Organisational sensemaking is a process in which actors within organisations make sense of their surroundings through interaction with others. By engaging in these interactions, they construct accounts that enable them to understand their environment and take action. Sensemaking challenges are situations that diminish individuals’ cognitive capacity for information processing and hinder their ability to perceive and extract critical cues. Despite the considerable attention devoted to sensemaking, the literature still lacks a comprehensive understanding of social issues sensemaking challenges and the factors that contribute to sensemaking failure. By conducting a systematic review and employing a qualitative meta-synthesis, we seek to identify sensemaking challenges and their impact on the underlying mechanism of the sensemaking process.

This study was supported financially by the University of Kent and the Wates Group.