Managing conflicting objectives of social enterprises
ISSN: 1750-8614
Article publication date: 25 November 2020
Issue publication date: 1 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Most strategies for managing conflicts between social and commercial objectives of social enterprises are discussed either at the individual or at the team level of analysis. This paper aims to argue in favor of taking into account both levels of analysis at the same time. It furthermore aims to unravel how management strategies at the individual and the team level reinforce one another.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the theoretical lenses of personal values (at the individual level of analysis) and stewardship (at the team level). The authors have conducted 23 semi-structured interviews across three Belgian social enterprises. Primary data collection was complemented with secondary data of 12 annual reports and 314 newspaper articles. The variety of cases and the richness of primary and secondary data proved useful to elaborate on the mechanisms of managing conflicting objectives.
Findings
This paper highlights four bridging mechanisms that facilitate the mitigation of conflict between social and commercial objectives, i.e. fit of values, agile structure, partnerships and communications. It also shows how these mechanisms reinforce each other at the individual and team levels of analysis and thus form an iterative process for managing the conflicting objectives of social entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
This paper contributes by bringing the level of analysis on managing conflicting objectives at the intersection of the individual and team performance. It argues that social entrepreneurs should target both individuals and teams at the same time, to manage effectively conflicting objectives. The four mechanisms create an alignment and reflection iterative process for managing conflicting objectives.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the editor, associate editor and the anonymous reviewers of Social Enterprise Journal for their support and constructive feedback in improving the ideas presented in this paper. We are thankful for all the advice we received from our colleagues during early discussions on this research at IABS conferences. We’d like to thank the partners of the VUB Chair of Social Entrepreneurship, Martine Hendrickx, Didier Appels and Charlotte Shaw for their support and keen interest in the development of social entrepreneurship. We’d like to thank our VUB colleagues, Drs Abel Diaz Gonzalez, Dra Claudia Alba Ortuño and Drs Jason Roncancio for their encouraging words. And a special thanks goes out to our VUB colleagues Professor Dr Marc Jegers and Professor Dr Thomas Crispeels for their valuable feedback during the development of the paper.
Citation
Eiselein, P. and Dentchev, N.A. (2020), "Managing conflicting objectives of social enterprises", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 431-451. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-03-2020-0015
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited