemas. Schemas refer to the cognitive structu res in which an individual's knowledge is retained and organized. In a ddition to being knowledge repositories, schemas also direct informati on acquisition and processing. They guide answering the questions cent ral to sensemaking efforts: ''What or who is it?,'' ''What are its imp lications; what does it mean?,'' and ''How should I respond?'' After a brief review of schema theory, the categories of schema knowledge rel evant to understanding sensemaking in organizations and the cultural i nfluences on their emergence are examined. The conscious and unconscio us operation of these schemas in the actual process of making sense of organizational stimuli is framed within a schema-directed, intrapsych ic, mental dialogue perspective on social cognition. Specifically, I p ropose that in the social setting of organizations, individuals make s ense out of their experiences based in large part on the outcomes of c ontrived mental dialogues between themselves (e.g., ''I think it means this and I would be inclined toward this response'') and other contex tually-relevant (past or present; real or imagined) individuals or gro ups (e.g., ''What would my boss and peers think about this? What would they want me to do?''). The content of the argument provided for othe rs is guided by the individual's schemas for those others. I dose the paper by discussing the ways in which this schema-based perspective en hances our understanding of the individual experiences of cultural sha ring, subcultural boundaries, and psychological attachment.