Model of sense-making process for leaders´ organizational resocialization: Based on case study of executive leaders in boundaryless career

The purpose of this study is to propose a model of sense-making process in order to understand the cognitive process by which newcomers cope with their experiences in the new organizational settings. In the research, five corporate executive leaders, who have boundaryless careers and experience of working in a variety of industries, were interviewed by applying narrative approach. As a result of the interviews, it turned out that there was no existing model which could fully explain the sense-making process of those leaders. Therefore, in this study, a new model of sense-making process which can account for the five cases is proposed. By examining the five cases through the model, this study presents the effectiveness of the model and adds insights to the common ground of sense-making process for the organizational resocialization as follows: (1) There is inherent criteria which we named reference point; (2) The reference point is likely to be affected by the surroundings over time for the sake of being consistent; (3) The reference point sometimes induces more than two meanings and individuals select one which seems the most reasonable to explain in a consistent manner at that moment.