Summary 

Sensebreaking – the breakdown in prevailing meanings and assumptions experienced by an individual – is often conceptualized as a prelude to sensemaking, or sensegiving. Extant research has rarely focused on sensebreaking in its own right and how it transpires over time. In our paper, published in the Journal of Management Studies, we explore the ways in which sensebreaking is initiated and then unfolds over time in extreme contexts. Based on the empirical context of irregular migration journeys from Pakistan to Europe, this research explicates the protracted nature of sensebreaking in extreme contexts, whilst highlighting its key drivers and mechanisms.  

Key premise of study 

Individuals often experience a breakdown in prevailing meanings and assumptions (sensebreaking) when confronted with crisis situations. Extant conceptualizations of crises and extreme contexts have typically qualified these breakdowns as ephemeral or episodic in that individuals always seem to find ways to make sense of a given predicament and develop appropriate strategies to recover from the initial undoing of their sense of reality. However, we show what happens when these breakdowns are experienced recurrently and over long periods of time. Our study examines the ways in which such breakdowns can become protracted, forestalling and possibly delaying processes of positive recalibration, adaptation or making sense of crisis situations. We showcase this within a particularly perilous and extreme context of irregular migration journeys from Pakistan to Europe. Irregular migration journeys constitute extreme contexts that are physically dangerous and frequently deadly for those involved. These journeys are characterized by multiple extreme events making it increasingly difficult for individuals to positively recalibrate their expectations, emotions and perspectives. Premised on this extreme empirical setting, our study provides powerful insights into the ways individuals in varying crisis landscapes often have to navigate multiple, recurring challenges for indeterminately protracted periods of time.  

What is sensebreaking and how does it transpire over time? 

The concept of sensebreaking is crucial in understanding how individual actors survive, navigate and endure adversities. In a literal and theoretical sense, sensebreaking entails the collapse of preconceived expectations of a given situation. The limited work to date on sensebreaking has conceptualized it as an externally motivated, deliberate strategy wielded by managers or organizational leaders to instigate vacuums of meanings that can be redressed with alternative meanings or notions of reality. In that sense, sensebreaking is viewed as a strategic tool that can be deployed as need be and is geared towards clear end goals. We challenge this notion by showing it as a process that cannot be controlled or managed but is instead experienced across and beyond the various phases of a crisis situation. We also highlight the role of emotional and physical disruptions in driving sensebreaking and triggering the destabilization of individuals’ past and future sense of selves and reality. In doing so, we illustrate the ways in which these emotional and physical disruptions can also produce lingering aftereffects or become reactivated, thereby protracting the sensebreaking process and subsequently, diminishing one’s ability to overcome crisis situations. Our theorization about the different modes, drivers and key mechanisms of sensebreaking is thus key to extending our understanding of how individuals’ lived experiences of adversity can become indeterminably protracted across multiple phases of a crisis life cycle.  

Why is sensebreaking important?  

In developing and extending the notion of sensebreaking, our paper has far-reaching implications for those working in both crisis settings, such as healthcare workers, emergency first responders, military and security forces personnel, and those in more “traditional” and mundane organizational contexts. As we showcase, emotional and physical disruptions play a pivotal role in triggering sensebreaking, and these disruptions can linger and produce aftershocks even after the crisis and its threat may have dissipated. For instance, the emotional and psychological fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic amongst employees, frontline workers and even children has been well-documented. In highlighting the protractedness of sensebreaking, our paper reiterates the importance of providing appropriate mental health support and counselling to individuals who endure these persistent adversities. Primary care service providers or even managers in organizations working with at-risk or vulnerable individuals, for example, need to be sensitized to the specific needs of those who may have experienced particular emotional and physical disruptions in the distant past. In that way our study can be abstracted across diverse organizational contexts with pervasive implications for how managers and leaders can make sense of and become attuned to the notion of sensebreaking and how it transpires in crisis situations and beyond.  

What happens to time in crisis situations?  

In tracing the trajectory of sensebreaking over time, we also reveal the ways in which time is experienced and interpreted in challenging contexts. Our case study allowed us to reveal the ways in which individuals’ understanding and experience of time became distorted as they contented with multiple, often recurring, crises. This temporal disruption and the ensuing temporal irregularities further exacerbated irregular migrants’ state of disorientation and loss of sense of self. For instance, individuals in our study recounted losing their sense of time, experiencing time at a rapid or slow pace simultaneously, or being unable to manage or exercise control over their own time. These temporal irregularities in turn played a major role in protracting the sensebreaking process and worsening the experiences of those involved. Further, our research let us explicate the ways in which waiting during a crisis and beyond it can distort individuals’ sense of time and place. While waiting periods are typically regarded as uneventful or associated with boredom, we illustrate how waiting periods can exacerbate the effects of crises as actors deliberate on past experiences of adversities and create projections for the future. In so doing, our study has crucial implications for how we conceptualize the perceived longevity of an extreme context. Whilst we typically perceive crisis situations to have concrete start and end points in time, our study shows how temporal irregularities can protract the sensebreaking process and thereby prevent the restoration of temporal regularity and opportunity to overcome a given crisis.  

Conclusion  

Our paper develops and extends the theoretical understanding of how individuals experience a breakdown in their sense of reality and self as they navigate extreme events. We highlight the role of emotional and physical disruptions as well as temporal irregularities in disorienting individuals and precipitating a collapse in previously held and established notions of reality. In doing so, we showcase the ways in which the repercussions of this breakdown frequently reverberate well after the crisis may have apparently ended, thereby protracting the experience of the crisis and diminishing the opportunity and ability to “move on” from extreme events.