This thesis explores corporate purpose from a practice-based perspective through a case study of a Finnish purpose-driven company, The Upright Project. The primary aim of this thesis is to study how corporate purpose is reproduced through organizational practices within the case organization. This thesis utilizes a qualitative methodology to assess the data gathered through semi-structured interviews with the employees of the case company.
The findings of this thesis suggest that organizational purpose connects to em-ployees’ daily work life through the process of inscribing and to their values and ideals through the process of narrating. These processes give purpose legitimacy and consequentiality, which are required for purpose to function as an organizational logic of action. Additionally, this thesis finds that the processes of inscribing and narrating are facilitated by transparency and inclusion within the case organization’s operations. Corporate purpose literature lacks a sound understanding of how corporate purpose functions within organizations and this study contributes to it by providing empirical evidence on how purpose is enacted within the case organization as an organizational belief guiding strategy and action. This thesis also contributes to the strategy-as-practice literature by suggesting that practicing purpose is interconnected to strategizing..
