Taking the time: remembering values-based legacy to serve organizational purposes

Abstract

How is a values-based legacy worked on in organizations to influence organizational members’ practices to bring forward the organizational purpose? Earlier studies have highlighted the process of remembering the organization’s motto as a way of recontextualizing the past, as well as the leaders’ role in recalling values. In analyzing both pioneers and contemporary leaders of a 150-year-old values-based nonprofit healthcare organization, this study find that the pioneers’ ideals, values, purposes, and intentions are remembered in contemporary leaders’ work of maintaining and bringing forward the values-based legacy. The work is based on the four micro-processes of openness, anchoring the practice in history, realization of values, and relational practices. The micro-processes are enhanced by mechanisms such as religious and historical inspiration, processes of expectation and interpretation, as well as enacting compassion and quality through relational work. The work of remembering institutional values has established a moral awareness and ethical sensitivity in the organization toward the maintenance of the mission of reaching out to marginalized groups of patients.