Keeping it Together: A Process Perspective of Forming and Sustaining Meta-Organizations without a Central Architect

How and why do meta-organizations form, organize, and sustain if goals and rules are not centrally enforced by an architect? We examine this question through a longitudinal case study of a meta-organization formed to address the transformation of the energy industry. We find that, during the formation phase, the meta-organization established ‘purpose multiplicity’ - a set of loosely defined intentions. Further, we identify a set of (re)purposing strategies via which the meta-organization vacillated between emphasizing system- vs. corporate-level goals and was thus, able to sustain. Finally, we identify a set of organizing principles that differ in the degree to which they draw from hierarchical vs. heterarchical dimensions. These organizing principles help to explain how meta-organizational repurposing and vacillation across system- and corporate-level goals was achieved.