Trust and Sensemaking in Organizations

The literature on trust and the literature on sensemaking constitute two separate streams of literature that are both seen as highly relevant to understanding organisational processes in modern complex high-trust organisations. However, though a few studies have argued for the relevance of linking the two streams of literature (Meyerson et al. 1996; Adobor 2005; Wright and Ehnert 2006), no explicit attempts have until now been made to analyse how these two perspectives may be related. This paper argues that sensemaking can be seen as an endogenous perspective on organizational processes that can help furthering the understanding of trust processes in organizations. The variety of links between sensemaking and trust processes is illustrated by the intertwining of trust and four processes of sensemaking: arguing, expecting, committing and manipulation identified by Karl Weick.