A THEORY OF ORGANIZATIONAL PURPOSE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Morrison, Alan D.; Mota, Rita
• 署名单位: University of Oxford; Universitat Ramon Llull; University of Oxford; University of Oxford; Universitat Ramon Llull; Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas (ESADE)
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0363-7425
• DOI: 10.5465/amr.2019.0307
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 203-219
• 关键词: RESOURCE-BASED VIEW; CORPORATE SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY; INSTRUMENTAL STAKEHOLDER THEORY; MISSION STATEMENTS; TOP-MANAGEMENT; trust; firm; governance; OWNERSHIP; ETHICS

摘要

This article presents a theory of organizational purpose that is normatively neutral and, hence, can be deployed to study firms without prejudging their role in society. The argu-ment employs two philosophical concepts: intentionality and speech acts. The first is used to conceptualize the corporate mind, which is a set of long-lived beliefs about the world as it is and intentions about the world as it will be that drives organizational activ-ity. Corporate minds allow for complex and valuable forms of social cooperation and, hence, the article argues that the purpose of any organization is to sustain a corporate mind. Five core attributes enable organizations to fulfill this purpose: authorization, property rights, the ability to contract, the capacity to deliberate, and conversability. Conversability allows organizations to perform speech acts; that is, to make statements about the corporate mind that are referred to in this article as meta-contractual avowals. The article provides a value-neutral account of corporate governance as the set of devices that ensures the consistency of an organization's corporate mind, meta -contractual avowals, and authorized actions. This theory sheds light upon the structure of purpose discourse and the relationship between different theories of the firm.