The Kenotic Organization: A Community of Leadership, Learning and Transformation

December 3, 2025

The Kenotic Organization: A Community of Leadership, Learning and Transformation

Brian E. Ruffner | 2019

Abstract

Although organizations frequently proclaim the desire for change, renewal and transformation, few ever fully embrace those ideas, failing to rise above more than mere mediocrity as a result. While the literature quite literally abounds with theoretical prescriptions meant to heal such malaise, most organizations continue to limp along never realizing even a fraction of their true potential. Certainly, many pontificate on the nature of organizations as they live and breathe, so to speak; yet, few question how the organization ought to be. This ought belies the existential and ethical dimensions of organizing and, as such, points to a discipline not often associated with the organizational realm–theology. To this end, the kenotic organization offers a much-needed corrective to the syndrome described above. Drawing on the Trinitarian kenosis observed in the creation event and witnessed in the Incarnation, the simultaneous actions of self-limiting and pouring out inform the organizational cause and expose a deeply entangled organizational mesh enveloping the entire cosmos which can serve as a catalyst to excite preferred organizational behaviors. It is, in fact, the humility of Trinitarian kenosis, the willingness to withdraw but also at once pour out the individual essence, that generates the thrust necessary to escape the gravitational pull of convention which typical inhibits organizational flourishing. Peering deeper into kenosis, the intersection of science and theology come clearly into focus as complexity and dialogic theories affirm the kenotic paradox of limiting and pouring out as a precursor to exceeding organizational abundance. Applying kenosis, then, as the primordial organizing ingredient, recommended principles for organizational leadership, design, development, learning, transformation and innovation emerge for due consideration.

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