Free and Unmerited: The Unappreciated Organizing Power of Grace

Grace, an unconditional and voluntary gift in the presence of unmet expectations, is often associated with theology yet pervades everyday life. Despite its ubiquity, management scholarship is quiet on understanding how grace shapes organizational relationships and outcomes. This article positions grace as a promising construct for management scholarship across entrepreneurship, strategic decision-making, organizational relationships, and institutional dynamics. I begin by articulating the three constitutive conditions of grace: social construction requiring undeserving recipients and unobligated givers, presence of unmet expectations, and absence of obligation by the giver. Next, I demonstrate how grace operates through institutional, exchange, and relational organizing processes that enable temporary norm deviations, transcend traditional exchange logics, and redistribute power to facilitate relationship renegotiation. Finally, I propose promising research directions that illuminate how actors navigate tensions between accountability and flexibility. This research agenda has potential to enhance the interactions and relationships between people, organizations and institutions.