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Full-Text Articles in Organizational Behavior and Theory
Leading Amidst Competing Technical And Institutional Demands: Revisiting Selznick’S Conception Of Leadership, Marya Besharov, Rakesh Khurana
Leading Amidst Competing Technical And Institutional Demands: Revisiting Selznick’S Conception Of Leadership, Marya Besharov, Rakesh Khurana
Marya Besharov
This chapter explores how Selznick’s approach to leadership can inform contemporary organizational theory and research. Drawing on Selznick’s writing in Leadership in Administration and related works, we characterize organizations as simultaneously technical entities pursuing economic goals and value-laden entities pursuing non-economic goals arising from their members and their role in society. These two aspects of organizations are deeply intertwined and in continual tension with one another, and the essential task of leadership is to uphold both – protecting and promoting values while also meeting technical imperatives. To do so, leaders establish a common purpose that includes values and ideals not …
Managing Social-Business Tensions: A Review And Research Agenda For Social Enterprise, Michaël Gonin, Marya Besharov, Wendy Smith, Nicholas Gachet
Managing Social-Business Tensions: A Review And Research Agenda For Social Enterprise, Michaël Gonin, Marya Besharov, Wendy Smith, Nicholas Gachet
Marya Besharov
In a world filled with poverty, environmental degradation, and moral injustice, social enterprises offer a ray of hope. These organizations seek to achieve social missions through business ventures. Yet social missions and business ventures are associated with divergent goals, values, norms, and identities. Attending to them simultaneously creates tensions, competing demands, and ethical dilemmas. Effectively understanding social enterprises therefore depends on insight into the nature and management of these tensions. While existing research recognizes tensions between social missions and business ventures, we lack any systematic analysis. Our paper addresses this issue. We first categorize the types of tensions that arise …
A Paradoxical Leadership Model For Social Entrepreneurs: Challenges, Leadership Skills, And Pedagogical Tools For Managing Social And Commercial Demands, Wendy K. Smith, Marya Besharov, Anne K. Wessels, Michael Chertok
A Paradoxical Leadership Model For Social Entrepreneurs: Challenges, Leadership Skills, And Pedagogical Tools For Managing Social And Commercial Demands, Wendy K. Smith, Marya Besharov, Anne K. Wessels, Michael Chertok
Marya Besharov
Social enterprises offer the promise of financially sustainable organizations that can respond to the world's most pressing problems. Yet for social enterprises to succeed their leaders must effectively manage conflicting demands that arise from dual commitments to improving social welfare and achieving commercial viability. While existing research highlights distinct skills for enabling social missions or for achieving business outcomes, we draw on paradox research to build theory about the challenges and associated skills for effectively managing the tensions emerging from the juxtaposition of social mission and business outcomes. We then use two exemplary settings for educating social entrepreneurs, one in …