Multi-level theoretical framework for future potential organizations: values, culture, and development orientation Open Access

A number of studies and models on the nature of organizational life cycles offer diverse descriptions of organizations’ developmental stages. Essentially all of these studies and models address the span of such organizations from birth to death and they concurrently state that an increase in organizational size is inevitable (e.g. Lippitt and Schmidt, 1967; Greiner, 1972; Adizes, 1979; Churchill and Lewis, 1983). While doing so, these studies draw parallels between business and economics and biology (Lester et al., 2003; Mouzelis, 2017). However, recent research is increasingly questioning the simplistic nature of organizational life cycle models – very much like biology, where there is now research on the attainment of eternal life. E.g. Bretos et al. (2020) have found that organizational decline is not necessary if organizational values are capable of undergoing continuous renewal and have established that the decline phase itself, if it does occur, is a complex process in which degeneration and regeneration phases actually alternate. But what are the values that must be renewed to avoid organizational death? To put the issue differently: an organization that rejects organizational life cycles and seeks to establish a basis for future-oriented organizational functioning must first and foremost examine its own current values from a cultural perspective if the organization in question wishes to gain an idea of how to achieve long-term organizational functioning. It may seem surprising, but de Sousa et al. (2024) point out that research on the relationship between organizational culture and organizational life cycle models is rather underrepresented. This paper aims to do the following: it provides new insights in this regard and explores individual and organizational characteristics and cultural values and elements, as well as developmental conditions that can provide a basis for future potential organizations (FPOs). In our present study, we therefore consider the following as one of the most important criteria for future viability: the organization is not only capable of ensuring its extended, long-term survival but also consciously shapes its operations with this aim in mind. This naturally requires such organizations’ ability to continuously renew itself, but this can only be successful if the organization has the power to shape the internal and external conditions that influence its operations. We do not specifically define the notion of “extended long term.” Instead, we accept that efforts to influence such organizations’ environments cannot be exclusive, coercive or top-down, because otherwise the deteriorating quality of the given organization’s environment itself will make long-term survival impossible. Consequently, we envision a symbiosis in which the organization actively shapes environmental conditions and does so primarily in line with the long-term interests of its external and internal stakeholders. Based on the example of international organizations, Eilstrup-Sangiovanni (2020) found that organizational structural soundness and better adaptability contribute to longer-term survival. Furthermore, one of the key elements to longer-term survival is the development of an appropriate organizational culture and its alignment with the changing world of work. In this context, the increasing spread of technological development has a dehumanizing effect, which can be mitigated by organizations through emphasizing the values of a caring culture and taking actions that meet the needs and well-being of those involved (Saks and Gruman, 2024).

However, the future potentiality of organizations depends not only on organizational cultural values but also on the behavior of individuals. Very similarly to lifecycle models, the validity of management style theories is also currently under debate. According to Lindell and Rosenqvist (1992), alongside task- and relationship-oriented leadership styles, there is also an increasingly important development orientation style, which focuses on the development of individuals and managers as well as on organizational form, culture and processes. The role of continuous renewal and development is also highlighted by Dufour et al. (2018), who argue that the survival of organizations is supported by their ability to respond to the challenges of each organizational life cycle, which requires continuous development, openness and adaptability. For all these reasons – although organizational development (OD) models and projects often emphasize only the importance of organizational culture – all this seems to be insufficient for avoiding organizational decline and concurrently development orientation is also necessary. Therefore, organizational and leadership development capabilities are equally important for achieving future potentiality. According to Liao (2022), it is equally important for modern leaders to behave responsibly toward the economy, society and the environment and to exhibit the very same behavior internally toward the members of the organization. This requirement is closely related to culture: the relationship between leadership style and organizational culture is reciprocal (Lumby and Foskett, 2008) and these two fundamentally determine the cornerstones of future viability, very similarly to sustainability (Fietz and Günther, 2021). In FPOs, interdependence also surfaces in the relationship between other variables. In Schreiber’s (2024) model, the institutionalization of futures thinking can be achieved through a maturation continuum, which requires both experienced use of foresight and the establishment of organizational policy. According to Schreiber’s (2019) interpretation, the two dimensions influencing these elements are the alignment of organizational structure and the sophistication of organizational processes. These two dimensions, however, depend primarily on management practices and organizational culture. Thus, the fundamental question is what characteristics and features of these two dimensions lead to the realization of future potentiality.

In our study, we seek to answer the following question: which are the most important individual, interpersonal and organizational values that support the development of FPOs? The model developed in the scope of this paper adopts a conceptual approach so that our results can be interpreted with respect to organizations in general. This approach has two implications. By separating the three levels above and considering vertical levels of future potentiality, we integrate a relatively large number of variables into our model. On the other hand, our aim is not to conceptualize and operationalize these variables in their entirety, but rather to illustrate the interconnectedness of these variables and to highlight the potential for progress toward future potentiality.

Creating the conditions for the functioning of future potential organizations is not sufficient in itself to achieve an idealistic state that is self-sustaining. Instead (and this is one of the key elements of future potentiality), organizational renewal, change and development must not be a one-off or planned activity occurring in certain cycles but should rather be a continuous, uninterrupted, ongoing task that has become part of everyday routine and culture. With future potentiality interpreted as willingness to change, the success of such efforts largely depends on the attitudes and beliefs of employees. Choi (2011) emphasizes that the success of organizational change requires that employees, in addition to their positive attitudes toward change, should believe in the success of such change, be open to change, be ultimately committed to the goals and be capable of implementing change. In other words, the conditions that are necessary for organizational change to create future potential must be examined first from the perspective of the individuals. Furthermore, such individuals’ attitudes toward change, commitment, motivation, professional competence and support should also be analyzed. All these ultimately translate into attitudes that have a direct impact on the future potentiality of organizations.

Just as successful organizational change requires employees to exhibit low levels of stress (Vakola and Nikolaou, 2005), this is even more true to FPOs that are constantly changing. Stress is a predictor of organizational well-being and is related to a number of other individual and organizational factors. However, employees’ stress levels alone do not constitute a reliable predictor of expected support for organizational change. In addition to willingness to change, the ability to change must also be examined, which is influenced by individual factors such as work experience, age, knowledge of organizational values, trust in leadership and understanding of the timeliness and necessity of change (Heim and Sardar-Drenda, 2021).

The direct role of the characteristics exhibited by individual employees surfaces primarily in the quality of interpersonal relationships within the organization. And it is only through these that such individual characteristics ultimately impact the characteristics of organizational-level functioning. Brandes and Lai (2022), when examining the role of coaching in change management, found that the quality of interpersonal relationships determines the success of change and that by developing interpersonal relationships, openness to change can be improved. Al Hajj and Vongas (2025) also draw attention to those parameters of interpersonal relationships that play a role in radical change: the researchers discuss such relationships in a triple grouping that encompasses cognitive and affective factors and those factors that describe the superior-subordinate relationship. In this paper, we will show how variables such as leadership style, trust, empowerment, conflict management and knowledge sharing influence the conditions for future potentiality. Some of these variables are considered default values, but this does not mean that they cannot be developed. On the other hand, other factors, such as psychological empowerment or effective conflict management, depend not only on the actual leaders’ skills and will: they are fundamentally core values of organizational culture (Roy and Perrin, 2021; Gelfand et al., 2012; McClure, 2010; Joo and Shim, 2010) and will be grouped as such. Cognitive variables, such as knowledge sharing behavior, go beyond the core values of organizational culture and specifically promote the achievement of organizational strategic goals and organizational future vision (Reid, 2003; Halisah et al., 2021). Therefore, we will discuss cognitive variables as variables that facilitate progress toward future potentiality at the level of the employee-organization interaction. Nevertheless, the practice of knowledge-sharing is somewhat juxtaposed with the fact that organizations are performance-oriented. In fact, job requirements impose more frequent and more proportionate requirements linked to individual performance. This setup overshadows organizations’ intention to enhance group performance, as there is a fundamental conflict between the two aspects. Nevertheless, in the model of FPOs, this dilemma is addressed and resolved in the following way: we consider team effectiveness to be the organizational interest to be pursued rather than individual performance. In fact, FPOs’ inclusive culture that supports diversity fosters team effectiveness (Mathuki and Zhang, 2024) and team effectiveness is only effective if it is accompanied by the creativity of the organizations’ members (creativity is also considered a condition for the performance of FPOs).

At the organizational level, we also review default values, organizational cultural values and characteristics that underpin future-oriented functioning, all of which contribute to the functioning of FPOs. The core values of FPOs must be consistent with individual and interpersonal values. As briefly reviewed above, these include motivation, the ability to cooperate, creativity and problem-solving, trust between superiors and subordinates and the use of management methodologies that support the latter. In other words, in a future potential organization, such employee behavior is expected in which – regardless of the hierarchy and organizational structure – the relationship between manager and employee is based on trust. Furthermore, in FPOs employees wish to do something for the organization and believe in its goals and also have the necessary ability to contribute to these goals. The framework that provides for all this is constituted by the default values at the organizational level, which essentially include organizational practices that are able to support the manager-employee relationship to facilitate effective and sustainable functioning. Therefore, above all, the creation of organizational transparency and organizational credibility are essential. According to Williams (2005), transparent organizational functioning is only partly caused by the intention to meet stakeholder expectations: Williams (2005) believes it is equally important that relevant and reliable information needed to do the job should be available to internal stakeholders. In this context, transparency and organizational credibility contribute to the development of external and internal trust (Schnackenberg and Tomlinson, 2014), which is key to creating cooperative and engaged workforce (Asif and Sarwar, 2025). With respect to the values of an organizational culture that fosters development, FPOs promote those elements that are seen and deemed as values both by individuals and on the level of interpersonal relationships. These values include organizational commitment, employee experience, conflict management and psychological empowerment.

FPOs need to develop an organizational culture in which conflicts are task-oriented and moderately intense at a relative consistent rate and where there is no risk in empowering employees based on their skills, experience and commitment. These are also key to OD. All this requires diversity, which can be seen as an asset by the organization: this is so as a wide range of different knowledge, experience, social and national contexts gives members the opportunity to look at challenges and tasks from many different perspectives, which also contributes to productive conflict management. A diverse formal group is not an asset in itself, it becomes an asset only if it truly becomes an integral part of the organizational culture and if members believe in its positive returns (Barbosa and Cabral-Cardoso, 2007; Farashah and Blomqusit, 2021). In addition, FPOs strive for very long-term sustainability, therefore, a supportive organizational culture that prioritizes equity must also be sustainable (Menon and Suresh, 2022). However, some theoreticians argue that sustainability is actually a result of the cultural setup (Assoratgoon and Kantabutra, 2023). Moreover, equity leadership can be found in a culture where the aforementioned interpersonal and organizational default values (such as diversity, inclusion, trust and commitment) are inherent (Ueda et al., 2023). Thus, the application of equity is the basis for fair organizational functioning, which supports sustainability of operations at the systemic level as well as loyalty and development at the employee level. These are all values that are consistent with the characteristics and strategies of FPOs.

The conditions for development orientation must also be considered from the perspective of the organization as a whole. It is, of course a desirable condition if the attitudes, goals and experiences of organizational members are in line with the organizational culture. Very similarly, organizational setup, organizational rules and control systems can reduce turnover intentions of employees if these are supported and are considered credible with respect to organizational characteristics (e.g., organizational strategy, structure and culture) (Kaufmann et al., 2023). However, as we have seen so far, continuous renewal, development and diversity are important characteristics of future potentiality and the practical implementation of these values requires some updating and, where appropriate, the replacement of the existing workforce. We agree with the reasoning by De Winne et al. (2019), who argue that low turnover leads to higher organizational effectiveness than zero turnover: in this case, there is less chance of developing organizational blindness, which thus fosters innovation and creativity, which at the level of individuals are seen as expected values. Some turnover of employees must therefore be ensured within the organization, because not all leaps in responsibility can be managed from internal resources and not all higher-level skills are available within the team at any given time (Thibault, 1996). The continuous turnover of staff – with the organization naturally seeking to retain the best-performing and most creative staff – is both an output and an input to continuous OD activity. This is expected of FPOs, as change is required to keep pace with changes in internal and external environmental conditions. The individual-level criterion for this is continuous learning (Mulili and Wong, 2011) and creativity (Basadur et al., 2012) at the level of the individual. Organizational learning is considered effective if it is coupled with knowledge transfer and if it is accompanied by a supportive practice that is able to transfer the cognitive assets accumulated within the organization. In turn, this constitutes a prerequisite for proactive organizational innovation (Azeem et al., 2021; Shirokova et al., 2025; Panigrahi et al., 2024). The notion of proactivity expresses that innovation activity is not or is not only the consequence of external influences, but it is a planned practice within the organization, which is expected at a strategic level, thereby creating the conditions for future potentiality.

All of these individual, interpersonal and organizational factors jointly make up much more than organizational culture. Their combined presence within the organization is necessary to create an organization that is capable of continuous renewal in its structure, functioning, core mission and people. In turn, this – precisely because of these specific practices – results in a self-sustaining organization that is in line with its stakeholders and its environment, is capable of resisting organizational decline and is sustainable over a very long period. In addition, FPOs have the capability to impact national culture: FPOs base this assumption of theirs on the belief that the well-being of FPOs, embedded in the social context, is also dependent on the well-being of society. Only those organizations that are capable of continuous renewal can be viable and this involves a wide range of requirements. Sreenivasan and Suresh (2023) demonstrated that this characteristic is influenced by a complex system of organizational variables, such as motivational readiness, workforce attributes, emotional attachment and reward system. Their model clearly illustrates that the ability to change and thus the basis for future viability, can only be examined in the context of complex organizational systems as a whole. Thus, the functioning of FPOs provides a new approach to the capitalist economic concept that celebrates profit maximization and which not only fails to serve the interests of the poor and creates increasingly unequal power relations but also works against future potentiality (Mascarenhas et al., 2024).

For the collection of the variables that are decisive for the future potentiality of the above three levels (individual, interpersonal, organizational), artificial intelligence was used. For filtering the variables, we used GPT-4 artificial intelligence model, developed by OpenAI and integrated by Microsoft: this application is available for subscription and is designed for scientific research. We asked GPT-4 to do the following:

• identify the 10–15 most common variables for all three levels of the organization that have been previously researched in connection with the terms “sustainability”; “sustainable organization”; and “future potentiality” and rank them in descending order according to their frequency of occurrence;

• use Scopus and Google Scholar to compile the database (in the case of Scopus, if access is not available, GPT-4 should only consider results appearing in abstracts);

• base its research on books, book chapters and journal articles;

• consult sources that originate from the period between 1999 and 2024 and, to ensure conceptual clarity, they must be exclusively in English;

• use only sources that can be classified under the fields of business and management or economics; and

• use the PRISMA protocol and VOSviewer solutions in the analysis.

The search yielded 1,123 documents, of which 217 were duplicates. Of these, a further 522 documents were selected because the content analysis of their abstracts revealed their irrelevance to the topic. This yielded a total of 384 studies that needed to be analyzed in detail, of which 319 were journal articles, 53 were book chapters and 19 were books.

Recent research confirms the increasing accuracy and performance of AI chatbots: these can also be used for research under appropriate human supervision (e.g. Rossettini et al., 2024; Silhadi et al., 2025). For us, the results provided by MS Copilot were acceptable even if the results produced were not flawless but only approximately correct, as we relied on its input only for basic filtering during our research. The distortion of results due to possible inaccuracies can therefore be considered minimal, given that:

• we were only interested in the names of the most common variables and concepts;

• we requested 10–15 variables for each of the three organizational levels, which we later selected further; and

• we carried out the assignments to the levels ourselves after performing content analysis.

We compared the list of variables compiled by MS Copilot with the five models that also analyzed the conditions for the very long-term operation of organizations: these models were published in those journal articles that generated the most responses in Scopus and were most frequently cited (>1,000 citations/article) and were thus considered the most relevant. The results are shown in Table 1. In the last column of the table, we have formulated our own conclusions about the model and using these conclusions, we have developed our own approach to the interpretation of FPOs, as shown in Figure 1.

The logic and basic assumptions of FPOs are the same as those of a sustainable organization. In this context, we assume that we can only talk about future potentiality if the micro-level relationships that exist at different organizational levels (e.g. individuals, organizational units) also function in a sustainable, future-potential manner (Kumar et al., 2023). Given this context, we are going to analyze operational mechanisms in detail in Chapter 3. In what follows, we will review, in depth, the values and the interconnections of values expected at the three levels of FPOs and we will then establish a theoretical framework to capture the tangible outcomes of the functioning of FPOs.

A characteristic feature of FPOs is that they maintain a symbiotic relationship with their environments, which – at the individuals’ level – depends primarily on well-being (Duckworth et al., 2025). Well-being reflects both internal organizational relations and the quality of integration into the society. Well-being has a strong direct relationship with organizational identification, which indicates the extent to which employees are integrated into the organization (Hameed et al., 2021). Furthermore, well-being is determined by factors such as the quality of interpersonal relationships, job happiness, sense of competence at work, desire to participate in the workplace and recognition (Dagenais-Desmarais and Savoie, 2012). These dimensions are consistent with the following: the core values required at the level of the individual, the organizational cultural values that promote progress toward FPOs and the elements of development-purpose orientation. A distinction is made between psychological well-being, which refers to the overall mental health and happiness of employees and social well-being, which refers to the depth of connection to the community and the quality of relationships. There are values at each of the three levels that are affected by different forms of well-being. For example, social well-being, as interpreted by Larson (1993), expresses both social adjustment and the support of social adjustment and is thus mainly associated with variables that are characteristics of FPOs interpreted at the interpersonal and organizational levels. In contrast, psychological well-being is associated with both individual and interpersonal variables (Huppert, 2009; Tse and Yip, 2009).

In fact, FPOs are conceived of as follows: they have the goal of sustaining very long-term operation and promote the well-being of their stakeholders while they are constantly evolving. In addition, they implement this change and this transformation of organizational culture in a way that also impacts and develops their national culture. In FPOs, profit maximization is neither a goal nor an aspiration: it is rather preceded by the creation of the conditions for the core values that support future potentiality, organizational culture and orientation for development. This approach differs radically from the organizational values and interests known today. Therefore, it is not surprising that research on FPOs focuses not only on how national culture affects certain factors of organizational functioning but also on how such organizations can promote one of the elements that fundamentally determines their operating environment, i.e. the well-being of society. Therefore, the question is in what way close cooperation with the social environment can support the joint shaping of national culture, through concurrently taking into account the needs of all stakeholders in the organization. In practical terms, all empirical culture research examines the impact of national culture on organizational culture. Even if this constitutes a dynamic change, this is also a reciprocal change, as the operational characteristics of the organization are inherently embedded in national culture. In addition to the problem of measurability, it should be borne in mind that organizations can only have an impact on national culture over a very long period of time. On the other hand, this conscious activity by FPOs can accelerate this very impact if the number of such organizations is – in practice – increasing in the future.

The goal of very long-term survival can only be achieved through operating as/in a network. Openness seems to be a basic requirement for an organization that actively influences culture, but this entails much more than that: understanding the needs of customers, suppliers, employees, competitors, the natural environment. is only possible if one works with them, understands their needs and acts along shared interests. This implies networking with respect to organizations, which leads to sustainable partnerships and more predictable business opportunities (Ryan et al., 2012). Also, network research has demonstrated that networking in social processes leads to stability and cohesion (Quintane et al., 2013). In addition, relying on this, networking between organizations supports the creation of criteria for future potentiality through ensuring long-term survival and stability. The logic of organizational functioning in networks is well-suited to competition: this is so as a network implies a form of cooperation in which members respond with trust and fairness (Ricciardi et al., 2022) and this strengthens competitiveness rather than weakens it. In other words, networking does not remove the organizational intention to produce profit; it only transforms the way profit is achieved. However, for FPOs, this is not the primary goal anyway.

This suggests that, at the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels, we should understand the elements of development orientation, organizational culture (which supports development) and default values (which support the organizational culture of FPOs) separately. We should, at the same time, also presuppose and that their logically linked succession leads to the results of the functioning of FPOs presented here. Based on the proposed theoretical model presented in Figure 1 and the items assigned to its variables, it is possible to determine the areas of organizational steps taken so far in the direction of future potentiality and it is likewise viable to identify the shortcomings that require targeted OD solutions and interventions. This article offers a possible theoretical framework for this. The following part of the study briefly presents the role of these variables in future potentiality and their relationships with the associated variables.

The outcome variables identified here represent the core mechanisms through which FPOs operate and evolve and they provide the empirical and conceptual anchor points for the subsequent levels of analysis. Psychological and social well-being, the ability to shape national culture and networked functioning are not independent end states; rather, they emerge from the interplay of the individual, interpersonal and organizational values discussed earlier. These outcomes therefore specify what the model considers as the tangible manifestations of future potentiality and clarify which underlying conditions must be developed for organizations to achieve long-term viability. In this sense, the results presented in this chapter define the direction and scope of the developmental orientation examined in the next section and they also demonstrate how the multi-level structure of the model is logically integrated. By establishing these connections, the results serve as a framework that links the theoretical assumptions of future potentiality with the practical pathways of OD.

The impact of organizational continuous learning on employee well-being is clear in the sense that it certainly does not have a negative effect, but only a mere two thirds of the relevant research has found a direct positive association between organizational learning and well-being (Watson et al., 2018). Nevertheless, learning is associated with positive emotional and psychological consequences, which facilitates cognitive connectivity both inside and outside the organization (Rowold and Kauffeld, 2009). Continuous learning thus facilitates network size, network diversity and network strength in both indirect and direct ways (Wagstaff et al., 2022). Therefore, this enables organizations to function as a network. At the same time, continuous learning includes both professional and informal learning and through this, it simultaneously impacts social, professional and methodological competences. Peer competencies impact psychological and social well-being, while professional and methodological competencies impact team effectiveness and knowledge-sharing behavior (Bhartia and Vijayalakshmi, 2019), which constitute interpersonal factors at this level. Life-long learning is practically complementary to continuous learning: while the latter covers one’s whole working life and is primarily understood in terms of workplace activities, the continuity of lifelong learning refers to the whole life course of the individual and involves cyclical learning events embedded in the given social context. At the same time, life-long learning also has a positive impact on organizational learning (Neelam et al., 2020): it ultimately contributes to innovation, knowledge sharing, networking and well-being.

Research findings support that openness, shared vision and trust have a positive impact on both knowledge-sharing behavior and its consequences, i.e. proactive innovation, as well as well-being (Liao, 2006; Kmieciak, 2021; Wang et al., 2017). The knowledge-sharing dimensions of professional knowledge transfer support innovation because new ideas and creative thoughts generating improvement are only relevant if they fit the organizational context. Furthermore, the owner of innovative ideas will only be able to exploit this feature of such new ideas and creative thoughts if they are professionally prepared, while general intelligence and basic professional knowledge are not always sufficient. At the same time, the dimensions of knowledge-sharing behavior relating to organizational communication and the quality of personal interactions (Yi, 2009) support the accepted norms of the community, the values of the organizational culture and, through these, social well-being. All this also reinforces the networked mode of operation at the workplace. However, it is primarily knowledge-sharing behavior’s changing dimension of communities of practice that best expresses the importance of collaboration with organizational members.

Team effectiveness shows how well-prepared the team is to do a job, the extent to which team members are willing to do the job and in particular how effective the cooperation between team members is and how they are able to deal with situations of conflict. Team effectiveness has the most direct relationship with organizational effectiveness of all the variables examined in the scope of this study. If organizational effectiveness is not present at the expected level and/or in the required quality, then the organizational performance that is minimally needed to sustain future potentiality is not available. At the same time, team effectiveness is a necessary condition for team development (Peralta et al., 2018) and – through this – for continuous OD.

The characteristics of FPOs foreground and focus on the ability to continuously renew and appropriately place the ability to renew at the center of the analysis of organizational operations. In fact, the turnover rate within an organization is zero if there is a perfect match between job requirements and the skills, competences and performance of the people who fill the available positions. However, such a perfect match is extremely rare and in organizations where change is a core value, this is not really sustainable. In other words, such an ideal turnover rate must be identified in FPOs that not only ensures the strength of organizational culture and the organization’s relative stability and predictability but also allows for necessary changes to be made. Concurrently, such a situation and rate should also support the emergence of new perspectives and the continuous incorporation of innovation into the organization, partly through the exchange of organizational members. Opinions are divided as to what turnover rate is optimal, but it seems certain that it is more than zero (Harris et al., 2002; De Winne et al., 2019). Certainly, the magnitude of the turnover rate is influenced by the size of the company, its regional characteristics and the industry.

Thus, maintaining an ideal turnover rate is beneficial for continuous OD, as change is perceived by all, is a piece of everyday reality and is part of organizational culture. In the same way as it is possible to implement a culture of continuous improvement in quality management, it is also possible to prepare the whole organization for such a culture and to get employees to accept this way of working. In this analogy, the key issue for quality improvement is whether employees really believe in quality culture, as well as how to get them to commit to it. In practice, all of this can be facilitated by appropriate management tools and the results thus generated support long-term, high-quality organizational functioning (Rapp and Eklund, 2010). This raises the question of how to mobilize members for continuous organizational improvement. Such mobilization can only be successful if effective motivational strategies can be implemented at the lower levels of management, through which acceptance of organizational values and organizational commitment can be achieved. This provides reassurance and has the potential to reduce stress associated with a culture of change. Some research, however, emphasizes that organizational change also brings more positive changes than negative ones to individuals’ attitudes overall. Such research also claims that this is due to the fact that the primary source of stress measured at the workplace is the workplace itself but only to a lesser extent: stress predominantly originates from a source beyond the workplace and is thus attributable to task-level psychosocial factors rather than organizational characteristics (Dollard, 2012).

The final element of development orientation at the organizational level is proactive innovation, whose relationship with corporate CSR is moderated by well-being (Song et al., 2024). This may be explained by the fact that the requirement for continuous change develops employees’ ability to solve problems over time. This problem-solving ability leads to proactive behaviors and one of its most significant benefits is thus proactive innovation. If the task requiring problem-solving is perceived by employees as an opportunity, the stress and other negative consequences associated with change are lower than in the case when employees’ problem-solving ability is required because they perceive change as threatening (Espedido and Searle, 2020). In other words, it follows from this that the form, content and quality of change communication is a key managerial task and that such communication fundamentally determines the orientation of future potential developments.

The employee experience constitutes the total of all positively valued experiences within an organization (Vereb et al., 2024). These experiences are consciously created and applied by the management in the period between the staff’s point of entry and their point of exit. An essential recognition in the concept of workplace experience is the following: the employee is the most important customer of the organization and, usually at low cost, very high benefits can be achieved in terms of employee engagement, responsibility, loyalty or improved conflict management skills (Yildiz et al., 2019; Başar, 2024; Lee et al., 2025). However, the employee experience is influenced not only by organizational factors but also by individual factors such as the person’s sexual identity, trust, credibility, career goals, autonomy. (Grover and Chawla, 2022). These individual characteristics may later on partly reflect FPOs’ default values (motivation, cooperativeness and problem-solving ability) and may also influence the diversity index of organizational culture.

Organizational and professional commitment expresses the degree of attachment to and identification with the following: the organization and its values, the job itself and the profession and its values. A high degree of organizational commitment is also of particular importance in helping to avoid conflict situations and to problem-solve conflicts that have already arisen (Balay, 2007; Wombacher and Felfe, 2017). At the same time, the nature of conflict also has its impact on commitment: the less affective a conflict is, the more the conflict reinforces professional commitment (Magen-Nagar and Steinberger, 2020). In other words, this way a mutually reinforcing relationship between individual and interpersonal levels appears in the organizational culture of FPOs.

The implementation of effective conflict management requires adaptation on the part of both employees and managers. Employees must be able to focus on and reinforce the task- and process-nature of conflicts, while managers must be able to recognize the damaging, affective nature of conflicts and should take action to prevent it. This requires all organizational members to embrace this element of organizational culture as a shared value. This is echoed in a study by Reade and Lee (2016), who – when examining the impact of ethnic conflict on innovation – found that innovation behavior is the highest when employees recognize and manage ethnic conflicts and when the management can also effectively address such situations. In addition, organizational commitment also moderates the relationship between conflict management ability and innovative behavior (Jung and Yoon, 2018), which also strengthens the relationship between individual and interpersonal factors of future potential criteria.

Certainly, psychological empowerment is a precondition for a leadership approach that recognizes the potential and value in such empowerment and the results of this empowerment are the most evident in innovative behavior (Zhu et al., 2019) and increased engagement (Islam et al., 2016). Empowerment increases individuals’ scope of maneuvering and also allows them to develop a sense of autonomy, take responsibility and develop decision-making skills. Together, these alone can enhance psychological well-being, networked operation and proactive innovation. In addition, through their effects on other elements of developmental orientation, this leads to even more intense correlation.

Diversity creates an organizational environment in which learning by the organization’s members occurs automatically. This is so not only in the case of individuals who are more diverse than average in the organization, but also in the case of all organizational members. There is also an established methodology for executing this in practice and this helps to overcome differences arising from diversity through learning more easily (Lämsä and Sintonen, 2006). Also, this methodology contributes to the development of more effective learning and innovation strategies and practices at a group level in an organizational culture developed this way. Blaique et al. (2023) also argue that psychological empowerment is an indispensable tool for developing an organizational culture of learning, while at the same time the researchers also believe that such empowerment is closely related to organizational commitment.

The input of organizational sustainability is a combination of creativity and knowledge-sharing behavior (Batool et al., 2023), while it is both an input and output of organizational culture (Insensee et al., 2020). Ketprapakorn and Kantabutra (2022) argue that previous management research has not clearly supported the existence of a link between sustainability and organizational culture and they therefore have proposed to introduce the concept of sustainable organizational culture. Sustainable organizational culture encompasses a set of characteristics of FPOs: diversity, continuous learning, commitment and empowerment are considered values. However, a sustainable organizational culture is often generated not through the recognition of the value of future potentiality but by a situation of necessity. A sustainable organizational culture is consciously created e.g. in the case of internal organizational pressure or when a constant decline in loyalty and satisfaction indicators is experienced (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010).

In addition, equity applies to FPOs in two ways. On the one hand, fair pay is the basis for a sense of equity and through this, fair pay enhances job satisfaction and organizational commitment (To and Huang, 2022). However, equity is not exclusively a feature worth considering in the context of pay elements and compensation systems. Equitable leadership is a managerial principle defined in HRD, in which the manager consciously strives to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to develop their own capabilities so that the organization can manage the resources possessed by all employees equally (Hurtienne and Hurtienne, 2024). This practice ensures that organizational diversity, continuous learning and knowledge-sharing behavior are not merely illusory and non-applied values but are real values that promote future potential operation.

Above, we have reviewed the default values of FPOs, its desired elements of organizational culture that lay the foundation for development and the elements of development orientation. In addition, we presented these at the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels and highlighted their connections. An organization that consciously reinforces these variables may be able to realize future potentiality. There are three key outcomes of FPOs: increased psychological and social well-being, organizational ability to form national culture and operating as/in a network. These positive effects result partly directly from FPO culture and partly indirectly from the variables discussed above.

Previous research also supports that both forms of well-being are supported by the individual-level FPO variables discussed, such as organizational commitment (Bodhi et al., 2025; Gyensare et al., 2024), motivation (Slemp et al., 2024) and continuous learning (Torresan and Hinterhuber, 2023). In the above discussion, we have strongly emphasized the importance of the social embeddedness of organizations. This serves, in part, to enable FPOs to influence the characteristics of national culture in a way that benefits all stakeholders. This can only be successful if the members of the organization concerned already have a high level of social well-being. Without well-being, individual, motivated learning and the internal sharing of learned skills cannot be viable. Yet, the results of well-being – in addition to their importance for individual self-actualization – also contribute to the achievement of other results of FPO operations. Just as it is fundamental in the natural sciences that sustainable human activity contributes to well-being, in management it can be considered a basic principle that well-being is the basis for future potential operations. Guiso et al. (2015) demonstrated that organizations have the ability to introduce cultural values and norms that have an impact on the development of national culture. From this perspective, it is particularly important for organizations to consider the social benefits of such initiatives, as this is a two-way dynamic: if the organization uses its ability to change culture solely to pursue its own interests, then the harmful, destructive changes to national culture will limit the organization’s future development and market opportunities in the same way as the natural environment limits the society that exploits it. In the case of FPOs, the ability to influence culture does not mean domination or the assertion of power, but rather the ability to consciously develop culture in an adaptive manner in the long term to respond to future challenges and enhance the well-being of both society and market players.

Several elements of the FPO model emphasize the importance of learning and innovation at the individual and organizational levels, which are essential for continuous development. To achieve this, organizations need to develop internal group-forming principles and an internal culture that contribute to the benefits of networked operation. Eckenhofer and Ershova (2011) pointed out that trust and closeness among organizational members strengthen networks within the organization, which in turn strengthen both knowledge sharing and social capital. This finding is supported by the research of Chen et al. (2024), which suggests that the structural characteristics of internal networks determine the quality of knowledge flow. All these variables can be considered the foundations of OD and, in the FPO model, have the most direct impact on organizational success.

The model presented in this paper is able to provide an overview of the values of FPOs. These values are partly derived from the personal traits and experiences of employees and managers, while others can be seen as operational elements of a future potential organizational culture. In addition to values, we have identified additional individual, interpersonal and organizational characteristics that support development orientation and contribute to the future potential development of culturally well-founded organizations. The model presented in the scope of this paper can also be used to identify gaps in current organizational characteristics and functioning and to highlight the levels and dimensions at which OD interventions need to be effected to achieve future potentiality. We believe that this theoretical framework contributes to the development of management and organizational theories, even if the number of variables did not allow the operationalization of such variables. Actually, this was not our intention at all. Currently, most research in organizational psychology looks for direct, mediating or moderating relationships between some key dimensions of variables. However, there are very few complex, practically applicable models in the management literature that can provide hands-on advice, in an instantaneous and tangible way, to decision-makers concerning issues of complex OD. We are confident that the model of FPOs presented here will be deemed useful by theorists, OD consultants and organizational stakeholders alike.

The theoretical model of FPOs offers several actionable insights for managers seeking to build long-term organizational viability. First, the results highlight that psychological and social well-being constitute not optional “soft” outcomes but foundational conditions for sustainable performance. Managers should therefore treat well-being as a strategic variable: this requires the systematic strengthening of trust, empowerment, openness to change and knowledge-sharing practices at the individual and interpersonal levels. By creating an environment where employees experience autonomy, meaningfulness and supportive relationships, leaders foster the micro-level attitudes that directly contribute to organizational adaptability and long-term renewal.

Second, the model indicates that future potentiality depends on the alignment of organizational culture with development-oriented capabilities. For practitioners, this means that cultural interventions cannot remain symbolic; they must be operationalized through concrete practices such as transparent decision-making, structured conflict management systems, mechanisms that reward learning and innovation and leadership behaviors that reinforce shared values. Managers can use the model as a diagnostic tool to identify which cultural dimensions – commitment, inclusion, constructive conflict norms or empowerment – are currently underdeveloped and then design targeted development processes to strengthen these areas. Such interventions help translate cultural intentions into measurable organizational routines.

Finally, the outcomes of the model – national culture shaping capability and networked functioning – provide additional avenues for managerial action. Managers can purposefully position their organizations as active contributors to their broader social and economic environment by cultivating partnerships, participating in collaborative ecosystems and integrating stakeholder needs into strategic priorities. In practice, this involves building inter-organizational trust, fostering long-lasting alliances and supporting community-level well-being initiatives. Similarly, adopting a networked mode of operation internally enables organizations to accelerate knowledge flow, enhance innovation capacity and reduce vulnerability to environmental turbulence. Altogether, the model equips managers with a structured framework that not only clarifies the prerequisites of future potentiality but also guides the design of organizational practices that convert these prerequisites into long-term strategic advantages.

This study is part of a research sub-project of the Future Potentials Observatory, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation and the National Research, Development and Innovation Office.