Purpose-driven transformation: a holistic organization design framework for integrating societal goals into companies

Abstract

Companies today are increasingly called upon to address society’s issues, such as climate change and inequality, but traditional companies are not up to the task as they are designed primarily for profit maximization. Addressing society’s issues requires companies to societally hybridize, meaning introducing societal goals alongside profit goals thereby transitioning to a deeper societal impact commitment. However, extant literature predominantly considers born hybrid organizations and discusses specific design elements or types of hybrid design. Drawing on social–commercial hybrid organization and organization design literatures, this conceptual paper takes a dynamic view of social–commercial hybridity. This paper proposes a framework delineating four stages of societal hybridization based on the degree to which a traditional company realigns its design to pursue dual goals. The paper has practical and theoretical implications with contributions to social–commercial hybrid organization and organization design theories by demonstrating how redesign can enable a company to successfully integrate societal goals and improve multidimensional organizational performance.