Working For Impact, But Failing to Experience It: Exploring Individuals’ Sensemaking in Social Enterprises

Individuals start and join social enterprises to catalyze social impact but may not subjectively experience their work as impactful. In this article, we inductively uncover when social enterprise members question the impactfulness of their work and how they engage in sensemaking to experience their...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business & society 2023-09, Vol.62 (7), p.1458-1495
Main Authors: Drencheva, Andreana, Au, Wee Chan, Li Yew, Jian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Social entrepreneurship
Social impact
Work experience
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Individuals start and join social enterprises to catalyze social impact but may not subjectively experience their work as impactful. In this article, we inductively uncover when social enterprise members question the impactfulness of their work and how they engage in sensemaking to experience their work as impactful. Exploring the experiences of members across two social enterprises with different missions, we provide insights into instances creating ambiguity of or discrepancies in impactfulness and unearth how individuals navigate these in different circumstances with two distinct sensemaking practices: internalizing and compensating. We reveal the efforts required to experience work as impactful, highlight the heterogeneity and agency in maintaining this perception, and suggest a potential dark side for members and missions of social enterprises.
ISSN:0007-6503
1552-4205
DOI:10.1177/00076503221150780