Brace for impact: Good intentions, unintended consequences, and the role of performative micro-processes in organized eff orts for societal change

Sylke Jellema worked on her PhD from 2018 to 2024 at the department of Business-Society Management within the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Through her dissertation, she aims to advance our knowledge of organizing for positive societal impact. She especially contends that our academic approach to understanding the phenomenon of ‘organizing to do good’ has been overly simplistic. Good intentions alone do not guarantee positive impacts. Instead, the road to impact is marked with twists, turns, roadblocks, and potential dead ends. Comprising three studies, her dissertation focuses on different challenges of organizing for positive impact. Study one is based on a systematic literature review of certification standards and explores the complexities of measuring impact across socio-ecological systems. For studies two and three, Sylke undertook a three-year ethnographic field study of a global impact-driven organization. In study two, Sylke employed the lens of sensemaking to elucidate the challenges of mobilizing a group of mission-driven people towards aligning themselves behind a common purpose, explaining how strong commitments to personal values and ideals can hinder such alignment. The third study delves into the intricacies of global collaborations for impact. In this study, Sylke utilized the lens of speech community theory to illustrate how shared impact-related authority norms within global governance structures can become ingrained in codified communication practices.