Comfortably Uncomfortable: Unpacking the Microdynamics of Field Stability and Change

In this paper, we examine how field settlements are formed over time by zooming in on the actions and reactions of field incumbents as they seek to make sense of and collectively respond to external pressures for change in their field. We illustrate this process through an in-depth case study of the staff and members of an international industry association as they attempted to deal with pressures to change current industry practices relating to water and climate change. Specifically, we show how field settlements that change a field’s “rules of the game” are constituted by the sequential and cumulative layering of increasingly committing interim agreements between incumbents (which we refer to as microsettlements), themselves facilitated or impeded by practices that help calibrate tension levels between them. Our process model of microsettlement outcomes and trajectories contributes to extant research by theorizing how the inner workings of field-configuring organizations and the composition and structure of field settlements shape field (re)formation processes, thereby illuminating new pathways of action for organizations seeking to tackle societal grand challenges in creative, substantive, and meaningful ways.