Expert investigators leverage their advanced skills and deep experience to solve complex investigations, but they face limits on their time and attention. In contrast, crowds of novices can be highly scalable and parallelizable, but lack expertise and may engage in vigilante behavior. In this dissertation, I introduce and evaluate the framework of expert-led crowdsourcing through three studies across two domains, journalism and law enforcement. First, through an ethnographic study of two law enforcement murder investigations, I uncover tensions in a real-world crowdsourced investigation and introduce the expert-led crowdsourcing framework. Second, I instantiate expert-led crowdsourcing in two collaboration systems: GroundTruth and CuriOSINTy. GroundTruth is focused on one specific investigative task, image geolocation. CuriOSINTy expands the flexibility and scope of expert-led crowdsourcing to handle more complex and multiple investigative tasks: identifying and debunking misinformation. Third, I introduce a framework for understanding how expert-led crowdsourced investigations work and how to better support them. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of how expert-led crowdsourcing enables experts and crowds to do more than either could alone, as well as how it can be generalized to other domains. / Doctor of Philosophy / Expert investigators leverage their advanced skills and deep experience to solve complex investigations, but they face limits on their time and attention. In contrast, there is growing interest among non-professional members of the public to participate in investigations, but they lack the expertise or may engage in harmful behavior. In this dissertation, I introduce a new concept called, expert-led crowdsourcing, that allows professionals and non-professionals to work together on a high-stakes investigations in two domains: journalism and law enforcement. First, I explored how expert-led crowdsourcing played out in CrowdSolve, a real-world investigation of two decades-old murder cases. At CrowdSolve, over 250 amateur sleuths supported eight law enforcement experts to uncover new leads two for the two cases. Second, I build two software applications, GroundTruth and CuriOSINTy, to better support expert-led crowdsourced investigations. GroundTruth helps investigators work with a crowd to find the exact geographic location where a photo was taken. CuriOSINTy extends GroundTruth's capabilities to help investigators with more complex and multiple investigative tasks involved in identifying and debunking misinformation on social media. Third, I compared and contrasted the three prior studies to develop a more detailed understanding of expert-led crowdsourced investigations and how to better support them. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of how expert-led crowdsourcing enables experts and crowds to do more than either could alone, as well as how it can be used in other professions.

Human-AI interaction can improve overall performance, exceeding the performance that either humans or AI could achieve separately, thus producing a whole greater than the sum of the parts. Visual analytics enables collaboration between humans and AI through interactive visual interfaces. Semantic interaction is a design methodology to enhance visual analytics systems for sensemaking tasks. It is widely applied for sensemaking in high-stakes domains such as intelligence analysis and academic research. However, existing semantic interaction systems support collaboration between humans and traditional machine learning models only; they do not apply state-of-the-art deep learning techniques. The contribution of this work is the effective integration of deep neural networks into visual analytics systems with semantic interaction. More specifically, I explore how to redesign the semantic interaction pipeline to enable collaboration between human and deep learning models for sensemaking tasks. First, I validate that semantic interaction systems with pre-trained deep learning better support sensemaking than existing semantic interaction systems with traditional machine learning. Second, I integrate interactive deep learning into the semantic interaction pipeline to enhance inference ability in capturing analysts' precise intents, thereby promoting sensemaking. Third, I add semantic explanation into the pipeline to interpret the interactively steered deep learning model. With a clear understanding of DL, analysts can make better decisions. Finally, I present a neural design of the semantic interaction pipeline to further boost collaboration between humans and deep learning for sensemaking. / Doctor of Philosophy / Human AI interaction can harness the separate strengths of human and machine intelligence to accomplish tasks neither can solve alone. Analysts are good at making high-level hypotheses and reasoning from their domain knowledge. AI models are better at data computation based on low-level input features. Successful human-AI interactions can perform real-world, high-stakes tasks, such as issuing medical diagnoses, making credit assessments, and determining cases of discrimination. Semantic interaction is a visual methodology providing intuitive communications between analysts and traditional machine learning models. It is commonly utilized to enhance visual analytics systems for sensemaking tasks, such as intelligence analysis and scientific research. The contribution of this work is to explore how to use semantic interaction to achieve collaboration between humans and state-of-the-art deep learning models for complex sensemaking tasks. To do this, I first evaluate the straightforward solution of integrating the pretrained deep learning model into the traditional semantic interaction pipeline. Results show that the deep learning representation matches human cognition better than hand engineering features via semantic interaction. Next, I look at methods for supporting semantic interaction systems with interactive and interpretable deep learning. The new pipeline provides effective communication between human and deep learning models. Interactive deep learning enables the system to better capture users' intents. Interpretable deep learning lets users have a clear understanding of models. Finally, I improve the pipeline to better support collaboration using a neural design. I hope this work can contribute to future designs for the human-in-the-loop analysis with deep learning and visual analytics techniques.

Yes / This paper aims to establish a link between aggregate organizational resilience capabilities and managerial risk perception aspects during a major global crisis. We argue that a multi-theory perspective, dynamic capability at an organizational level and enactment theory at a managerial level allow us to better understand how the sensemaking process within managerial risk perception assists organizational resilience. We draw from in-depth interviews with 40 managers across the UK’s food industry, which has been able to display resilience during the pandemic. In sensing supply chain risks (SCRs), managers within both authority-based and consensus-based organizational structures utilize risk-capture heuristics and enact actions related to effective communications, albeit at different information costs. In seizing, we found that managers adhere to distinct heuristics that are idiosyncratic to their organizational structures. Through limited horizontal communication channels, authority-based structures adhere to rudimentary how-to heuristics, whereas consensus-based structures use obtainable how-to heuristics. We contribute to the organizational resilience and dynamic capabilities literature by identifying assessment as an additional step prior to transforming, which depicts a retention process to inform future judgements. Our study presents a novel framework of organizational resilience to SCRs during equivocal environments, by providing a nuanced understanding of the construction of dynamic capabilities through sensemaking.

Drawing on sensegiving theory, utilizing interviews, doctrine studies and the-matic analysis methodology, this thesis investigates the prospects on Swedish Army´s tactical language to be efficient for facilitating situational awareness and issuing instructions in high-intensity warfare against a highly technolog-ical adversary in the land domain. In the study I conclude the tactical language is perceived as sufficient for its purpose but with remarks and offers a few suggestions to manage the flaws.

This thesis investigates related organizations perceptions and coordination in response to legal changes governing packaging waste collection (PWC) in Gotland, Sweden, utilizing Sensemaking theory, Interorganizational Coordination (IOC) theory, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory. Through qualitative research methods, including interviews with key participants from public and private sectors involved in waste management, this study explores how individuals from different organizations make sense of and adapt to the new regulatory framework. The research identifies diverse organization views towards the legal changes, highlighting challenges related to ambiguity and clarity in regulatory details. Sensemaking processes influence organizational interpretations of the regulations, shaping their actions and collaborative efforts. IOC dynamics play a crucial role in waste management coordination, with task breakdown and coordination among multiple organizations proving more effective than centralized approaches. CSR illustrates the dilemma of private sectors’ contribution to broader sustainability goals due to competition concern in a market-driven business context. The study underscores the significance of public sector entities in waste management governance compared to private organizations. This research contributes to advancing understanding of waste management policy implementation and coordination dynamics within a regional context, leveraging sensemaking, IOC and CSR theories.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att kartlägga anledningar till att anställda kommer till kontoret vid hybridarbete.  Metod: Fenomenet har studerats med en induktiv forskningsansats. Studiens resultat har utgått från den insamlade datan. I studien har en kvalitativ surveystudie med ostrukturerade intervjuer använts för insamling av data. Empirin har analyserats med en tematisk analys.  Slutsats: Studien resulterade i många olika anledningar till varför anställda väljer att komma till kontoret vid hybridarbete. Anledningarna har delats upp i kategorierna: socialt, organisationskultur, enkel kommunikation, arbetsmiljö samt skilja på hem och arbete. Kategorierna har alla kopplats till meningsskapande. Anställda strävar efter meningsskapande genom olika faktorer såsom interaktion, sammanhang och faciliteter. / Purpose: The purpose of the study is to map reasons why employees come to the office in hybrid work setups. Method: The phenomenon has been studied using an inductive research approach. The study's results are based on the collected data. A qualitative survey study with unstructured interviews was used for data collection. This has been analyzed through thematic analysis.  Conclusion: The study identified various reasons why employees choose to come to the office in a hybrid work setups. These reasons were categorized as: social, organizational culture, easy communication, work environment, and separating home and work. All categories were linked to sensemaking. Employees seek meaning through factors such as interaction, context, and facilities.

Crises are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s world. Their increased frequency and interconnectedness pose challenges, especially to multinational organizations characterized by diverse cultures among their employees or subsidiaries. This makes it surprising how little attention has been paid to the influence of culture on crisis leadership. To reduce this gap, this qualitative study investigates the influence of culture on crisis leadership and its effectiveness, focusing on the relationship between organizational leaders and followers during a crisis. We furthermore investigate to what extent leaders consider cultural influences in their internal communication and decision-making approaches during a crisis. Semi-structured interviews with 11 renowned crisis management consultants were conducted, focusing on their real-world observations about the influence of culture on crisis leadership. The results reveal that cultural factors significantly influence crisis leadership effectiveness. Both leaders' backgrounds and followers' cultural expectations play crucial roles. However, there is only limited consideration for culture during a crisis, and leaders typically do not adjust their communication and decision-making approaches to reduce negative cultural effects. Under high-stress and time-sensitive conditions, leaders tend to face cultural biases and revert to a narrower worldview, focusing on immediate crisis resolution. Therefore, cultural sensitivity among crisis leaders remains a rarity, reducing their understanding of the risks associated with diverse cultures during crises. As crisis theory and practice often do not align, this study is a relevant first step for organizations to understand the issues of cultural bias and narrow world views during crises, encouraging deeper dialogue on this topic and inclusion of it in crisis training and preparation.

Construite sur le tryptique engagement mutuel, entreprise commune et répertoire partagé, les Communautés de pratique sont des espaces pressentis dans le secteur marchand, comme favorables à l'apprentissage situé et à la valorisation des compétences ressources. Cette thèse a pour finalité d'éclairer la genèse et les usages de ce type de collectif dans le secteur particulier et sensible de l'hôpital public d'aujourd'hui. Longtemps demeurées informelles, elles captent progressivement l'intérêt de l'administration et des professionnels de santé car leur contribution au fonctionnement des établissements de santé s'étend au-delà du partage des connaissances. L'introduction du New Public Management génère de nombreux paradoxes et dualités et suppose pour les professionnels, jusqu'à présent autonomes, de s'approprier les nombreuses injonctions hiérarchiques et de construire du sens à la pratique dorénavant fléchée. Cette recherche qualitative, dont l'approche est interprétativiste, est construite sur une étude de trois cas. Elle est menée sous forme d'une observation participante, au sein de trois communautés de pratique d'hôpitaux publics représentatifs de l'offre de soins hospitalière d'aujourd'hui. Cette thèse comporte quatre parties : La première est composée d'une revue de littérature qui présente d'une part, l'environnement et les principales problématiques du fonctionnement hospitalier d'aujourd'hui et d'autre part, les éléments nécessaires à la compréhension de la genèse et des usages des CoP, tels qu'identifiés par les pères de ce concept. La seconde explique le design de recherche. La troisième expose les résultats pour chacun des cas analysés. L'analyse révèle des caractères communs retrouvés dans la genèse, l'organisation et le fonctionnement des trois cas, mais aussi des caractères hybrides. Au-delà d'un nouveau mode d'apprentissage identifié comme situé, les CoP placent les interactions langagières au centre des échanges, favorisent l'appropriation, par les professionnels de soins, des injonctions hiérarchiques. L'analyse des verbatims rappelle l'importance de l'influence du patient qui modifie la relation entre professionnels de soins et la hiérarchie et le situe au cœur de l'activité de production. Un modèle, représentatif de chaque communauté de pratique est élaboré à partir des données du terrain. La quatrième partie ouvre la discussion sur le management des communautés de pratique dont le défi demeure l'intégration des paradoxes et dualités induits par l'institution. La dynamique de management est interrogée et propose, dans la continuité des travaux de Detchessahar (2015) et Grimand (2016) un modèle intégrant. / “Communities of practice (CoP) are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, 2002, p.4)They are considered as an efficient way to develop new competencies and financial resources in industrial sector. The finality of this Thesis is to explore communities of practice in public sector, particularly in public hospital sector, which is characterised by complexity and sensitive situations.The research observes and explores three communities of practice, situated in three different public hospitals. This thesis throws light on the contribution of CoP to institutional functioning. Unknow or clearly identified by the institutional hierarchy, these areas allowed language interactions, situated learning and favour appropriate superior's injunctions. They are favourable to develop sensemaking. Especially, the analysis marks the influence of the patient, who transforms the relation between health professionals and hierarchy. It proposes three models, each one is built on verbatims exploration. It questions the management of communities of practice. Finally, it invites to include the presence of institutional paradoxes, rather than try to eliminate them

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus in this thesis is on sensemaking in organisations and the aim was to offer an interpretation of the thought of Karl E. Weick. The interpretation subsequently consists of a description and discussion of concepts, underlying theories and paradigmatic perspectives that are integrated into and deployed in Weick's sensemaking framework. After a description and definition of sensemaking terms and concepts, it is argued that a process cosmology forms the ground theory in Weick's sensemaking framework. In order to elucidate this interpretation, the organic model of the world of Bergson and Whitehead is introduced. Special attention is given to pragmatism's underlying process ontology and themes which social consructionism, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology share in common with pragmatism. The aim is to show how these perspectives and themes are taken up in Weick's sensemaking in organisations and organisational theory. A failure to make sense is both consequential and existential. This aspect of Weick's thought is discussed in the context of Bergson's process cosmology. It is followed by a description and discussion of Weick's use of systems theory with special attention given to Weick's concept of 'enactment' . How and why does an organisation becomes what it becomes? This question is addressed in the context of a description and discussion of complexity theory. A core concept in both complexity theory and Weick's thought is self-organisation. The aim is to show how sense making appears on systems level. Finally, this thesis attempts to addresses the question of the relationship between organisation and organising and how both terms is to be understood in terms of Weick's ontological view of the world. This aim is to show that Weick's understanding of "the" organisation (noun) can be conceived of as an abstraction and organisation (verb - 'organising') in terms of relating and as process in becoming and how he thereby gives social construction an ontological twist. The conclusion reached is that, in the type of world Weick describes, it makes sense to make sense. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis fokus op 'sensemaking' in organisasies - om die dubbelsinnige, onduidelike en onverwagse meer duidelik, begryplik and redelik te maak vir persone om te weet wat besig is om te gebeur en gepaste aksies te neem. Die doel was derhalwe 'n interpretasie van die denke van Karl E. Weick. Die interpretasie omvat gevolglik 'n beskrywing en bespreking van konsepte, teorieë en paradigmatiese perspektiewe wat Weick in sy sensemaking raamwerk integreer en ontplooi. Ná 'n definiëring en beskrywing van terme en konsepte word geargumenteer dat 'n proses beskouing van die werklikheid Weick se sensemaking raamwerk onderlê. Hierdie interpretasie word toegelig met 'n bespreking en beskrywing van die organiese model van Bergson en Whitehead, sowel as die proses ontologie onderliggend aan pragmatisme. Gevolglik kom pragmatisme, sosiale konstruksionisme, simboliese interaksionisme en etnometodologie aan die orde. Verskeie temas word beskryf en bespreek in die konteks van sensemaking en organisasie-teorie. 'n Mislukking in sensemaking het newe gevolge en is dit ook eksistensieël van aard. Hierdie aspek van Weick se denke word beskryf en bespreek in die konteks van Bergson se proses kosmologie en word die interpretasie opgevolg met 'n bespreking van sisteem-teorie. Hoe en waarom verander organisasies wanneer hulle verander? Die antwoord op hierdie vraag kom aan die orde in die konteks van 'n bespreking van kompleksiteits-teorie. 'n Kern konsep in beide Weick se sensemaking en kompleksiteits-teorie is self-organisasie. 'n Baie belangrike doel is om aan te dui hoe sensemaking voorkom en plaasvind op sisteem-vlak. Ten slotte poog die tesis om die verband tussen organisasie en organisering in Weick se denke meer verstaanbaar te maak. Die argument hier is dat Weick se verstaan van "die" organisasie (selfstandige naamwoord) as 'n abstraksie en organisasie (werkwoord) in terme van relasies en proses in wording geïnterpreteer kan word, en Weick sodoende 'n ontologiese kinkel in die verstaan van sosiale konstruksionisme teweeg bring. Die slotsom tot waartoe in hierdie studie gekom word is dat, in die wêreld wat Weick beskryf, maak dit 'sense' om 'sense' te maak.

La globalisation et les crises économiques successives, les pressions de la concurrence et les exigences des clients contraignent les entreprises pour survivre à initier des changements et à réviser leurs promesses et perspectives de rétributions, parfois de manière brutale. Les frontières organisationnelles se délitent, des relations atypiques et triangulaires se développent, les collectifs de travail sont fragilisés, les valeurs interpellées. L’équivocité des situations initie des processus de sensemaking. Les schémas mentaux traditionnels de la relation d’emploi basés sur la confiance, la stabilité et la fidélité sont bousculés. A la sécurité d’emploi à long terme et la carrière interne se substitue la notion d’employabilité et de flexisécurité. Les employés essaient de percevoir et d’interpréter ce qui survient dans les organisations. Les « contract makers » viennent alors préciser et expliquer les changements dans les promesses et obligations du contrat psychologique entre l’employé et l’organisation. En cas d’échec, ce sont les « contract influencers » comme les syndicats qui viennent donner un sens qui n’est pas forcément celui attendu par le management… Les plans de restructuration avec réduction d’effectif se multiplient engendrant des processus de rupture et de violation du contrat psychologique et un climat social dégradé. Les processus de cession de site, l’absence de perspectives à long terme engendrent de l’incertitude et de l’inquiétude chez les salariés, des contrats psychologiques de transition sans garantie émergent et lorsque la situation perdure ces derniers sont susceptibles d’engendrer des comportements hostiles et déviants qui peuvent conduire à un contrat psychologique de défiance.La présente thèse étudie le processus de formation et d’évolution du contrat psychologique sous le prisme du sensemaking du personnel d’une entreprise agro-alimentaire de Dijon. Un cadre d’analyse contextualiste basé sur une méthode mixte quantitative et qualitative nous permet de suivre les processus de formation, d’évolution de rupture et de reconstruction du contrat psychologique et de comprendre comme les acteurs organisationnels construisent la réalité. / Globalization and economic crises, as well as the pressures of competition and customer demands, are forcing companies, in order to survive, to initiate changes and revise their promises and payment prospects, sometimes in a brutal way. Organizational boundaries are disintegrating, atypical or triangular relationships are developing, staffs feel weakened, and values are ?. The ambiguity of these situations initiates the processes of sensemaking. Traditional expectations based on trust, stability and fidelity are shaken up. Job security and long-term internal careers are being replaced by the concepts of employability and flexisecurity. Employees try to understand and to detect what is happening in organizations. « Contract makers » then come a long side to explain and to detail changes in the promises and obligations of the psychological contract between the employee and the organization. When this process fails, it is the « contract influencers » such as unions who give meaning, but is not necessarily the one the management expected... Restructuring plans which include downsizing lead to the increasing number of processes of rupture and violation of the psychological contract and down-grading in the social climate. The process of selling the site and, the lack of long-term prospects create uncertainty and anxiety among employees. Transitional psychological contracts with no guarantee conditions emerge and when this situation persists it is likely to generate hostile and deviant behaviors that can lead to distrust psychological contract.This thesis examines the process of forming and developing the psychological contracts through the prism of sensemaking, employees of a food company in Dijon. An analytical framework based on a contextualist quantitative and qualitative mixed method allows us to follow the process of establishing and developing rupture and reconstruction of psychological contracts, as well as to understand how people concerned in the organization construct reality.