Sensemaking on Campus: How Community College Presidents Frame Change

Organizational change occurs regularly on community college campuses as these institutions adjust to external demands and the needs of their constituents. College presidents play an important role in helping staff members make sense of change and uncertainty on campus by what they select as the foci of attention. The research reported in this article highlights the ways in which two community college presidents used framing to aid campus sensemaking. Framing involves the choice of one set of meaning(s) over another by the president, while sensemaking is the process by which individuals interpret changes around them and adjust their thinking and understanding of events accordingly. The two frames identified contain different components. The frames the presidents chose drove campus goals and subsequent strategies to reach those objectives. This study also identified four different venues for communicating change on campus, namely, walking the frame, talking the frame, writing the frame, and symbolizing the frame. While both presidents used all four forms to disseminate information regarding change, their communication preferences were linked to their framing perspectives.