Filling in the Cracks: The Role of Social Enterprises in the Development of Sustainable Societies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Duke
Keyword(s):  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Sustainable Societies

The role of social enterprises in facilitating labour market integration for people with disabilities: A convenient deflection from policy mainstreaming?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
CHERYL HIU-KWAN CHUI ◽  
CHEE HON CHAN ◽  
YANTO CHANDRA
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Work Integration ◽  
Disability Employment

Abstract Policymakers have increasingly embraced social enterprises as a vehicle to create job opportunities for the disadvantaged. However, there is limited research on social enterprises in the context of disability in relation to labour market integration. Drawing on the perspectives of representatives of work integration social enterprises and people with disabilities employed in these enterprises (n=21), this study examines whether and how work integration social enterprises promote inclusion for people with disabilities, and also explores the role of WISEs in enabling people with disabilities to transition into open employment. Thematic analysis revealed three key emergent themes: Cocooned inclusion but not transition; Reinforced normative demarcation; and WISEs as a deflection from institutionalizing proactive disability policy measures. This article argues that, although WISEs were able to provide job opportunities for people with disabilities, their purported function in enabling disabled people to transition into open employment remains constrained by factors beyond their control including prevailing norms and the absence of proactive disability employment measures. This article cautions against the over-romanticisation of WISEs as the primary means to ensure the rights of people with disabilities to participate in the labour market. Implications on disability employment policies in relation to social enterprises are discussed.

scholarly journals Exploring eudaimonia through meaningful work narratives within work integration social enterprises

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Bilbija ◽  
Jack Stout Rendall
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Professional Workers ◽  
Professional Employees ◽  
Work Integration ◽  
New Evidence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence on the different dimensions of well-being that can occur in work integration social enterprises (WISEs). This study aims to call for a future discussion on the role of meaningful work (MW) and its impact upon well-being beyond satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Explorative interviews were undertaken with professional workers and beneficiaries within a Spanish WISE. These interviews aimed to uncover similarities and differences across aspects of what makes work meaningful to them as workers. Both eudaimonic and hedonic dimensions of well-being were used to analyse the data. Findings Different groups of employees show that professional employees (those working in the WISE, not because of their disadvantages in the labour market) create their narratives based on MW experiences (eudaimonic well-being), whereas beneficiaries (those working in the WISE because of their disadvantages in the labour market) often describe how satisfied they are at work (hedonic). Originality/value The concept of MW within WISEs to achieve well-being for both beneficiaries and professional workers could be enhanced through discussion of the different types of well-being that are being realised in such settings. Engaging with the concept of “eudaimonia” helps the authors to achieve this aim.

Deep Knowledge as the Core of Sustainable Societies

2010 ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bennet ◽  
David Bennet
Keyword(s):  
Social Health ◽  
Community Sustainability ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Attractor Network ◽  
Social Communities ◽  
Deep Knowledge ◽  
The Core ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Sustainable Societies

Knowledge-based social communities are critical to sustain economic levels and quality environments for community members. The pace of change, rising uncertainty, exponentially increasing complexity and the resulting anxiety (CUCA) have made competition among nations, cities and communities greater and more fierce. As economies look from industry to knowledge for their prime income generator, the role of knowledge and its supporting infrastructure become critical to economic and social health. In this chapter the authors focus on what deep knowledge is and the environment needed to maximize its contribution to the health and growth of societies. They also introduce knowledge attractor network teams as sources of power for community sustainability.

scholarly journals Promoting healthy sustainable societies through a circular analytical dialogue method

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Paillard-Borg
Keyword(s):  
Population Health ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Innovative Method ◽  
Academic Activism ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sustainable Societies ◽  
Informed Society ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background The relationship between journalists and populations is complicated and the subject of “fake news” is one of these related issues. Despite the controversy, journalistic media are the ground to a well-informed society and as such journalists have the potential to be important actors in the pursuit of population health. At the same time, frustration against journalistic media has increased globally and vulnerable and so-called ’invisible’ groups feel neglected by the media. Methods The Circular Analytical Dialogue is an innovative method for examining the dialogue between journalists and citizens and investigating the role of journalism in promoting social cohesion, population health and democracy. Results The preliminary results of a pilot study in Japan on the topic of migration, using the Circular Analytical Dialogue, show that the dynamic between the participants and the journalists was valued by all parties as it allowed a profound and valuable dialogue. The journalist was most appreciative of the feedback of the participants as it opened alternative perspectives that were not considered beforehand. Conclusions The Circular Analytical Dialogue has the dual ambition to be a research as well as a journalistic tool and the knowledge generated with this method is intended to be used to strengthen understanding about the importance of journalism for healthy democratic societies. Key messages The Circular Analytical Dialogue method reinforces the importance of academic activism strongly related to sustainable societies. The Circular Analytical Dialogue method can potentially contribute to the empowerment of populations fundamental to population health.

scholarly journals Away from Politics? Trajectories of Italian Third Sector after the 2008 Crisis

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandro Busso
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Management Models ◽  
Managerial Strategies ◽  
The Relationship

In modern democracies, nonprofit organizations and social enterprises have a relevant political role that may be threatened by the entry into the market of services. This risk increases in time of economic crisis, when the competition grows stronger and the economic needs become more urgent. Starting from this assumption, the article analyzes the relationship between the managerial strategies and the political role of the Italian third sector, focusing on the implications of the management models put in place in order to “survive” the 2008 economic crisis. Two ideal-typical strategies will be outlined, labelled respectively “entrepreneurial turn” and “hyper-embeddedness”, which seem to have effects both in terms of the manner in which the political role is realized, and in terms of the degree of politicization of the organizations. Since such strategies can both increase or decrease nonprofits’ political ambitions, it is not possible to give an interpretation in terms of a tout court distancing from politics. However, it will be argued that a trait common to all the trajectories is the withdrawal from what Mouffe defines “the political”, referring specifically to the dimension of conflict and antagonism.

Work context and turnover intention in social enterprises: the mediating role of meaning of work

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonghun Sun ◽  
Jeong Won Lee ◽  
Young Woo Sohn
Keyword(s):  
Turnover Intention ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Meaning Of Work ◽  
Work Context ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Mission

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of meaning of work as a linking mechanism between the perception of work context and turnover intention within the rarely studied context of social enterprises.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on meaning of work theories, an integrated research model was developed. Data were collected using questionnaires from 315 full-time employees at 114 social enterprises in Korea. Mediated and moderated structural equation models were used to assess the hypotheses.FindingsSocial mission was fully mediated by meaning of work to predict low turnover intention, and shared vision was partially mediated to predict the same. The authors also found that the positive relationship between social mission and meaning of work was stronger when shared vision was higher.Originality/valueThis study extends previous literature on managerial psychology (i.e. meaning of work and turnover) in the context of a new but increasingly prevalent organizational form, social enterprises. It also provides practical advice for managers seeking to retain employees and encourage the sustainability of the social enterprise sector.

Entrepreneurs’ ingenuity and self-imposed ethical constraints: creating sustainability-oriented new ventures and knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 1965-1983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina O Siqueira ◽  
Benson Honig
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Ingenuity can be viewed as the use of creativity to develop innovation within constraints. The authors investigate how entrepreneurial ingenuity is enhanced by self-imposed ethical constraints, by using a case study of sustainability-driven technology enterprises in an emerging economy. The authors find that self-imposed ethical constraints can enhance entrepreneurial ingenuity because they encourage entrepreneurs to solve more complex problems as a result of considering the impact of the business on a more diverse set of stakeholders. The aim of this study is to show that while additional resources are normally considered an advantage, a dearth of resources can be a source of competitive advantage leading to ingenuity. By self-imposing ethical constraints, founders increase engagement of stakeholders who shape the firm’s industry toward greater sustainability knowledge. Design/methodology/approach The authors used semi-structured interviews which are typically the most important data source in the Gioia methodology because they provide both retrospective and present accounts by individuals experiencing the phenomenon of theoretical interest (Gioia et al., 2012). The authors focused on founders at each enterprise who had sufficient knowledge to speak comprehensively and authoritatively about their organizations. The goals of the semi-structured interview protocol were to focus on the research question, avoid the use of terminology that could lead interviewees in their answers and maintain flexibility to explore spontaneous themes during the interviews. Findings The authors examined the influence of entrepreneurial ingenuity on the creation of knowledge in an organization's environment. They defined entrepreneurial ingenuity as a type of organizational ingenuity (Lampel et al., 2014a, 2014b) and by focusing on the role of ethical constraints, examined the conditions under which it is influenced. They emphasized that ethical constraints warrant consideration in the knowledge management process (Rechberg and Syed, 2013) because they can stimulate entrepreneurial ingenuity. The authors also investigated the relevance of ethical constraints for founders of social enterprises in Brazil, an emerging economy of growing interest to knowledge management scholars. Research limitations/implications This study brings the following three main contributions. First, by incorporating the scope of social entrepreneurship, the research contributes to the perspective that both ethics and innovation can positively coexist within an organization while contributing to knowledge management creation and success (Borghini, 2005; Schumacher and Wasieleski, 2013). Second, the authors establish ethics as an important type of constraint that can spark ingenuity and help break through the constraints of bounded awareness for knowledge management (Kumar and Chakrabarti, 2012). Third, by highlighting the role of self-imposed ethical constraints, this study helps answer a recent call for research on “entrepreneurial actions that benefit others” (Shepherd, 2015, p. 490) addressing “What are the constraints that disable or obstruct an organization’s normal routines from alleviating human suffering?..It could be less about whether it is good or bad to ignore constraints and more about which constraints are ignored and which are abided by” (Shepherd, 2015, pp. 499, 501, emphasis added). Practical implications In this study, the authors show that entrepreneurs facing ethical dilemmas experience a unique cycle of equilibration, essentially throwing customary norms of equilibrium into disequilibrium. Treating ethics as both a lever and a constraint allows a more unique set of problems to be solved through knowledge management and entrepreneurship, so solutions to these problems can themselves become new sustainability-driven businesses. Social implications This study opens up several opportunities for future research. The authors conducted a study with five sustainability-driven enterprises from Brazil. New research may benefit from examining a larger number of organizations in other countries to investigate potential environmental differences that affect ingenuity and knowledge management. This study highlights the notion of ethical constraints as enabling mechanisms, and thus self-imposed ethical constraints merit a more systematic consideration as a key additional factor that may inspire disruptive innovation (Christensen, 2013), blue-ocean strategy (Kim and Mauborgne, 2004), as well as value-creation for stakeholders (Tantalo and Priem, 2016). Originality/value Resources are critical to both knowledge management and entrepreneurial activity and have been examined from numerous perspectives (Alvarez & Busenitz, 2001; Barney, Wright, & Ketchen, 2001; Moustaghfir and Schiuma, 2013). Entrepreneurs following a creation strategy depend less on accumulating existing knowledge and resources before beginning, and more on forming new knowledge or relationships that do not yet exist. They do this through a process of entrepreneurial trial and error (Alvarez & Barney, 2007, 2010). From a knowledge management perspective, individual knowledge sharing through both experimentation and learning by doing provide consistently high levels of knowledge sharing (Burns, Acar and Datta, 2011). This research emphasizes that constraints, such as limited resources and self-imposed ethical standards, can be a source of advantage leading to ingenuity and knowledge creation.

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