Processes of senior managers' sensemaking and learning in a transitional economy

The purpose of this paper is to use sensemaking and learning theory to gain insight into how senior Ethiopian managers are coming to terms with radically different political and economic forces. These theories have developed in mature Western contexts and a further purpose is to test their applicability in an African context. The methods employed were detailed data gathering in five cases using semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis. The research found that senior managers in the five enterprises constructed very different sense-making patterns about the business environment and about appropriate business strategies depending on the degree of market or state dependency which they perceived. The analysis also reveals how these actors reflected upon the implications of their sense-making for their own and their organizations' future learning and capability development.