Anchors Aweigh? Then Time to Head Upstream Why we Need to Theorize “Mission” before “Drift”

Cecilia Varendh-Mansson, Tyler Wry and Ariane Szafarz

Working Papers CEB from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: Going beyond a narrow focus on social enterprise, Grimes, Williams, and Zhao (2019) advance a model of mission drift that they argue is relevant to understanding why—and with what consequences—all types of organizations might act in ways that are inconsistent with their identity and image. We applaud this effort, and agree that it is important to develop a theoretically rigorous approach to mission drift.Yet while the treatment that Grimes et al. (2019) develop is likely relevant to some organizations, their argument is built on a shakyfoundation, where “mission” is conceptualized in simplistic terms as an organization’s single, orienting purpose. In turn, this leads theauthors to make a number of problematic inferences about “drift” as a general phenomenon. This dialog details our concerns, and suggests thatit is vital to go upstream, and theorize mission as a nuanced and variegated construct if we are going to generate meaningful insightabout the nature, causes, and consequences of drift.

Keywords: Mission Drift; Multiple Missions; Firm’s Identity; Organization Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D21 D60 L21 M14 O15 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe and nep-ore
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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