ABSTRACT
Organizational uncertainty experienced by individuals is a distinct concept from sense-making in the context of work. Uncertainty stems from self-appraisal of too little information compared to some standard of information one seeks to establish. Sense-making occurs due to uncertainty or unexpected events in the work world. A reality of corporate America is the merging of two companies or the acquisition of one company by another company. There are many reasons for mergers or acquisitions, including such aims as increasing market share and adding products or innovation to the parent company. As noted in the discussion of the spiral model of media influence, causal modeling requires the use of certain research methods to test the claim that one factor directly or indirectly influences another factor. An important relationship in uncertainty reduction theory (URT) is how uncertainty serves to motivate information-seeking from various information sources.
