Cancelled – Management and Organisation Research Community Seminar – Dr Paul Thambar
Title: Organisational Purpose and the Boundaries of Profit: A Field Study of Cooperative and Mutual Enterprises
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Speaker: Dr Paul Thambar, Monash University
Abstract:
All corporations need to generate, calculate, and report profit, but a focus on profit can create tension when corporations pursue an organizational purpose. Drawing on a qualitative, comparative study of three corporations that pursue such a purpose, we examine how they navigate and deal with profit while deeply embedding their organizational purpose. Using boundary work theory, we identify discursive, calculative, and structural profit-related practices that support both collaborative and competitive boundary work. We demonstrate that profit is not simply a potential outcome of an organizational purpose but is a mechanism for embedding (or impeding) organizational purposes within corporations. Our findings contribute to the accounting literature by enriching our understanding of how profit-related practices can be used to navigate the boundary between the corporation, its organizational purpose, and its broader set of stakeholders.