Left in the Dust: Employee Constructions of Mission and Vision Ownership

Research on organizational mission and vision primarily has approached the concepts from managerial perspectives. This study employed a communicative constitution of organizations perspective to problematize the concepts of mission/vision alignment and assimilation and to focus on employee mission/vision ownership. The study sought to understand how employees construct ownership, that is, their ability to control, change, or contribute to mission and vision. A thematic analysis of 46 in-depth interviews with employees from 22 organizations revealed factors that impede employee ownership and those that facilitate it. The findings have important implications for understanding an employee’s role in the construction of organizational reality