Making Sense of Change: Supervisors’ ICSR Communication as a Sensemaking Cue in Organizational Change

In contexts of continuous organizational change, employees must make sense of ambiguous and disruptive developments. Drawing on sensemaking theory, we conceptualize supervisors’ communication about internal corporate social responsibility (ICSR) as an interpretive cue that shapes employees’ perceptions of change appropriateness and, in turn, their extra-role behavior. We further argue that this process depends on three sensegiving conditions: sensegiver relationship quality, sensegiving consistency, and sensegiver motive orientation. Using multilevel data from 176 employees nested within 42 teams in a German hospital undergoing restructuring, we find that supervisors’ ICSR communication enhances employees’ perceptions of change appropriateness, which subsequently promotes extra-role behavior. Moreover, this indirect effect varies systematically across the three sensegiving conditions. By positioning ICSR communication as an interpretive cue in employees’ sensemaking of change, this study contributes to sensemaking, organizational change, and CSR research by explaining how socially responsible practices become meaningful through supervisory interactions.