Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IATSO (INDIVIDUAL ACTION THROUGH SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS: THE CASE OF POVERTY)

Teaser

There is a lack of research on organisations with social goals in management. For an extreme case, i.e., of poverty, Prahalad (2006) described compelling examples of innovative organisations in South Asia, which he suggested served the poor. However, very little is known...

Summary

There is a lack of research on organisations with social goals in management. For an extreme case, i.e., of poverty, Prahalad (2006) described compelling examples of innovative organisations in South Asia, which he suggested served the poor. However, very little is known about: 1) What factors ‘cause’ social organisations, for instance, in settings of extreme poverty, to grow and scale up ‘successfully,’ and how and why? and 2) What organisational factors influence ‘social performance’ for target groups, and how and why, and under which conditions (where and when), and for whom?
Building on insights from our earlier theoretical and empirical work on networks, leadership, and learning, as well as our extensive pilot studies in India, we explore how and why social organisations grow and scale up, in relation to social outcomes for relevant target groups, using mixed methods (a qualitative phase followed by a quantitative phase, to first build and then test theory). We study organisations in an extreme setting, where, arguably, social problems are worst: of poverty in South Asia, and picked the education sector given its potential importance for enabling people to move out of poverty. We believe that a better understanding of how and why organisations scale up successfully to enable target groups in poverty to be more proactive is also relevant from a practical perspective. It is for instance at the heart of the new Sustainable Development Goals, and it is our hope to make a contribution into this direction.

Work performed

SPECIFIC RESEARCH PROJECTS
The first qualitative project will explore what organisational factors influence how organizations grow, scale up, and change over time, building on leadership-, social network-, and learning-theory. This project was initially scheduled for the first half of the grant period but will now (approved by an amendment) be carried out in the second half of the grant period (due changed conditions of the post-doc). Two data collection rounds have already been conducted by the PI.
In the second qualitative project, we explored teachers’ ideological and other non-pecuniary motivations. This project was completed as planned (and will be the first half of a mixed-method paper, together with the subsequent quantitative project). The PI conducted two rounds of qualitative data collection (interviews)with Gyan Shala teachers (n=33, some longitudinal), and other staff members (n=16, some longitudinal). Interviews were transcribed and analysed leading to the identification of ‘moral duty’ and ‘community identification’ as key incentives/constructs, and a range of other important constructs, and emerging theoretical insights. This formed the basis of extensive development of new theory and hypotheses (completed), PI plus prof. Coyle-Shapiro. This contributes to previous theory, in terms of understanding what motivates frontline workers in social organizations addressing Sustainable Development Goals (such as poverty, SDG1, and education, SDG4).

In the third qualitative project we explored long-term effects of the organization analysed above on the students of the education. This qualitative project has been completed as planned as well. The PI interviewed, in two rounds, students (n=38, some longitudinal) who had started classes from the first three years (2001 – 2004), now18-23 years old. We build on the work of Amartya Sen to develop a new construct of ‘social impact’ by identifying a range of key ‘capabilities’ from the perspective of the kids themselves, as well as a range of teachers and other experts the PI interviewed in this respect. Interviews were transcribed, and analysed using NVivo 10, leading to the identification of various key capabilities for students, together with a range of other important constructs, and emerging theoretical insights, which formed the basis of the development of new theory and new hypotheses (completed). This qualitative work will lead to a new measurement scale of social impact, which is currently a ‘hot topic’ in management research.
The work from the second and third qualitative project were combined to develop one quantitative project, where theoretical insights from the second qualitative project were used for the antecedents of the full-scale theoretical model (representing our new theory and hypotheses), and the work from the second qualitative project to develop a new, multi-dimensional construct and measure for social impact. Testing this theoretical model will require, beyond the initially planned 3 rounds of data collection, two additional, independent rounds of for measurement instrument development for the social impact scale, in total 5 major rounds of data collection. We have asked and obtained permission for this, through an amendment. Ahead of plans, the first round was done before the completion of the first half of the project (Nov. 1, 2018). So, this work is ahead of schedule.
In the fourth qualitative project, we studied social enterprises in an incubator in India, i.e., leadership-follower relationships in these social enterprises and how this influenced organizational learning and performance of these enterprises. Because the PhD programme at the LSE for which the PhD student – Paroma Bhattacharya – was accepted, was suspended at the last moment (Sept. 2017) for two years, we had no other choice (approved through an amendment) than to let her go through the (excellent) PhD programme in Durham starting Oct. 2018, which has

Final results

As explained in our grant proposal, we expect a range of additional results until the end of the period:
- A fully developed and tested theory on how (and why) micro-mechanisms (i.e., management practices) such as non-pecuniary incentives of front line workers in social organizations (we identified: moral duty, identification with the local community) influence their behaviour in slums (social change) and social impact. The former are the type of \'internal practices\' typically studied in management research (although we look at new incentives for management researchers) and the latter: social change and social impact are traditionally studied in International Development, Development Economics, and so on. Hence, we develop new, inter- and cross-disciplinary theory, explaining the micro-mechanisms of social impact creation.
- We also provide new theory on how social organisations develop, scale, and change over time, for instance, social enterprises in an incubator in Mumbai, the role of leadership and learning in this respect.
- In most of our research we adopt a mixed-method approach: first qualitative research to develop new, locally valid theory, then develop this theory more rigorously theoretically, then use rigorous quantitative research sometimes using newly developed measurement scales to test the new theory (rather than use existing \'western\' theories and test them quantitatively, i.e., torture the data till they confuse). We believe is more rigorous than almost anything earlier in this space in management research, and hopefully will inspire future work in this domain as well.
- More specifically, we develop a new measurement scale for social impact (see above) which is new for management researchers but also for other disciplines, we believe, operating in the social space.
- All of this is expected to lead to papers in top journals, practical publications, and so on.