Building a Healthy Online Ecosystem: Purpose-Driven Organizational Culture and Diverse Workforces

Abstract

Prominent online platforms have recently engaged in highly visible pullbacks in their commitments to promoting purpose-driven organizational cultures and to developing diverse workforces. These changes have been framed as a move back to a profit-centered business model, but they have also been perceived as government regulation in decline. We argue that there is strong evidence that associates purpose-driven organizational cultures and diverse workforces with organizational vitality, profitability, and growth. The association holds for organizations generally but is particularly true for online platforms, whose success is linked to innovation and change. Thus, there is a strong bottom-line business argument for creating and sustaining purpose-driven organizational cultures and for developing diverse workforces, irrespective of whether they are mandated by external authorities.