Organizing for good : latent identities, porous boundaries, and meta-organizing - an ethnography of a global blended finance ecosystem

How to simultaneously secure economic prosperity and heed environmental sustainability may be one of the most pressing global challenges. Such societal level challenges often necessitate work across public, private and philanthropic organizational boundaries. However, prevailing theories of organization and management would suggest that such work is too complex to coordinate on a global scale. However, meta-organizations, or associations of autonomous organizations, are designed for this very purpose -- to operate in complex settings with multiple, diverse stakeholders. How can this form of organization be successful in the face of so much complexity? Though the literature on meta-organization focuses on structure and governance, I propose examining meta-organization as action and argue that work processes can illuminate how these complex interorganizational partnerships manage diverse interests. Rather than a narrow focus on the structure and governance of meta-organization, I shift the analysis to meta-organizing, the work activities and processes to build a network of organizations aimed at facilitating societal grand challenges. In a three-year inductive, qualitative field study, I investigate the mechanisms of organizational identity and boundary formation processes that facilitate meta-organizing for societal grand challenges. Using ethnographic methods, I study DevNet, an organization facilitating public-private-philanthropic partnerships to finance sustainable development. I uncover two work processes: (1) identity activation to manage externally-imposed identities that trigger latent attributes and, (2) boundary permeation to manage diverse stakeholders by changing when and how it distinguishes between audiences. In the identity activation process, I argue that DevNet shifts the meaning of imposed identities after latent attributes are activated. Ultimately, DevNet leverages multiple, emergent organizational identities. In the boundary permeation process, I argue that DevNet crafts "porous" boundaries, or social-symbolic distinctions, between itself as the organizer, its members, and general audiences. By simultaneously thinning and thickening its boundary, DevNet enhances the value of membership to the ecosystem. I observe that exploiting the porous boundary allows DevNet to benefit from openness and exclusivity while juggling diverse audiences with conflicting goals and advancing the broader mission. This dissertation contributes to the nascent literature on meta-organizations and to organizational theory that conceptualizes organizational boundaries and identities as dynamic, socially constructed processes. I challenge the scholarly focus on meta-organization as simply a governing structure. Instead, I propose building on studies of meta-organization as networks and ecosystems that facilitate collective efforts to address societal grand challenges and focus on action -- meta-organizing -- rather than structure. Through this shift, the dissertation develops new understanding about the development of multiple organizational identities and porous organizational boundaries for an emerging ecosystem

Keywords: Management Science and Engineering.
Advisor: Hinds Pamela
Katila Riitta
Soule Sarah Anne
Sutton Robert I.