Succession Sensemaking and Organizational Change: A Story of a Deviant College President

A conceptual framework or model of the sensemaking practices,cultural objects and “programmatically constructed entities”used to produce meaningful stories of succession and organisational change are presented. The framework is elaborated and tested through an expansion analysis of a story about the termination of a“deviant” college president. It is discussed how the present framework can help managers and researchers better understand and manage organisational storytelling and organisational change.