Governance for a 'Socialised Economy'. A Case Study in Preventive Health and Work Integration

This case study focuses on the development and implementation of a governance structure and processes by a mainstream health unit that valued the principles of Aboriginal self-determination, empowerment and leadership by Aboriginal staff in organisational and service delivery decisions and elevated Aboriginal voices by embedding cultural inclusion in such decision making. Various models of embedding Aboriginal voices in the governance of the unit were developed and implemented over time. Ongoing review and reflection identified limitations and opportunities for improving the embedding of Aboriginal voices in organisational decision making. In 2017, Aboriginal staff and senior management implemented a joint governance model for providing strategic leadership of the unit with the objective of enhancing the delivery of culturally appropriate population health services for the benefit of Aboriginal communities. In its 3 years of operation to date, the model has provided strategic oversight of the organisation, implemented several strategic initiatives, including a cultural assessment process, maintaining and strengthening Aboriginal recruitment, monitoring employment vacancies, establishing a wellbeing leadership group, monitoring budget allocation and developing an Aboriginal data management protocol, and has provided additional professional development opportunities for Aboriginal staff. This case study demonstrates the feasibility, importance and benefits of engaging and embedding Aboriginal voices in the governance of a mainstream health service delivery unit, as well as the need for ongoing reflection and improvement. Further translation of the model to the operational levels of the unit is required. The governance model has the potential to be replicated in a tailored manner in other mainstream health units and organisations delivering services to Aboriginal peoples and communities. What is known about the topic? Aboriginal people continue to experience the poorest health outcomes of any population group in Australia. Closing the gap in Aboriginal health requires Aboriginal people to be active and equal participants in all levels of decision making. Governance of mainstream health organisations is predominantly positioned in the Western medical positivist paradigm, which fails to embed Aboriginal voices in organisational and service delivery decision making. What does this paper add? This case study describes the processes taken and the outcomes achieved thus far by a mainstream health service delivery unit developing and implementing a governance model that embedded Aboriginal perspectives in its decision making. It highlights that through commitment and persistence, as well as acknowledging the challenges of working between two worlds, it is possible to reconstruct existing governance models, allowing respectful and meaningful space for Aboriginal people to co-design and co-share the governance of health service delivery. This case study demonstrates the potential of the cultural governance model to be replicated and applied to other mainstream health service delivery units. What are the implications for practitioners? This case study highlights the need for health services to invest in employing and empowering Aboriginal people to co-develop and co-lead a shared approach to organisational governance through processes that are culturally safe, inclusive and appropriate.

This paper provides an overview of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise, making reference to pertinent literature. Internationally the distribution of social enterprises is uneven and there are noticeable differences that reflect national differences in welfare, labour market and ideology. Essentially however social enterprises seek business solutions to social problems and in order to do so, we argue, it is necessary for social enterprises to foster innovation. The papers included in this volume present different models and theories of how this might be achieved. All the authors place emphasis on the need to develop a sound theoretical platform and raise methodological problems common to management research. Additionally, the papers raise policy issues, such as how outcomes of social enterprise are valued and prioritised in different societies. The work discussed points to how social enterprise may offer innovative solutions to help solve problems of social integration, socially dysfunctional behaviour and socio-economic development. It indicates the need for further research, especially to test further the models comparatively. Finally this body of work builds on and extends our thinking about entrepreneurship, and the need to tie it into social, cultural, civic and political agenda.

Third sector literature underlines the existence of a plurality of stakeholders and a multiplicity of goals as the typical features among the others qualifying characteristics of Social Enterprise. This article deals with these topics with reference to the reality of 15 Belgian work integration social enterprises. First the presence of different categories of stakeholders is verified. Results show the prevalence of third sector organizations representatives and the significant amount of permanent staff delegates and business enterprises representatives. The multiplicity of goals is then analyzed verifying the hypothesis of three main categories of objective within work integration social enterprises: occupational and social integration, production of goods and services, advocacy and lobbying. Collected data show that the first two mentioned goals have the same importance within organizational mission. Finally the relationship between the two topics is investigated.

Alan Foxis one of the most prolific and original British sociologists of industry and employment. Fox's largely derivative writings on macro-sociology have received considerable attention in the literature. In comparison his original micro-sociological theory of the role played by trust in organizational integration has been neglected. This paper presents a critical evaluation of Fox's microsociological theory of 'trust dynamics' in organizations. The paper identifies conceptual, theoretical and methodological weaknesses in Fox's complex argument and concludes that Fox's theory is invalid. The paper also suggests that trust in organizational life is probably more significant as an aspect of 'social integration' than, as Fox contends, as an aspect of 'system integration'. Alan Foxis one of the most prolific and important British industrial sociologists of recent decades. Fox's work must be regarded as one of the most original corpuses of thought to emerge in his discipline, and reflects a line of development which has taken him from a theoretical position within what may be called the 'liberal consensus' to a 'radical' position, which is at the same time eclectic and distinctive. It is in fact the shift which occurred in Fox's thought, and, in particular, the macro-sociological argument to which Fox's change of outlook may be attributed, which have aroused most interest among sociologists and industrial relations specialists. ' Less attention has been focused on the micro-sociological theory developed by Fox: the theory of 'trust dynamics' in organizations. The relative neglect of Fox's microsociology can only be attributed to the circumstances in which the theory was advanced. In the years following the publication of Beyond Contract,' the book in which Fox developed his ideas, renewed interest in the 'labour process' revitalized the sociology of work and employment in the USA and Britain. The agenda for research into the labour process was set

The potential of the social entrepreneurship and the social economy to find solutions to social problems, create sustainable jobs, facilitate social and social labour integration, the fight against poverty and social exclusion leads to continuous development of social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria in recent years. The focus of this article is on the nature of social enterprises, the main characteristics of social entrepreneurs and the impact of organizational culture on the activities of social enterprises. The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the importance and impact of organizational culture in the context of social entrepreneurship. The main tasks are related to: research the essence of social enterprise; identification of the main characteristics of the social entrepreneur; identifying the link between the social enterprise and the organisational culture; assessing the impact of the organisational culture on the social enterprise by studying the impact of the organisational culture on the achievement of the social enterprise objectives and the social impact; and analysing the relationship between the organisational culture and motivation, commitment and satisfaction of employees in the social enterprise. The expected results are: to establish a thorough understanding of the relationship between organisational culture and social enterprises, to demonstrate that a strong and strategically aligned organisational culture positively influences the overall performance and impact of social enterprises.

Purpose The global festival landscape, while significant for community cohesion and economic growth, lacks research focused on the complex dynamics of Latin America, where most studies remain concentrated in the Global North. In this context, the purpose of this article is to analyze the role of community benefits in promoting social integration and the fulfillment of individual needs within community-based tourism settings. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory-descriptive quantitative approach was employed, with data collected through an online survey administered to 3,040 residents of Blumenau who attended the Oktoberfest festival. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze relationships among community benefits, need satisfaction and institutional trust. Findings The results indicate that institutional trust serves as a link that enhances the transformation of collective benefits into social integration and well-being, underscoring the importance of legitimate institutions for the sustainable success of community projects. Originality/value Despite the recognized importance of benefits and institutional trust, there is a gap in the integrated understanding of how institutional trust mediates the relationship between community benefits and the perception of individual needs being met, limiting both theoretical and practical advancements in this field.

In this chapter we examine the alternative approaches to governing the zoo in Italy and England – two countries with long traditions of state support for social enterprise. Italy is widely credited with developing the concept of social enterprise, and was one of the first countries in the world to develop a specific legal form for social enterprise through the social cooperative, while England has arguably the most developed state support apparatus for social enterprise. Despite different political starting points, and different approaches to governing the zoo, both Italy and England appear to be converging towards a governance model whereby organizational form is downplayed in favour of more instrumental approaches in which political support is provided to any organization or activity that can contribute towards policy goals. This promises a social enterprise zoo with greater biodiversity in both countries.

Face of social, economic, environmental challenges and proliferation of multi-crises - a development of social entrepreneurship, involvement and civic activism become very desirable. A need for interactions and cooperation between various groups of actors present in the local spaces is often seen as the contemporary paradigm. The aim of the study is to conceptualize the cooperation process between social enterprises and business. The presented results of empirical research constitute the basis for identifying potential areas of cooperation to increase the potential of social entrepreneurship. The research is based on a case study conducted in a local environment. Theoretical research was conducted using the deductive method. Empirical research methodology was used in the form of interviews and business modeling techniques. The phenomenon of cooperation was explored against the background of opportunities to develop social entrepreneurship, strengthen the potential of cooperating enterprises and achieve benefits for local communities. The result of the research is the discovery of the basic dimensions of practical and effective cooperation between social enterprises and business in the form of an analog-representational model. In the proposed research approach, mutual involvement in joint initiatives based on active involvement, lasting and interactive cooperation and sharing was considered crucial. The research covered the context of creating innovation potential, outsourcing services, implementing the common good and sharing resources. It seems that the presented approach may be universal and can be extrapolated to other regions and cultural contexts.

In an era when the recent financial crisis has raised questions about the morality and sustainability of the economic system, and austerity measures have led to funding challenges for many charitable and voluntary organisations, hybrid organisational forms such as social enterprise offer a promising alternative: an ethical form of business able to address social issues and reduce the dependence on donations and government funding. However, history suggests that it can be difficult for social enterprises to maintain their social goals in the face of commercial pressures and that consequently they may succumb to mission drift. Organisational governance is important in helping to manage these competing pressures, and this chapter examines some of the main choices and challenges that social enterprises face in designing their governance structures, systems and processes. One of the challenges facing hybrid organisations, such as social enterprises, is how to combine different logics; for example, many social enterprises have to combine a commercial logic necessary for operating in the market with a 'charitable'1 logic of pursuing a social mission (Ebrahim et al., 2014). It has been suggested that combining different logics can result in long-term instability, where one logic comes to dominate (Young et al., 2012). Indeed, traditional left-wing critiques of co-operatives and other forms of employee ownership suggested that these organisations would simply degenerate into being no different from capitalist forms of business as they succumbed to pressures from the marketplace (Mandel, 1975). This process whereby an organisation gradually loses its social mission is often called mission creep or mission drift (Minkoff and Powell, 2006; Jones, 2007). While social enterprises are not the only types of organisation to be susceptible to mission drift, they face the particular challenge of trying to manage being both a business and pursuing a social mission.

Purpose This study examines work experiences of people with visible physical disabilities, focusing on their social integration in organizations, an area receiving limited attention in academic literature, particularly in Israel. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data were collected through semistructured in-depth interviews with 19 employees with visible physical disabilities (vision, hearing and limb disabilities). Findings Three central themes emerged: (a) “accessibility before everything,” describing the importance of organizational accessibility for professional and social functioning, (b) “there is someone to talk to,” focusing on employee-employer relationships and their effect on work routines and (c) “the person beyond disability,” emphasizing employees' active contributions to their own social integration. Practical implications These findings provide essential information for policy makers and employers to develop targeted inclusion programs. Organizations can benefit from creating accessible environments not only physically but socially, with management taking active roles in modeling inclusive behaviors while empowering employees with disabilities to advocate for their needs. Originality/value This study broadens the perspective on diversity and inclusion in organizations by drawing attention to the social aspects that must be considered when employing individuals with visible physical disabilities. It reinforces the findings of Novak and Rogan (2009) and applies contact theory as a theoretical framework for analyzing workplace integration. Moreover, the study challenges prevailing assumptions that individuals with disabilities are passive or lack influence over their social status within the organization. Instead, it offers a critical lens on the mutual interaction between environmental and personal factors as essential for fostering effective workplace.

This study investigates whether Korea’s Regional Innovation System for Education (RISE) effectively supports the qualitative settlement of local talent—conceptualized as ‘Seeping’ (emotional and relational embeddedness)—by conducting a comparative analysis of the RISE master plans (2025–2029) of Gangwon, Jeju, and Ulsan. A review of prior studies revealed that existing regional innovation research remains largely focused on the triple helix structure—local government, universities, and industry—thus insufficiently addressing the role of civil society. In addition, settlement research has predominantly relied on quantitative indicators such as employment rates and population inflows, limiting the explanation of qualitative processes of regional attachment. To address these limitations, this study adopts the quadruple helix as a normative model for regional innovation governance and operationalizes the concept of ‘Seeping’ by categorizing it into emotional bonding (E1), social integration (E2), and community engagement (E3). Using Krippendorff’s qualitative content analysis methodology, the study coded and analyzed the vision, strategies, core projects, and governance structures of the three regional plans based on QH (Q1–Q4) and Seeping (E1–E3) categories. The results indicate that all three regions are still dominated by triple helix governance, with the participation of civil society (Q4) remaining limited to project-level involvement such as living labs. In the Seeping analysis, clear regional distinctions emerged. Gangwon demonstrated a balanced integration of emotional bonding (E1) and social integration (E2), reflecting a multi-dimensional approach linking living, cultural, and academic spaces. Jeju emphasized community engagement (E3), forming an economy- and practice-oriented settlement model through strategies such as contribution-based talent cultivation and employment–residence linkage. Ulsan displayed a strong emphasis on social integration (E2) and community engagement (E3), reinforcing settlement through employment connectivity and living infrastructure, while emotional attachment-building strategies were comparatively limited. These findings suggest that the design phase of RISE is implemented differently depending on each region’s industrial structure, population flows, and policy priorities, and that the embeddedness of qualitative settlement elements within strategic planning is essential for establishing a sustainable regional innovation ecosystem. The study highlights the institutionalization of civil society participation and the strengthening of emotional and identity-based settlement strategies as key challenges for advancing the RISE framework.

Social Entrepreneurship is an organized activity aimed at seizing the various opportunities, forms, enterprises and measures in order to create sustainable social values and benefits and employment of persons belonging to marginalized groups of persons, whereby profit is primarily used for employment of socially excluded or vulnerable social groups, as well as to create solutions for the needs and problems in the social community. Modern working conditions force companies to adopt innovative approaches to work in order to make the best use of opportunities. In today's working conditions, and enterprises that perform a certain type of social activity, they face the challenge of continuous monitoring of changes in the operations and successful application of innovations as a prerequisite for growth and development.For the development of social enterprises and social entrepreneurship it is necessary to use the opportunities in the environment and to change certain segments in the organizational systems, to introduce and apply new approaches to sustainable solutions that create a higher social value. The social and professional integration of marginalized workers and other vulnerable groups is one of the possible ways to create a higher social value. The social enterprise, as a legal entity that acts in a particular social economy, is usually not oriented only towards the creation of profits, but it is oriented towards the creation of a social impact by implementing innovative methods for providing goods and services on the market. Differences in the direction of social enterprises and other business enterprises cause differences in the application of innovative management.The aim of this paper is to understand the significance and impact of modern-innovative management for the development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as emphasizing the need for applying an appropriate methodological approach in creating the necessary management decisions. The subject of research in this paper is focused on perceiving the different business models of social enterprises and the impact of innovative management approach in the development of social enterprises in the Republic of Macedonia.

Sociologists have often criticised notions of preventive health work advocated by doctors. This work has yielded important insights into victim‐blaming and into ways the economic and political causes of ill‐health have been mystified or denied. While this analytical strategy remains an important one, it needs extending in at least three directions. First, we must appreciate changes over time in the forms of arguments about preventive work; secondly, we must situate the argument both in terms of developments within the medical profession and in terms of the relationship of the medical profession to the wider society; finally, we need to make sense of the doctors’ claims that these ideas are radical/progressive.The paper is based on a recent series of reports on prevention by the Royal College of General Practitioners, and focusses in particular on the one dealing with preventive care for children.

Factors influencing Malaysian environmental NGOs participation in climate governance: A DEMATEL-Base analysis

In April 2019, the House of Lords Select Committee published its report on the Future of Seaside Towns. This paper argues that while government has accepted some of the findings and belatedly recognised the issues that the report highlighted, the ‘left behind’ nature of many of the communities on the coast means that more decisive action is required. The recently announced Town Deals for 100 communities will go some way in helping, but not far enough. Only approximately a quarter of the deals will cover the deprived coastal areas and it is not yet clear exactly how the government expects to allocate the significant resource they have announced (£3.6bn). It is argued that more needs to be done to help seaside communities to come to terms with the changes they face. As UK residents continue to seek holidays abroad, the unique selling point (USP) of the seaside has to change. Shorter ‘staycations’ are increasingly the norm, with visitors wanting something more than the old-style bracing experience they enjoyed in simpler days. Responding to new trends in visits is essential, but the pleasures of a seaside stay need to be repurposed and rethought. To reimagine our seaside assets, investment is required. Much of the investment will need to be into connectivity and infrastructure. To make good use of resource, however, it is essential that governance models have at their core principles of effective leadership, partnership working and making good use of the insight and talents of socially responsive businesses and social enterprise. If this approach is harnessed, the government’s Town Deal programme might make a much-needed impact.