{"id":{"repo_id":"exeter","oai_identifier":"oai:figshare.com:article/32383365"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/exeter/oai:figshare.com:article/32383365","repository":{"repo_id":"exeter","name":"University of Exeter","base_url":"https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai"},"display":{"title":"Ecological Sensemaking in Organisations: Formative Experiences, Managerial Ambivalence, and the Precarious Embedding of Biodiversity and Nature Loss","abstract":"In this thesis, I study how managers make sense of biodiversity and nature loss, and how such sensemaking enables and constrains the embedding of sustainability in organisational practices. The thesis comprises three empirical papers, framed by an introductory and concluding chapter. The first paper draws on 48 in-depth interviews with 44 office-based managers across multiple organisations to examine how actors retrospectively identify formative experiences with biodiversity and nature. It finds that vivid, direct (first-hand) or mediated encounters with biodiversity and nature, retained for their emotional intensity, sensory vividness, and cognitive salience, shape managers’ ecological orientations within firms. These findings contribute to theory by extending the concept of ‘ecological embeddedness’ beyond long-term place-based immersion to include episodic, symbolic, and affective experiences, and by clarifying how retained experiences can shape early stages of meaningful ecological sensemaking despite spatial and symbolic distance from ecosystems. The second paper investigates how managers navigate sustainability-related tensions within organisations. Drawing on interviews with 44 sustainability professionals, it identifies three interrelated micro-level enablers––active agency, contextual understanding, and political positioning amid shifting dynamics––that support sustained engagement in sustainability work despite contradictory organisational priorities. These findings advance understanding of how managers actively interpret and negotiate organisational tensions in pursuit of sustainability agendas. The third paper examines how biodiversity and nature loss are made sense of within organisations. Based on 44 interviews with sustainability professionals and 40 corporate sustainability and integrated annual reports, it identifies three interrelated mechanisms—triggering, interpretive framing, and translational embedding—suited to conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. This study contributes to sensemaking theory in two ways. First, it extends understanding of cue emergence by showing how interpretive salience is constructed when environments do not provide experientially accessible cues, highlighting the role of surrogate cues in enabling sensemaking. Second, it demonstrates that the same organisational frames that make ecological issues actionable also constrain how they are interpreted and operationalised, thereby explaining why corporate engagement with biodiversity and nature loss remains simultaneously proactive and limited. Taken together, the thesis advances understanding of how biodiversity and nature loss become meaningful within organisational contexts. It shows how formative encounters with biodiversity and nature shape managers’ ecological orientations, how managers interpret and navigate sustainability-related tensions in their everyday work, and how biodiversity and nature loss is made sense of under conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. By connecting these insights, the thesis contributes to sustainability and organisation scholarship by illuminating the experiential, interpretive, and organisational dynamics through which biodiversity and nature concerns are noticed, bracketed, interpreted, retained, and translated into organisational action. In doing so, it sheds light on the conditions under which organisations engage with, but also remain constrained in responding to planetary ecological change.<p></p>","abstract_html":"In this thesis, I study how managers make sense of biodiversity and nature loss, and how such sensemaking enables and constrains the embedding of sustainability in organisational practices. The thesis comprises three empirical papers, framed by an introductory and concluding chapter. The first paper draws on 48 in-depth interviews with 44 office-based managers across multiple organisations to examine how actors retrospectively identify formative experiences with biodiversity and nature. It finds that vivid, direct (first-hand) or mediated encounters with biodiversity and nature, retained for their emotional intensity, sensory vividness, and cognitive salience, shape managers’ ecological orientations within firms. These findings contribute to theory by extending the concept of ‘ecological embeddedness’ beyond long-term place-based immersion to include episodic, symbolic, and affective experiences, and by clarifying how retained experiences can shape early stages of meaningful ecological sensemaking despite spatial and symbolic distance from ecosystems. The second paper investigates how managers navigate sustainability-related tensions within organisations. Drawing on interviews with 44 sustainability professionals, it identifies three interrelated micro-level enablers––active agency, contextual understanding, and political positioning amid shifting dynamics––that support sustained engagement in sustainability work despite contradictory organisational priorities. These findings advance understanding of how managers actively interpret and negotiate organisational tensions in pursuit of sustainability agendas. The third paper examines how biodiversity and nature loss are made sense of within organisations. Based on 44 interviews with sustainability professionals and 40 corporate sustainability and integrated annual reports, it identifies three interrelated mechanisms—triggering, interpretive framing, and translational embedding—suited to conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. This study contributes to sensemaking theory in two ways. First, it extends understanding of cue emergence by showing how interpretive salience is constructed when environments do not provide experientially accessible cues, highlighting the role of surrogate cues in enabling sensemaking. Second, it demonstrates that the same organisational frames that make ecological issues actionable also constrain how they are interpreted and operationalised, thereby explaining why corporate engagement with biodiversity and nature loss remains simultaneously proactive and limited. Taken together, the thesis advances understanding of how biodiversity and nature loss become meaningful within organisational contexts. It shows how formative encounters with biodiversity and nature shape managers’ ecological orientations, how managers interpret and navigate sustainability-related tensions in their everyday work, and how biodiversity and nature loss is made sense of under conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. By connecting these insights, the thesis contributes to sustainability and organisation scholarship by illuminating the experiential, interpretive, and organisational dynamics through which biodiversity and nature concerns are noticed, bracketed, interpreted, retained, and translated into organisational action. In doing so, it sheds light on the conditions under which organisations engage with, but also remain constrained in responding to planetary ecological change.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Patrick Oko Quaye (23956506)"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2026,"date_issued":"2026-05-22T00:00:00Z","date_published":"2026-05-22T00:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:33:00Z","subjects":["Ecological Sensemaking","Ecological Embeddedness","Ambivalence"],"languages":[],"rights":["All rights reserved","Open Access after 2027-05-26"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10779/exe.32383365.v1"],"render_values":[{"text":"10779/exe.32383365.v1","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Patrick Oko Quaye (23956506)"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2026-05-22T00:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Ecological_Sensemaking_in_Organisations_Formative_Experiences_Managerial_Ambivalence_and_the_Precarious_Embedding_of_Biodiversity_and_Nature_Loss/32383365"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Ecological Sensemaking","Ecological Embeddedness","Ambivalence"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["All rights reserved","Open Access after 2027-05-26"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10779/exe.32383365.v1"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["In this thesis, I study how managers make sense of biodiversity and nature loss, and how such sensemaking enables and constrains the embedding of sustainability in organisational practices. The thesis comprises three empirical papers, framed by an introductory and concluding chapter. The first paper draws on 48 in-depth interviews with 44 office-based managers across multiple organisations to examine how actors retrospectively identify formative experiences with biodiversity and nature. It finds that vivid, direct (first-hand) or mediated encounters with biodiversity and nature, retained for their emotional intensity, sensory vividness, and cognitive salience, shape managers’ ecological orientations within firms. These findings contribute to theory by extending the concept of ‘ecological embeddedness’ beyond long-term place-based immersion to include episodic, symbolic, and affective experiences, and by clarifying how retained experiences can shape early stages of meaningful ecological sensemaking despite spatial and symbolic distance from ecosystems. The second paper investigates how managers navigate sustainability-related tensions within organisations. Drawing on interviews with 44 sustainability professionals, it identifies three interrelated micro-level enablers––active agency, contextual understanding, and political positioning amid shifting dynamics––that support sustained engagement in sustainability work despite contradictory organisational priorities. These findings advance understanding of how managers actively interpret and negotiate organisational tensions in pursuit of sustainability agendas. The third paper examines how biodiversity and nature loss are made sense of within organisations. Based on 44 interviews with sustainability professionals and 40 corporate sustainability and integrated annual reports, it identifies three interrelated mechanisms—triggering, interpretive framing, and translational embedding—suited to conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. This study contributes to sensemaking theory in two ways. First, it extends understanding of cue emergence by showing how interpretive salience is constructed when environments do not provide experientially accessible cues, highlighting the role of surrogate cues in enabling sensemaking. Second, it demonstrates that the same organisational frames that make ecological issues actionable also constrain how they are interpreted and operationalised, thereby explaining why corporate engagement with biodiversity and nature loss remains simultaneously proactive and limited. Taken together, the thesis advances understanding of how biodiversity and nature loss become meaningful within organisational contexts. It shows how formative encounters with biodiversity and nature shape managers’ ecological orientations, how managers interpret and navigate sustainability-related tensions in their everyday work, and how biodiversity and nature loss is made sense of under conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. By connecting these insights, the thesis contributes to sustainability and organisation scholarship by illuminating the experiential, interpretive, and organisational dynamics through which biodiversity and nature concerns are noticed, bracketed, interpreted, retained, and translated into organisational action. In doing so, it sheds light on the conditions under which organisations engage with, but also remain constrained in responding to planetary ecological change.<p></p>"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Ecological Sensemaking in Organisations: Formative Experiences, Managerial Ambivalence, and the Precarious Embedding of Biodiversity and Nature Loss"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Patrick Oko Quaye (23956506)"],"dc:date":["2026-05-22T00:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["In this thesis, I study how managers make sense of biodiversity and nature loss, and how such sensemaking enables and constrains the embedding of sustainability in organisational practices. The thesis comprises three empirical papers, framed by an introductory and concluding chapter. The first paper draws on 48 in-depth interviews with 44 office-based managers across multiple organisations to examine how actors retrospectively identify formative experiences with biodiversity and nature. It finds that vivid, direct (first-hand) or mediated encounters with biodiversity and nature, retained for their emotional intensity, sensory vividness, and cognitive salience, shape managers’ ecological orientations within firms. These findings contribute to theory by extending the concept of ‘ecological embeddedness’ beyond long-term place-based immersion to include episodic, symbolic, and affective experiences, and by clarifying how retained experiences can shape early stages of meaningful ecological sensemaking despite spatial and symbolic distance from ecosystems. The second paper investigates how managers navigate sustainability-related tensions within organisations. Drawing on interviews with 44 sustainability professionals, it identifies three interrelated micro-level enablers––active agency, contextual understanding, and political positioning amid shifting dynamics––that support sustained engagement in sustainability work despite contradictory organisational priorities. These findings advance understanding of how managers actively interpret and negotiate organisational tensions in pursuit of sustainability agendas. The third paper examines how biodiversity and nature loss are made sense of within organisations. Based on 44 interviews with sustainability professionals and 40 corporate sustainability and integrated annual reports, it identifies three interrelated mechanisms—triggering, interpretive framing, and translational embedding—suited to conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. This study contributes to sensemaking theory in two ways. First, it extends understanding of cue emergence by showing how interpretive salience is constructed when environments do not provide experientially accessible cues, highlighting the role of surrogate cues in enabling sensemaking. Second, it demonstrates that the same organisational frames that make ecological issues actionable also constrain how they are interpreted and operationalised, thereby explaining why corporate engagement with biodiversity and nature loss remains simultaneously proactive and limited. Taken together, the thesis advances understanding of how biodiversity and nature loss become meaningful within organisational contexts. It shows how formative encounters with biodiversity and nature shape managers’ ecological orientations, how managers interpret and navigate sustainability-related tensions in their everyday work, and how biodiversity and nature loss is made sense of under conditions of temporal distance, spatial diffusion, and experiential absence. By connecting these insights, the thesis contributes to sustainability and organisation scholarship by illuminating the experiential, interpretive, and organisational dynamics through which biodiversity and nature concerns are noticed, bracketed, interpreted, retained, and translated into organisational action. In doing so, it sheds light on the conditions under which organisations engage with, but also remain constrained in responding to planetary ecological change.<p></p>"],"dc:identifier":["10779/exe.32383365.v1"],"dc:relation":["https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Ecological_Sensemaking_in_Organisations_Formative_Experiences_Managerial_Ambivalence_and_the_Precarious_Embedding_of_Biodiversity_and_Nature_Loss/32383365"],"dc:rights":["All rights reserved","Open Access after 2027-05-26"],"dc:subject":["Ecological Sensemaking","Ecological Embeddedness","Ambivalence"],"dc:title":["Ecological Sensemaking in Organisations: Formative Experiences, Managerial Ambivalence, and the Precarious Embedding of Biodiversity and Nature Loss"],"dc:type":["Text","Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:33:00Z"}