Award Date

1-1-1996

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology

Number of Pages

75

Abstract

This study examines the use of sensemaking and power/influence in the governance process of an emerging corporation. It emphasizes the use of the interpretive paradigm in examining the ways in which reality is socially constructed by a board of directors. This text explores the definition of governance at the emerging corporation from the inside. It examines the effects of board decisions on the corporation by focusing on a specific emerging corporation--here fictiously identified as "Softalk Corporation"--in a major American city. Through this case the author examines how situations were officially defined, and, how these official definitions translated into real operating arrangements over twelve months; The ethnographic study makes the following assumptions (1) Symbols are not only expressive medium, but also a medium for substantive action; (2) Symbols are a medium for both sensemaking and power/influence; (3) Symbolic processes associated with the instigation of change involve evolutionary shifts in directionality; (4) Symbolic processes simultaneously occur at multiple levels of understanding; and (5) Symbolic non-action can be important to change initiation.

Keywords

Corporation; Emerging; Ethnography; Governance; Hard; Softalk; System; Times

Controlled Subject

Social structure; Psychology, Industrial; Management

File Format

pdf

File Size

2007.04 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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