What’s the purpose? Meaning making, sensemaking, and the (mis)appropriation of purpose beyond profit

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly adopting “purposes beyond profit” that combine aspirational social aims with profit goals. Often, however, the social aims seem to be subordinated to profit goals when business strategies are implemented. This study builds new theory about why this is the case through an inductive, ethnographic investigation of a textbook company adopting a purpose beyond profit. I find employees first responded to the new purpose by engaging in individual meaning making. The resulting meanings shaped interactions with colleagues and allowed career-oriented employees to misappropriate the beyond profit elements of purpose for personal gain. As a result, a significant divide emerged between how the beyond profit elements of purpose were discussed and the mostly superficial ways in which they were pursued. Together these findings highlight previously unrecognized implications of adopting a purpose beyond profit, including how it can be turned on itself.