Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between organizational space and the overlooked phenomenon of mission transformation—i.e., mission change deliberately driven by internal organizational members. While organizational space is a key device through which leaders communicate a mission and a key lens by which organizational members interpret, evaluate and potentially transform a mission, how organizational space supports mission transformation has received little attention so far. Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative case study of a coworking space organization over seven years, we develop a process model unpacking four phases and different mechanisms underlying the relationship between organizational space and mission transformation. Our model shows that a perceived misalignment between a mission and a space’s functional and symbolic dimensions can prompt organizational members to infer mission inconsistencies and see leaders as inauthentic, ultimately leading members to contest the mission. Such contestation can induce mission transformation when members positively perceive a space’s social dimension, becoming attached to each other and the space in its own right, taking upon themselves to experiment with a new mission and realign it with a reconfigured space. Our model contributes to the literatures on organizational mission and drift, and on organizational space.