Fostering Institutional Capacity in Response to Creeping Crises

Lunch Seminar in presence

Building BL26 – Room 0.19 (ground floor)
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Via R. Lambruschini 4/B, 20156 Milano

Johanna Mair
Hertie School, Germany

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Abstract:

How do organizations foster just institutional arrangements in response to systemic and contested societal challenges? While organized responses to episodic crises have been widely studied in organization theory, less is known about how organizations engage with creeping crises—gradual, cumulative threats that undermine the legitimacy of institutions at the societal level over time. Drawing on a longitudinal case study of a nonprofit organization addressing systemic migration challenges in Germany, this paper examines how confronting a creeping crisis enabled the organization to foster institutional capacity: the ability of institutions to establish and maintain fair terms of societal cooperation. The study surfaces three generative mechanisms—structuring, relating, and activating agency—that explain how organized efforts contributed to more inclusive, equitable, and resilient forms of cooperation. This perspective shifts analytical attention from fixed outcomes to the quality and direction of the change process, offering a framework for evaluating how organizations address complex societal challenges and reshape institutional arrangements.

Johanna Mair is a Professor of Organization, Strategy, and Leadership at the Hertie School. Her research focuses on the intersection of organizations, institutions, and societal challenges, with a particular interest in innovation processes and dynamics. Johanna is the academic editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review and co-directs the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She teaches courses on Social Innovation at the Hertie School and the Harvard Kennedy School.