Purpose as a Management Innovation: The Role of External Change Agents in Embedding Corporate Purpose within Organizations

Research on corporate purpose has assumed that conveying an organization’s purpose is the primary task of leaders. However, this stream of research has downplayed the process of construction of corporate purpose by external change agents, like consulting firms, which can play a key role in embedding of purpose in organizations. In this scenario, purpose becomes a "management innovation" defined as "the invention and implementation of a managerial practice, process, structure or technique that is new compared to the state of the art and intended to promote organizational goals". Through an exploratory, multiple case study design, we find that external change agents integrate corporate purpose in organizations by performing three main theorization actions: justification, contextualization, and implementation. Respectively for each action, we identify three tensions: tension of expertise, tension of autonomy, and tension of standardization.