Shared vision and organizational culture: A sociocognitive analysis of employees' sensemaking involved in creating the shared vision of the organization

Grounded in organizational culture and social cognition theories, this study describes the effects of employees' participation in creating the shared Vision of the organization and their involvement in implementing the changes and realizing the desired state of the future. The perceptions of organizational culture of involved and non-involved employees are compared upon creation of the Vision, and a year after its implementation. Comparison is made between the organizational culture perceptions between the year Vision was created and a year after the implementation of the Vision. Additionally, the presence of Vision-related schemas within the involved and non-involved groups is established and the differences between the sensemaking of the two groups are identified. Cognitive structures with respect to the Vision are developed in the form of cognitive maps representing shared sensemaking within involved in both creation "goals", "objectives", and "direction" identified among the noninvolved employees.