Navigating crisis in non-standard work: Social entrepreneurs' sensemaking and purpose protection during career shocks

This study advances current understanding of career shocks among non-standard workers by investigating how social entrepreneurs, as a novel group of non-standard workers pursuing purpose, engage in sensemaking during career shocks. Our inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with 39 Bangladeshi social entrepreneurs facing a crisis revealed three distinct sensemaking patterns: ‘mission-neglected preservation,’ ‘mission-protective collaboration,’ and ‘mission-validating continuity’ based on identity structure and disruption valence. These patterns explicate how the same external events can generate varied career shock experiences. By introducing a novel group of non-standard workers who either neglect or protect purpose in a shared crisis, we advance conceptual insights on career shocks, social entrepreneurship, and non-standard work. • Inductive study based on in-depth interviews with 39 Bangladeshi social entrepreneurs during Covid-19. • Social entrepreneurs with different founder identities interpret the same disruption as threat, challenge, or validation. • Identity plurality enables access to diverse resources when navigating negative disruptions. • Through cycles of sensemaking, social entrepreneurs neglect, protect or maintain their organizational missions. • Career shock among those with power create spillover effects beyond individuals to communities and organizational missions.