NEWS •HILLTOP HIGHLIGHTS
On Purpose
Professors develop a framework for one of the most talked about but ill-defined concepts in modern business: purpose As the “Great Resignation” continues — with some 38 million workers leaving their jobs behind in 2021 amid the pandemic — Gerard “Gerry” George thinks the concept of purpose might hold the key for employers to reverse the trend. That’s the topic of the Georgetown McDonough’s management professor’s latest paper, “Purpose in the For-Profit Firm: A Review and Framework for Management Research,” published in the Journal of Management alongside coauthors Martin R. Haas, Anita M. McGahan, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, and Paul Tracey. “There was a lot of anecdotal evidence that says, ‘If you have purpose, people find meaning,’” said George, who also is the Tamsen and Michael Brown Family Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The next step is looking for empirical evidence to answer specific questions. “‘How do I better frame purpose? How do I embed purpose within the culture? And then how do I get the benefits of that and share those benefits?’ What is important now from an academic perspective is to really create that framework for understanding how that evidence matters.” In the paper, George and his coauthors develop a six-point framework for future scholarship, including factors such as internal and external drivers; framing, in terms of mission and vision, values, and narratives; formalizing and realizing; and institutional context. Below, George talks about how the pandemic—and the whys underpinning his work—underscores the importance of firms’ focus on purpose.
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I come from the view that organizations leave imprints on people, rather than just people leaving imprints on organizations.” —Gerard George
PHIL HUMNICKY
Why this topic of research? Why now?
With the pandemic, people are now looking at, ‘What is meaning?’ and what they do, right? And we’ve realized that people are questioning, ‘Is there a better allocation of my time? Do I find meaning in what I do? Do I love my colleagues? And am I working for the right organization?’ That’s one element that’s really helping us rethink what it is that we do and how we find meaning in the work that we do. At the same time, organizations themselves are thinking about their role in society. The pandemic and climate change, and all of these issues have put a big mirror to them to sort of say, ‘What are you doing to make this world better?’ In some ways, it’s a perfect storm.
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Spring 2022
msb.georgetown.edu
