Integrating organization studies and community psychology: a process model of an organizing sense of place in working lives

In this conceptual paper, I propose to advance thinking about organization theory in community contexts by theorizing about the roles of place and space in working lives. I argue that work in the mainstream of organization studies often downplays contextual aspects of the community-based places that workers inhabit, largely by trying to generalize across them. A colourless language of firms, institutions, and agents can obscure more humanistic, ecological understandings of how workers occupy and make use of various places for supporting their well-being and sense of self. A sense of place (and by implication, space) has the potential to draw together relevant existing work at the organization studies-community psychology interface more comprehensively. I therefore integrate key ideas from this interface with sensemaking theory and present a three-stage process model of an organizing sense of place. I conclude by discussing the implications arising for future research, theorizing, and practice.