Purpose-driven consultancies' negotiation of organizational tensions

This article examines the negotiation of organizational tensions by purpose-driven consultancies, for-profit firms also motivated by social change agendas in their implementation of organizational development for corporate clients. Using two case studies - APCom training ethical corporate leaders, and GreenD communicating environmental sustainability programs - we trace how such consultancies negotiate these tensions, and how their underlying purpose might accordingly transform. Our multi-case study suggests two broad tensions related to purpose and impact that are experienced in context-specific ways by the consultancies. Although members sought to frame these tensions in positive ways, as complementary dialectics or contradicting the dominant capitalist system, they were also at risk of devolving into more paradoxical contradictions and even debilitating double binds, without sustained discussion to repurpose' the firms. We close by discussing theoretical and practical implications for purpose-driven consultancies, given that their pursuit of social change is often at odds with the status quo.