Why should employees articulate your company’s purpose - and not just the firm’s CEO? In this episode of the Breakthroughs podcast, we speak with Pauline Asmar, a doctoral researcher at HEC Paris, whose work reframes how purpose operates within companies, at the team level. The research is co-authored by HEC Professor and Purpose Chair director Rodolphe Durand.
Drawing on data from nearly 60,000 employees across 469 firms, Asmar reveals that it's the everyday managers who translate abstract purpose statements by the top brass into daily motivation. We discuss why this “purpose dialogue” at the management/worker level is emerging as a vital new lever of team commitment, how companies can fail despite having purpose statements, and what happens when leaders just parrot slogans instead of listening and engaging. We also discuss how purpose-washing creates skepticism, and what can be done about it.
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