- Title
- Managing tensions in social enterprises’ pursuit of social and economic missions- a case study of the healthcare social enterprises in Ghana
- Creator
- Mohammed, Abdul-Latif
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2025
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This thesis examines how Ghana healthcare Social Enterprises (SEs) manage tensions between pursuing social and economic missions. SEs are organisations that have two main goals: providing social benefits to those in need and ensuring financial sustainability through revenue-generating activities. Their contribution to solving socioeconomic problems is increasingly being acknowledged. SEs, being hybrid organisations, face the challenge of balancing their social and economic objectives, which can often result in conflicts and tensions due to challenges arising from managing seemingly incompatible social and economic goals. In both theory and practice, knowledge of how SEs successfully balance their social and economic missions can sometimes be equivocal and remains a research problem needing attention. Prior research, while offering some understanding of managing socioeconomic missions, lacks comprehensive knowledge for analysing when and how SEs experience and actively navigate inherent tensions. Moreover, studies showed that insights on SEs' dual social and economic mission management mostly come from an Anglo-Saxon and European context, while the research focusing on a non-Western understanding is limited. Notably, the role of leadership in the successful pursuit of both SE missions has received limited scholarly attention. Furthermore, limiting the analysis to the hybridity of social and economic missions within SEs is problematic, as various macro, meso, and micro level factors may either impede or support their pursuit of dual missions. This study applies paradox and institutional theory to explain how SE experienced tensions at the macro, meso and micro levels and how these tensions are managed across these levels. The study further discussed how suitable leadership styles are adopted by SE to address these tensions at the macro, meso and micro levels. Through a qualitative study of 12 healthcare SEs in Ghana, 39 interviews were conducted with founders/CEO, HR/Programs and Finance officers. The findings uncover the macro institutional contexts, such as political, social, or Indigenous, have distinct institutional logics and can lead to tensions in SEs’ pursuit of social and economic missions at the macro level. The findings further show that the pluralistic institutional dynamics affect the mechanisms used by the healthcare SEs to address tension when pursuing both missions simultaneously. At the meso level, the study reveals tensions in healthcare SEs as an organisation carrier of various forms, identities, or logics which have implications for organisational governance. The study highlights the importance of organisational governance such as clear standard operating procedures for HR, finance, and administration, and organisational policies in SEs’ dual mission pursuit. At the micro level, the study’s findings reveal the nature of the challenge healthcare SEs face in engaging diverse individuals’ values. The study discloses various mechanisms, such as role swapping and clear responsibilities, which promote innovative leadership development. These methods allow leaders to experience different roles and enhance their understanding and effectiveness in coping with multiple requests emerging from the healthcare SEs’ social and economic missions’ pursuit. Moreover, the findings revealed that transformational, authentic, servant and participatory leadership behaviours are suitable styles for healthcare SEs to address tension and to attain both missions. The study shows how various leadership behaviours are adopted at each level to address corresponding tensions. The study further highlights how the Ghanaian context influences the adoption of these behaviours. By a theoretical framework based on an integration of both theories, the study contributes to a nuanced understanding of different levels of factors, from micro, meso, and macro, that interact with each other to influence SEs’ endeavours to deliver impactful social services and sustainable financial outcomes. This thesis proposes future research directions.
- Subject
- social enterprise; institutional theory; paradox theory; leadership; multi-level analysis; healthcare
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1518475
- Identifier
- uon:57298
- Rights
- Copyright 2025 Abdul-Latif Mohammed
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 323 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |