| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this project was to identify the ways that sensegiving and sensemaking were working within the Southern Children’s Home (actual name of organization is redacted) to better understand how the communication of the home’s values, goals, and priorities could be improved to enable employee initiative. Data collection consisted of a mixed method approach involving of an anonymous survey, confidential interviews, ethnographic observations, and the analysis of organizational documents. The qualitative data from the interviews, observations, and documents was somatically coded for prevalence and triangulated with quantitative data from the survey to inform the findings and recommendations. The data reviled five categorical examples of activities (received communication, shared beliefs, organizational history examples of enactment, and documents) that employees used to facilitate sensemaking within the home. The data also identified several sensegiving activities (direct communication, authorship or storytelling, documents and symbols, and participatory activities) all with differing levels of effectiveness. This study concludes with three categories of recommendations to improve current sensegiving process (define, link, communicate). The home must clearly define the ultimate goals, organizational values, the leadership success model, the corporate logo, and the leadership philosophy, link values to action through communication of examples, and communicate using all available systems. | |
