How social enterprises manage their organizational identification: a theoretical framework of identity management approach through attraction,selection, and socialization

Abstract

Social enterprises, as a typical type of hybrid-identity organization, face identification tensions among members, arising from the divergent identities. Prior research has focused on how hybrid identities can be managed at the organizational level. However, the process through which identification emerges in hybrid-identity social enterprises remains relatively unexplored. This study addresses these gaps and aims to contribute to identity and identification theory. This research has taken a qualitative (case study) approach, with in-depth interviews and archival data from nine social enterprises in Taiwan. Our findings reveal three different types of responses to hybrid identities of social enterprises: synthesis, integration, and deletion. It is observed that different hybrid identities management and organizational identification management practices will lead to members’ identification and dis-identification. This research proposes an attraction-selection-socialization model, suggesting that, to foster identification, social enterprises need to manage their hybrid organizational identities and embed the new common identity into members’ daily work through attraction, selection, and socialization processes.     

Bringing Networks In: A model of organizational socialization in the public sector

Abstract

Integrating new employees so that they perform well, fit in well and are committed to the agency is a salient concern for public managers. Organizational socialization is the process by which new employees learn the knowledge, skills and values required to become organizational members. This article develops a model of organizational socialization grounded in newcomer social networks and set within a context of public service identity. Social network theory and methods offer a means for examining and interpreting patterns of interactions between newcomers and organizational members. This article concludes with propositions for future studies of organizational socialization and social networks.     

Managing Cultural Diversity in Collaborations: A focus on management tensions

Abstract

This article explores the management of cultural diversity in public and not-for-profit collaborations spanning organizational, professional and national boundaries. Through the framing of a culture paradox, it identifies three interrelated tensions pertaining to the management of cultural diversity towards collaborative advantage. These tensions address: interactions between organizations within a collaboration; interactions between individual actors and their orientation towards the collaboration and their host organization; and the quantity and extent of cultural diversity within a collaboration. The culture paradox and its inherent management tensions provide theoretical and practical conceptualizations that are relevant to management and governance of collaboration.     

Organizing professionals and their impact on performance: the case of public health doctors in the Italian SSN

ABSTRACT

Hybrid professional managers have been associated with improvements in the performance of public sector organizations. However, less attention has been given to differences within this category. Drawing on board human capital theory, we focus on an emerging group of ‘organizing professionals’ with earlier and deeper exposure to management training and education: generalist clinical hybrids drawn from public health in the Italian healthcare system. Specifically, we investigate the impact that these hybrid hospital CEOs have on organizational performance in comparison with other backgrounds. The results indicate that this form of generalist hybrid professionalism has distinct, if not dramatic, consequences for performance.     

Sacred alliance or pact with the devil? How and why social enterprises collaborate with mainstream businesses in the fair trade sector*

Abstract

This paper uses institutional theory to highlight different patterns of cross-sector collaboration from the perspective of social enterprises. Specifically, it explores how and why social enterprises interact with mainstream businesses and to what extent their collaboration patterns reflect a vision of how their social mission should be implemented and institutionalized. The empirical analysis is derived from a qualitative study of ‘fair trade’ – a hybrid model created by social enterprises and using market mechanisms to support small-scale producers in developing countries and to advocate for changes in international trading practices. The findings highlight three strategies used by fair trade social enterprises to manage their interactions with mainstream businesses: sector solidarity, selective engagement, and active appropriation. This paper suggests that each strategy is motivated by a different vision of how best to articulate the social mission of fair trade via specific types of collaborations. It also notes how each vision has a distinct pattern of institutionalization at the field level. This paper adds to the emergent literatures on social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, fair trade, cross-sector collaboration and hybrid organizing.     

Management Accountants’ Occupational Prestige Within the Company: A Social Identity Theory Perspective

Abstract

Professional associations and researchers in management accounting have attempted to increase the prestige of management accountants. Although studies have suggested that occupational prestige is important, the prestige of management accountants within the employing organisation and its consequences are still not fully understood. Building on social identity theory, we investigate the effect of occupational prestige, as perceived by management accountants, on organisational–professional conflict. We suggest that prestige can mitigate conflict because management accountants with high prestige will identify more strongly with their organisation, as they see it as a source of self-esteem and might believe that they are taken more seriously by managers. At the same time, we hypothesise that prestige exerts an indirect conflict-increasing effect via professional identification. This is based on the idea that prestige may cause proud management accountants to start to identify more strongly with their profession and become hard-liners, unwilling to compromise the values associated with their profession in the interest of the firm. Results from a series of three surveys support the indirect conflict-increasing effect. Moreover, the results suggest a direct conflict-reducing effect of perceived prestige. The implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Coherent identities and roles? Hybrid professional managers’ prioritizing of coexisting institutional logics in differing contexts

This article explores how hybrid professional managers relate to coexisting institutional logics in their everyday work. It examines coherence between the logic that informs managers’ identity and that prioritized in their role. By comparing interview data from managers in two settings, a faith-based hospital and a religious organization, this article analyses primary and secondary identities and roles. Findings show that experiences of coexisting logics differ according to the organizational context. Hospital managers identify with a managerial logic in both their identity and role. A professional logic informs church managers’ identity, yet they prioritize a managerial logic in their role. The article proposes a model that links hybrid professional managers’ identities and roles with a framework of coexisting logics proposed earlier.     

Citizens’ Entrepreneurial Role in Public Service Provision

Abstract

In public service provision, citizens are conventionally reactive, portrayed as ‘users’, ‘customers’, ‘co-producers’, or ‘participators.’ Occasionally, following dissatisfaction, citizens themselves proactively create alternative services, namely, entrepreneurial exit (EE). Laymen then become providers of previously governmental professional services. Drawing upon six EE manifestations, findings suggest that if the newly-introduced service gains social acceptance, existing provision may change in one of the three modes: (a) First-order incremental change, legitimization of EE as an alternative service provision; (b) Second-order participative change, increased public participation in service provision fostered by EE; and (c) Third-order reformative change, existing service provision is reformed to satisfy citizens’ demands.     

Managing Government Property Assets: International Experiences

Abstract

Policies have been introduced in the public sector to increase efficiency. Following a privatization, there is a split between operational and strategic control. In this study, we explored how a public organization restores its identity after losing its operational structure. Based on a case study of a seaport, we found that when the self-defining properties were lost, the organizational identity dissolved into a managerial public identity. The organizational meaning that provided security and guided behavior was lost and the new identity was unable to serve as a provider of meaning. Implications for new public management policy and practice are discussed.     

Employee isolation and support for change in the public sector: a study of the internal audit profession

ABSTRACT

We investigate the preferences of public sector internal auditors for changes in their work practices. Informed by the literature, we posit that feelings of trust in the workplace and/or frustrations arising from perceived organizational ‘isolation’—a dimension of work alienation—motivate support and acceptance of change. We also argue that professional bodies directly and indirectly influence these relationships. These conjectures are tested using structural equation modelling and a survey of Canadian public sector internal auditors. The findings provide valuable insights into the process of adaptation and transformation in public sector settings across countries, jurisdictions, and accountability functions.     

Social welfare,corruption and credibility

Abstract

Economic development requires that investments by entrepreneurs are not subject to expropriation by government. Unfortunately, public agencies often serve as the instruments by which political elites engage in corruption and extracting rents from the economy. The question is how to design institutions that credibly commit to a stable system of guarantees of property rights and contract enforcement.

Principal agent theory and the new public management favor greater accountability of public managers to elected officials or eliminating public agencies through privatization. We argue for institutional designs that provide a degree of public agency autonomy. We show that public agency autonomy is a by-product of the competition between elites in democracies with multiple veto players. We show that transparency, professionalism, and legality help ensure that public managers do not engage in rent-extraction. The institutional design problem is how to induce public managers to serve the public interest without being fully responsive to elected political officials.     

Institutional Sources of Distrust in Government Contracting

Abstract

This interview-based study explores trust in public–private co-operation by addressing the research questions: What are the main sources of distrust in public–private contracting? And why? We compare two Spanish social services subfields: one with high levels of cross-sector distrust and another one with low distrust between public and private sectors. We conclude that the sources of the identified cross-sector distrust are institutional: insufficient regulation and legislation, lack of business certification, and low local government administrative capacity. The article is a pioneering exploration of the under-researched theme of institutional distrust and its effect on public–private co-operation management.     

Comparing assistant roles in education and social care: backgrounds,behaviours and boundaries

This paper explores the character of two assistant roles drawn from different parts of the public services, the teaching assistant from education and the social work assistant from social care. Noting that these roles have assumed increasing importance as part of New Labour's modernization project, it suggests that they have nonetheless been neglected by policymakers and various research communities, particularly relative to professional roles. Using interview and survey data from eight case studies, the paper assesses the contribution made by these roles to the programme of public service reform in relieving burdens on professionals, contributing to the standards agenda and addressing difficulties in recruiting professionals. While the findings confirm the contribution made by both types of assistant, they also highlight differences in the balance of contribution, encouraging a focus on sub-sector institutions in explaining the development of occupational roles.     

Public Management and Network Specificity: Effects of colleges’ ties with professional organizations on graduates’ labour market success and satisfaction

Abstract

Research on managerial networking in the public sector reports positive effects of network activity on performance. However, little is known about which network relations influence different aspects of performance. We argue that for specific organizational goals, organizations should direct their networking activities towards specific types of organizations. We explore how different types of network relations of Dutch colleges for nursing studies affect the performance of these colleges. We analyse the effect of ties with professional organizations on: (1) graduates’ program satisfaction, (2) graduates’ wages and (3) graduates’ employment (n = 1,484 graduates). Multilevel analyses show that colleges’ ties with professional organizations positively affect graduates’ wages and employment.     

Strategic Positioning And Organizational Adaptation In Social Enterprise Subsidiaries Of Voluntary Organizations

Abstract

This article examines a new organizational form, the community interest company (CIC), as a means for voluntary and charitable organizations to embark on formalized social enterprise activities in the UK. A combination of social, economic, legal and strategic positioning factors has influenced charities to set up CICs as social enterprise subsidiaries to complement their public service work. CICs with charitable origins have relatively weak strategic positions, which are distinct from those of their parent charities. This difference creates tensions in the relationship between the CICs and their parent charities, which have implications for the management of third sector social enterprises.     

Conceptualizing dysfunctional consequences of performance measurement in the public sector

ABSTRACT

Performance measurement (PM) has become increasingly popular in the management of public sector organizations (PSOs). This is somewhat paradoxical considering that PM has been criticized for having dysfunctional consequences. Although there are reasons to believe that PM may have dysfunctional consequences, when they occur has not been clarified. The aim of this research is to conceptualize the dysfunctional consequences of PM in PSOs. Based on complementarity theory and contingency theory we conclude that dysfunctional consequences of PM are a matter of interactions between PM design and PM use, between control practices in the control system and between PM and context.     

Conflict of Interest in Policing and the Public Sector

Abstract

Conflicts of interest are a key factor in the contemporary decline of trust in government and public institutions, eroding public trust in government and democratic systems. Drawing on two unique empirical studies involving policing and the broader public sector, this paper explores the meaning and dimensions of conflict of interest by examining public complaints about conflict of interest and providing distinctive insights into the nature of conflict of interest as a problem for public sector ethics. The paper analyses and explores appropriate regulatory and management approaches for conflict of interest, focusing on three elements: (1) dealing with private interests that are identifiably problematic in the way they clash with the duties of public officials; (2) managing conflicts as they arise in the course of public sector work (manifested in preferential and adverse treatment, and other problematic areas); and (3) developing ethical and accountable organisational cultures. It is concluded that effective and meaningful public sector ethics in the pursuit of the public interest must be based on an ethos of social accountability and a commitment to prioritise the public interest in both fact and appearance.     

Can’t You Count? Public Service Delivery and Standardized Measurement Challenges – The Case of Community Composting

Abstract

Performance measurement is increasingly important for UK third sector organizations (TSOs) driven in part by policymakers’ interest in harnessing them as deliverers of public services. This article examines a developing and little researched constituency of TSOs – community composters – which has become attractive to policymakers facing obligations to reduce, recycle, and reuse waste. The research, which included the first extensive survey of this constituency combined with a purposive case study investigation, found a highly diverse set of organizations. The analysis proposes five types of community composters and explores the challenges to developing a standardized measurement regime.     

Joining the Dutch Civil Service

Abstract

This article focuses on the work motivation of employees who joined the Dutch civil service between 2000 and 2006. It relates changes in five distinct motives to the changing economic context and the recruitment campaign run by the Dutch civil service. Results show that both extrinsic and public service motivations of employees were greater when unemployment was higher. Surprisingly, the intensity of the recruitment campaign correlated with both intrinsic and extrinsic motives, and the campaign appears to have attracted workers with a higher level of public service motivation and with a greater attraction to the public sector.