I Love My Work but How Do I Make Sense of It? The Role of Emotions in Hybrid Organizations

Despite the growing literature on hybrid organizations, little attention has been paid to the micro-processes that sustain their functionality, especially the role of emotions in individuals' efforts to cope with hybrid complexity. We empirically examine, through a case study in the renewable energy sector, how individuals relate emotionally to potentially divergent components of hybrid organizations. Drawing on the literature on psychological bonds and the findings from our case study, we develop a framework that specifies how individuals engage emotionally with the challenges of working in a hybrid organization. Based on this study, we argue that individuals are more likely to succeed in combining or integrating multiple demands when they establish psychological bonds of a medium level intensity to multiple components of a hybrid organization. In contrast, psychological bonds of low or high level intensity tend to undermine their capacity and/or motivation to cope emotionally with hybrid organizations. This framework sheds light on the affective engagement that, in combination with cognitive sensemaking, enables individuals to cope with, and navigate, the inherent paradoxes of working in a hybrid organization.