Professor Henri Schildt, Aalto University
We investigate how a firm’s extensive reliance on information systems shapes strategic sensemaking in a crisis. Our inductive study of an airline facing the COVID-19 pandemic, reveals how data infrastructure had a critical effect on organisational sensemaking even as the organisation could no longer rely on algorithms. We show how the digital representations, information flows, and algorithmic processing—what we identify as the organisation’s digital structure—shaped the sensemaking process. The digital structure in combination with the related optimisation mindset endowed specific actors with ‘epistemic dominance’ and ‘right to coordinate,’ resulting in authority over other units to lead the pandemic response. We conclude the article by discussing digital structure as a vital complement to formal and informal organisational structures in understanding both routine and non-routine organisational processes and nuance the widely assumed liability of algorithmic processing in unexpected crises.
Speaker bio
Henri Schildt is a professor of strategy with a joint appointment at the Aalto School of Business and the School of Science. His research interests span digitalisation, strategic change, sensemaking, and social organisations. His articles have been published in leading journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Strategic Management Journal. His book ‘The Data Imperative’ was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. He regularly teaches executive education and MBA courses on digital strategy at several universities.
For more information, please contact Luke Slater.
Event timings
Date:
13 January 2023
Start Time:
12:30
End Time:
14:00