Talking About Organizations Podcast 131: Commitment and Community -- Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Part 2)
Nov 18, 2025
They compare retreat versus service communities and why service missions build stronger commitment. They explore how boundaries, rituals and sacrifice create lasting ties. They link communal commitment to firms, movements and religious orders. They warn how the same mechanisms can be used harmfully and discuss what organizations owe their members.
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Diminished Scope Made Boundaries Harder
- Communes in the 1970s had a diminished scope compared with 19th-century utopias, focusing on small-group relations rather than broad social reconstruction.
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter argues this shrinkage made clear, strong boundaries harder to establish, undermining the commitment mechanisms that sustained earlier communes.
Retreat Boundaries Erode Long-Term Commitment
- Retreat communes unite people through rejection of society but form negative boundaries that later disperse commitment and raise turnover.
- Kanter finds retreat and anarchic communes fail to institute renunciation, communion, and other commitment mechanisms, causing fragility under stress.
Service Mission Creates Durable Boundaries
- Service communes succeed by centering a concrete function or mission, creating affirmative, strict boundaries and clear membership criteria.
- Examples include education-focused communes and Oneida, which evolved into a commercial operation (silverware manufacturing) to sustain itself.
