How organizations can benefit from entrainment: a systematic literature review

Abstract

PurposeTo provide ways of how organizations can benefit from entrainment, the purpose of this paper is to create a better theoretically grounded understanding of entrainment in organizations by reviewing the literature, describing managerial implications and identifying future research directions.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review of relevant literature based on peer-reviewed research papers published in highly ranked scientific journals.FindingsIt provides a clear understanding as to what constitutes entrainment in organizations and emphasizes its complexity. Further, six benefits of entrainment are highlighted, including the positive relationship between entrainment and organizational outcomes. The review may also provide entrepreneurs and practitioners a scientific basis for developing innovative tools to help managers’ foster entrainment in organizations.Research limitations/implicationsThe review indicates that entrainment plays a much larger role in organizations than we think. Change leaders' actions may impact the emotions and actions of change recipients through entrainment. The selected keywords used in the search and the researcher's bias of including or excluding articles for this review are the major research limitations.Originality/valueIt is one of the first papers, to our knowledge, to provide a structured overview and understanding of the entrainment phenomenon in an organizational context, based on 41 peer-reviewed articles.