Dynamic Strategifying: How do Chief Purpose Officers make purpose strategic and strategy purposeful?

Abstract

The increasing institutionalization of corporate purpose by appointing Chief Purpose Officers (CPOs) signifies a pivotal transition in corporate priorities, emphasizing the imperative of purpose-driven management. The literature highlights the crucial relationship between strategy and purpose, where strategy embeds purpose within organizational frameworks and purpose guides strategic decision-making. However, knowledge about practices that couple purpose and strategy is scarce. Primary research has not addressed elite strategists responsible for embedding purpose to examine their work through which purpose becomes strategic. Based on 44 in-depth interviews with CPOs from various industries, company sizes, and countries, our study is the first empirical investigation into the strategic practice of CPOs. Grounded in the Strategy-as-Practice tradition, we focus on the phase of strategy emergence and identify strategifying work, wherein new notions, such as purpose, are coupled with strategy. Our results showcase a diverse range of strategic practices presented by CPOs around four interrelated dimensions – cognitive, emotional, relational, and material – altering the strategic boundaries of the organization. The contributions of our study are threefold. First, we introduce the double-loop interaction between a notion, in our case, purpose and strategy, emphasizing a dynamic perspective on strategifying. Second, we expand the strategifying framework by Emotional Coupling, highlighting emotions’ role in coupling purpose and strategy. Third, we contribute to the emerging purpose literature by demonstrating how the four dimensions of strategifying work are interrelated and overlapping, collectively shaping and reinforcing a culture of purposefulness within the organization.