Sensemaking During Technology Implementations by Project Teams

摘要

This paper presents a study that analyzes the implementation of a 4D CAD decision support system by a construction project management team responsible for managing a $750 Million mega project. I observed how the project team adaptively implemented the system over a 24 month period and analyzed these observations according to how the different project team members individually and jointly made sense about the technology. As analytical lens, I used Weick's (1995) sensemaking theory that posits that organizations develop new meaning in iterative cycles of belief driven and action driven sensemaking activities. I show that this dual focus on belief-driven and action-driven sensemaking activities explains the implementations dynamic on the project better than the mainstream implementation literature in the construction industry that, by large, focuses on only the belief driven part of sensemaking.