This paper examines how competing ideological orientations shape
the structure and development of Decentralized Autonomous
Organizations (DAOs). Drawing on qualitative data from interviews
with 34 DAO contributors, virtual and in-person observation in DAO
spaces, founding documents, and governance proposals, we delineate
a fundamental tension between social vision and technological vision.
Social vision centers on human empowerment and participatory
governance, while technological vision prioritizes algorithmic
mechanisms and cryptographic solutions to organizational challenges.
These competing visions manifest in how DAOs approach
decentralization, transparency, and coordination, revealing that
seemingly shared values can yield starkly different organizational
realities. Our concept of vision-rooted reality shaping explains how
ideological convictions become embedded in organizational
structures, creating diverse interpretations of ostensibly common
principles. This research advances organizational theory by
demonstrating how the interplay between human-centered and
technology-centered ideologies can simultaneously enable and
constrain novel organizational forms. Beyond the specific context of
DAOs, our findings illuminate how competing visions influence
experimental organizational forms at the intersection of technology
and social coordination—a growing frontier as organizations
increasingly incorporate artificial intelligence, algorithmic governance,
and distributed technologies. These insights deepen our
understanding of how ideological tensions shape organizational
innovation at the boundaries of traditional structures