Beyond agency and pathways: Expanding Snyder’s hope theory for organizational research

This paper revisits Snyder’s Hope Theory by expanding its explanatory scope for organizational research through a Critical Realist (CR) perspective. While Snyder conceptualizes hope as a cognitive process based on agency and pathways toward goals, the authors argue that this framework is limited by its strong individualistic and goal-oriented assumptions. Drawing on 106 lived experiences of hope, the study identifies the underlying mechanisms through which hope is generated in real-world contexts.

The findings propose four core generative mechanisms: multiple contingent distributed agency, where individuals rely not only on themselves but also on others, institutions, or collective actors; future-oriented objects of hope, which extend beyond specific goals to include ideals, collective aspirations, and meaningful directions; generation of pathways, involving both individual and socially constructed routes to action; and sustained enacted hope, which captures how hope persists over time through adaptation, reflection, waiting, and re-goaling.

Additionally, contingent conditions and social influence shape how these mechanisms are activated. The resulting configurational model shows that hope emerges from the alignment of these mechanisms and can lead to different trajectories, including founded, failed, fading, or false hope. Overall, the paper reconceptualizes hope as a relational, contextual, and dynamic process rather than a purely individual cognitive resource.