Making Sense of Catastrophic Accidents: A Theodicy-Based Framework

Catastrophic accidents can considerably threaten organizational members’ identification with their organization, and consequently cause their psychological distress. However, no studies have examined the strategies that organizational members use to make sense of such accidents and restore their psychological wellbeing. This paper draws on Weber’s theodicy concept, which reconciles the conflict between sacred and profane, to examine how organizational members sensemaking strategies. We combine an interpretive analysis of accounts by NASA employees following three fatal organizational accidents with a goal of creating a generalizable sensemaking framework, illustrating the utility of Weber’s theodicy concept to our understanding of how organizational members make sense of accidents. Our analysis reveals extensive use of theodicy logics to explain these accidents.