Every organization tells a story about itself — who it is, why it exists, where it is going, and what it expects from the people inside it. That story is the connective tissue between strategy and daily work. Researchers call this connective tissue an intent and narrative system: the combination of formal components that state direction — purpose, mission, vision, values, and guiding principles — with the ongoing narratives that leaders and employees use to make sense of what they are doing and why.
Research on organizational narratives defines these narratives as temporal discourses that organize interpretations of the past, present, and future, and that stabilize or reshape meaning during both stability and change. Studies show that narratives operate through multiple voices and fragments, functioning as sensemaking and sensegiving devices that link everyday practice to overarching direction.
Purpose as the Center of Gravity
Purpose is the reason an organization exists — what it does for its consumers and other stakeholders, and why. Purpose sits at the center of intent and narrative systems and gives direction a shared justification. Studies of purpose orientation show that purpose works as a unifying organizational logic that can guide strategic decision-making when it is consistently communicated and integrated into structures and routines. Reviews of purpose-driven leadership identify organizational purpose as a compass for leadership decisions and a “north star” that connects diverse activities, roles, and stakeholders — which supports alignment across portfolios, programs, and projects.
Mission, Vision, and the Direction They Set
A mission is a short but complete description of the overall intentions and purpose of an organization — an in-the-now statement of what the organization does and for whom. A vision is a defined aspiration of what the organization would like to become in the future. Some organizations start with a vision; others extend their purpose or mission forward into the future to establish one. Together, mission and vision translate purpose into explicit direction and future aspiration.
Research on mission, vision, and values statements finds that they are central tools for capturing and communicating strategic direction, and that they act as anchors for strategy formation, review, and performance assessment. Studies of strategic direction emphasize that clear mission and vision statements help organizations avoid drifting toward undesirable futures by providing reference points for strategic choices. Narrative strategy work shows that organizations increasingly frame strategy as a change narrative that positions mission and vision within broader societal debates and expectations, strengthening legitimacy and coherence when directions shift.
Values and Guiding Principles: Where Intent Gets Behavioral
Values are the core beliefs that shape decision-making and culture. Guiding principles are the magnetic recommendations that shape how work gets done, how people show up, and what aims they aspire to achieve. Together, values and guiding principles give intent and narrative systems their behavioral substance — the part that tells people what “good” looks like in practice.
Reviews of organizational values highlight that values shape culture and identity by setting expectations about what counts as appropriate or desirable action. Values research stresses the importance of value congruence across levels and points to gaps where organizations rely on symbolic declarations without systematic integration into practices. Narrative studies of project organizing show that top managers sanction values and identity through spoken and written narratives, and that coherent project narratives embed values into stories about mission, identity, and value creation. Guiding principles translate those values into recommendations about how work gets done under conditions of constraint, giving project, product, and BAU teams a reference for daily trade-offs.
When the Elements Pull Together — and When They Pull Apart
Coherence across these elements determines whether an intent and narrative system actually supports direction. Research on “strategies of alignment” shows that leaders undertake identity work to keep new strategic investments, identity claims, strategic projections, and material practices mutually reinforcing. Studies of organizational narratives describe how narrative constellations link internal purpose and values with external societal narratives, and how narrative discrepancies create tension that demands repositioning or reframing. When purpose, mission, vision, values, and strategic narratives align, direction at enterprise, portfolio, and program levels can be framed as an authentic extension of the organization’s identity and intent. When they diverge, employees experience confusion and question the credibility of new directions.
How Intent and Narrative Systems Shape Direction-Setting Itself
Intent and narrative systems shape how direction is set in the first place. Narrative strategy research defines narrative strategy as the deliberate use of narratives to plan and outline the direction of organizational change in relation to broader social narratives. This work shows that narrative strategy goes beyond simple goal communication and positions the organization in public debates, linking strategic change to legitimacy and purpose. Studies of emergent strategy during transformational change describe how employee, management, and market narratives collectively provide maps that guide wayfinding, especially where formal plans leave room for interpretation. Direction-setting processes rely heavily on narrative frames that translate abstractions into workable paths.
How Direction Is Received and Followed
Intent and narrative systems also shape how direction is received and followed across portfolios, programs, projects, products, and BAU. Reviews of organizational narratives show that narratives act as sources of both stability and change by offering interpretive templates for identity and action. Research on strategic change implementation finds that managers deploy progressive, regressive, and stability narratives in combination to portray change as both meaningful progress and acceptable continuity, which affects how employees interpret and enact new directions. Work on self-legitimation narratives in international organizations shows that narratives emphasizing purpose and values are more likely to be endorsed internally than those focused on performance or politics, and that misaligned narratives trigger cynicism and counter-narratives among staff.
At the Project Level
Project management research gives detailed evidence about how intent and narrative elements influence direction at the project level. Studies of project narratives define them as temporal discourses about mission, vision, identity, and value creation that are repeated across the project life cycle to stabilize meaning. These narratives help align effort among diverse actors — owners, suppliers, consultants — by providing a shared project identity and a coherent project brand image for external audiences. Findings show that managers deliberately craft formal narratives with performative intent to connect current work to projected futures, persuade investors, legitimize actions, and link local project decisions to organizational identity and strategy. Competing or fragmented project narratives, by contrast, generate divergent interpretations of direction and undermine coordination.
Improvement, Innovation, and Sustainability
Intent and narrative systems influence improvement, innovation, and sustainability directions as well. Research on the role of narratives in sustaining organizational innovation shows that narratives about past successes and failures, and about future possibilities, help maintain engagement with innovation efforts over time. Studies of sustainability-oriented innovation identify ambiguous, accountable, and aspirational narratives that shape how teams interpret sustainability goals and reconcile them with existing business models and performance pressures. When narratives about innovation and sustainability connect explicitly to purpose, values, and strategic direction, they support consistent, long-term initiatives. When they remain ambiguous or disconnected, sustainability and innovation efforts become episodic and marginal.
In Day-to-Day Operations
At the level of business-as-usual, intent and narrative systems help stabilize direction under conditions of routine and incremental change. Organizational narratives take the form of formal texts, informal stories, visual symbols, and artifacts that circulate among internal and external audiences. These narratives continually reconstruct the organization’s past, present, and future, which affects how employees understand the significance of daily work. Research on organizational identity struggles during change shows that narratives can function as symbolic, emotional, and practical glue, helping professionals maintain or reconstruct a legitimate identity while routines and structures shift. Where narratives of purpose, competence, and contribution are coherent, BAU teams can see their tasks as aligned with organizational direction. Where such narratives are fragmented, they experience disconnection and resistance.
Leadership Communication and Sensemaking
Intent and narrative systems operate through leadership communication and sensemaking practices. Studies of narrative approaches to strategy-as-practice argue that narratives are integral to strategic practices because they give meaning to actions, constitute an overall sense of direction or purpose, and shape what actors see as possible. Research on wayfinding in strategy shows that narratives provide a surface for reflection and a framework to structure meaning in situations where strategy is emergent and still taking shape. Purpose-driven leadership reviews highlight that the success of this leadership approach depends on defining and communicating an organizational purpose that resonates at all levels, and on maintaining an ongoing dialogue that links individual roles to the broader purpose.
The Takeaway
Across strategy, organizational behavior, project management, and leadership studies, evidence points in the same direction: combinations of purpose, mission, vision, values, guiding principles, and narratives shape how direction is set, received, and followed in organizations of all kinds, and at all levels — from enterprise and portfolio to program, project, product, and BAU. The formal components state the intent. The narratives carry it into practice. When they work together, direction holds. When they diverge, even well-crafted strategy drifts.
References
Exploring Narrative Strategy: The Role of Narratives in the Strategic Positioning of Organizational Change — Bernhard Fischer-Appelt, R. Dernbach
Strategy as Practice and the Narrative Turn — C. Fenton, A. Langley
Narratives as Sources of Stability and Change in Organizations: Approaches and Directions for Future Research — E. Vaara, Scott Sonenshein, D. Boje
Project Narratives That Potentially Perform and Change the Future — N. Sergeeva, G. Winch
Organizational Narratives and Self-Legitimation in International Organizations — Sarah von Billerbeck
Strategies of Alignment — D. Ravasi, N. Phillips
Purpose Orientation: An Emerging Theory Transforming Business for a Better World — Christopher P. Blocker, Joseph P. Cannon, Jonathan Z. Zhang
Setting the Strategic Direction: The Role of the Mission, Vision, Values Statements and Strategic Leadership — Jabulani Dhlamini
Finding an Emergent Way Through Transformational Change: A Narrative Approach to Strategy — S. Horst, Rita Järventie-Thesleff
We’re Changing — Or Are We? Untangling the Role of Progressive, Regressive, and Stability Narratives During Strategic Change Implementation — Scott Sonenshein
Sustainability Oriented Innovation Narratives: Learning from Nature Inspired Innovation — T. Mead, S. Jeanrenaud, J. Bessant
Organizational Identity Struggles and Reconstruction During Organizational Change: Narratives as Symbolic, Emotional and Practical Glue — Jette Ernst, Astrid Jensen Schleiter
Narratives in Organizational Change Management: A Narrative Review — Fernando Taruchaín-Pozo, Fátima Avilés-Castillo, Evelyn Cuesta-Andaluz, Jorge Buele
Exploring Purpose-Driven Leadership: Theoretical Foundations, Mechanisms, and Impacts in Organizational Context — Marco Ferreira Ribeiro, C. Costa, F. Ramos
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