TY - JOUR

T1 - From Fleeting Enchantment to Embodied Commitment

T2 - How Bottom-up Momentum can Emerge and Persist

AU - Stöber, Anna

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Accounts of momentum in organization studies suggest that the success and sustainability of change efforts depend on the extent to which such efforts gain the commitment of actors to pursuing a new path. Research has revealed that the emergence and attainment of sustainable momentum involves a dynamic and complex process of social interactions and communication patterns. Yet, prior conceptualizations have focused mainly on empirically mapping momentum in the context of planned, top-down driven change. In this paper I mobilize a communicative constitutive view of organization to elaborate a concept of momentum from the bottom up and beyond strategic intervention. Grounded in a qualitative study of a medical technology company, I show how new modes of organizing introduced by the case firm’s management initially induced short-term momentum that subsequently plateaued and gave way to ambiguity and critical evaluation concerning the initiative. Momentum only recurred as certain actors started attaching their own meanings to the idea and began developing an embodied sense of commitment to the new modes of organizing. My analysis contributes to the theorization of momentum in organization studies by highlighting the role of embodied commitment in perpetuating momentum, especially from the bottom up. The study emphasizes the role of new meanings emerging from individual interpretations that can shift momentum away from an intended path.

AB - Accounts of momentum in organization studies suggest that the success and sustainability of change efforts depend on the extent to which such efforts gain the commitment of actors to pursuing a new path. Research has revealed that the emergence and attainment of sustainable momentum involves a dynamic and complex process of social interactions and communication patterns. Yet, prior conceptualizations have focused mainly on empirically mapping momentum in the context of planned, top-down driven change. In this paper I mobilize a communicative constitutive view of organization to elaborate a concept of momentum from the bottom up and beyond strategic intervention. Grounded in a qualitative study of a medical technology company, I show how new modes of organizing introduced by the case firm’s management initially induced short-term momentum that subsequently plateaued and gave way to ambiguity and critical evaluation concerning the initiative. Momentum only recurred as certain actors started attaching their own meanings to the idea and began developing an embodied sense of commitment to the new modes of organizing. My analysis contributes to the theorization of momentum in organization studies by highlighting the role of embodied commitment in perpetuating momentum, especially from the bottom up. The study emphasizes the role of new meanings emerging from individual interpretations that can shift momentum away from an intended path.

M3 - Conference abstract in journal

JO - Academy of Management Proceedings

JF - Academy of Management Proceedings

SN - 0065-0668

ER -