Managing Social-Business Tensions Flashcards

Flashcards on Managing Social-Business Tensions

Social Enterprises

Organizations that seek to achieve social missions through business ventures, combining the efficiency of for-profit firms with the values of non-profit organizations.

Social-Business Tensions

Divergent goals, values, norms, and identities within social enterprises that create competing demands and ethical dilemmas.

Performing Tensions

Tensions that emerge from divergent goals, metrics, and stakeholders between social missions and business ventures.

Social Mission Metrics

Broad stakeholders and subjective, qualitative metrics (e.g., enhancing self-esteem) associated with social missions.

Business Venture Metrics

Commercial success with objective, quantitative metrics (e.g., profitability) associated with business ventures.

Organizing Tensions

Tensions that emerge from contradictory organizational structures, cultures, practices, and processes within social enterprises.

Hiring Tensions

Conflicts arising from hiring individuals with social work backgrounds versus business skills in social enterprises.

Belonging Tensions

Tensions involving questions of identity—"who we are" and "what we do"—leading to internal conflict and challenges in managing external relationships.

Identity Conflicts

Conflicts arising when leaders and members identify with different organizational goals (e.g., profit vs. social mission).

Learning Tensions

Tensions that emerge from the juxtaposition of multiple time horizons (short-term vs. long-term) and challenges related to growth, scale, and change.

Mission Drift

The diminishing of local ties and founder values with increased size, potentially leading to "mission drift."

Institutional Theory

A theoretical lens that focuses on the relationship between organizations and their environments, particularly how distinct societal logics impose competing demands.

Hybrids

Organizations that embed conflicting societal logics, such as social welfare and commercial logics.

Organizational Identity

A theoretical lens that examines "who we are" and "what we do" as an organization, focusing on hybrid identities.

Multiple Identities

Enacting multiple identities simultaneously, which can lead to internal conflict and affect performance.

Stakeholder Theory

A theoretical lens that recognizes organizations are accountable to a broad ecosystem of stakeholders beyond just shareholders.

Stakeholder Tensions

Tensions that arise from embracing multiple stakeholders in social enterprises.

Paradox Theory

A theoretical lens that views tensions as "contradictory, yet interrelated elements" that persist simultaneously and can be mutually constitutive.

Mutually Constitutive Elements

The mutually reinforcing relationship between the social mission and business venture in social enterprises.