The Teal Implementation Paradox : How varying levels of adoption affects role ambiguity, role conflict, and members intention to stay in the organisation.

Teal organisations represent an evolving paradigm, emphasising self-management, wholeness, and an evolutionary purpose. However, empirical understanding of how varying degrees of teal adoption impact members of the teal organisation’s experiences, particularly concerning role-related stressors and retention, remains limited. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the research question: How do varying levels of adoption of teal principles affect organisation members’ perceived role ambiguity, role conflict, and intention to stay with the organisation? Employing a qualitative, multiple-case study design, this research explored three small Swedish consultancy firms that exhibited low, medium, and high levels of teal adoption. Data were collected thorough nine semi-structured interviews with organisational members and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that the degree and consistency of teal principles adoption are critical. High, holistic adoption was associated with low role ambiguity and role conflict, fostering high job satisfaction, a positive emotional and relational climate, strong organisational citizenship behaviour, and a high intention to stay. Conversely, low or inconsistent adoption tended to increase role ambiguity and conflict, often due to discrepancies between proclaimed teal values and operational realities such as persistent hierarchical controls. These role stressors, along with direct negative experiences from partial teal implementation, were found to negatively affect job satisfaction and the overall work climate, thereby weakening the intention to stay. This study contributes to the literature with a set of propositions highlighting the direct and indirect effects of varying teal adoption levels on member experience. Managerially, the study underscores that a deep, consistent, and holistic commitment to all teal principles is crucial for realising their benefits, since unauthentic or partial adoption may prove counterproductive.