Talking About Organizations Podcast 131: Commitment and Community -- Rosabeth Moss Kanter (summary of episode)
Nov 11, 2025
A lively tour of why American utopian communes formed and how leaders and collective withdrawal shaped their creation. It outlines motives that drew people in like escape and brotherhood. A framework of instrumental, affective, and moral commitment is highlighted. Comparisons span 19th-century and 1960s communes, plus risks when communes become dystopian and modern parallels with online movements.
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Why Utopian Communes Flourished In America
- Utopian communes in the U.S. arose from people seeking escape from persecution, economic hardship, or social chaos.
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter ties this impulse to available land and a culture that made experimenting with new social orders feasible.
Three Bases Of Commitment And How They Form
- Commitment to a commune rests on instrumental, emotional, and moral bases rather than a single motive.
- Kanter maps organizational mechanisms—sacrifice, renunciation, communion, mortification, transcendence—that build each commitment type.
Mechanisms That Manufacture Member Commitment
- Specific organizational practices (sacrifice, investment, renunciation) actively create commitment rather than it emerging spontaneously.
- These mechanisms shape whether members stick around during crises or drift away.
