Recruitment in Social Entrepreneurship
A study into the differences of the recruitment process of commercial, hybrid and
social organizations using a mixed method content analysis of vacancies.
K.C.A. Persoon
ID UVA: 11111542
ID VU: 2586226
01-07-2016
Master thesis
Master Entrepreneurship
Supervisor: Dr. J. Sol
Recruitment in Social Entrepreneurship.
Author:
Koen C.A. Persoon BSc
Student ID UvA:
11111542
Student ID VU:
2586226
Email address:
koenpersoon@gmail.com
Master thesis
Study:
Entrepreneurship
University:
University of Amsterdam & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Joint Degree)
Supervisor:
Dr. J. Sol
Preface
The past four years I spent most of my time at the university. With a lot of interest and enthusiasm I obtained my bachelor in business administration, a broad education with a clear social perspective. During my bachelor it became apparent to me that the societal value of organizations for the development of the society are of great importance. The concepts of sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation required, in my view, further deepening. Therefore, the master of entrepreneurship in Amsterdam seemed to me the perfect place to finalize my academic career. The opportunity to choose certain specific courses gave me the possibility to develop myself further in topics of my own interest.
When I look into the future, to my working career, I only want to work for companies that add something to society. Companies that matter and companies that take their responsibility in terms of sustainability and society. I want to have a connection with the primary process of the organization and have affinity with the output a company delivers. The last hurdle of the master, in the form of this thesis, gave me the possibility to take a look at those companies. To see what kind of employees they are looking for and what they offer.
The writing of this thesis was a dynamic and educational process. The combination of doing an internship and at the same time writing a thesis was sometimes hard but very diverse and invigorating. Both practice and theory were constantly alternated and this kept me focused and persevere to finish both in time. It required discipline and concentration but I can finally say that I finished it; of which I am proud. I hope that scientist, companies, entrepreneurs and others will enjoy reading this thesis.
Of course, I have never been completely alone during the writing process, without help I would not have been where I am now. My gratitude is great to Joeri Sol, my supervisor from the University of Amsterdam, for his constructive criticism, feedback and his scientific knowledge, from whom I learned a lot. Furthermore, I want to thank my girlfriend Amanda for her encouragement, critical reflection and enjoyable moments after my thesis sessions. Also I want to thank my friends for providing relaxing breaks in between study sessions. And lastly, but not least, I want to thank my parents, for their encouragement and believe in me during my entire study period. Now it’s up to me.
Koen Persoon
Summary
Acting socially responsible is becoming more common, both for individuals and organizations. Making money and earning profit is often not the sole objective anymore. The relatively new concept of social entrepreneurship fits well within this trend, as social entrepreneurs aim to create social value instead of maximizing profits (Peredo & Mclean, 2006). However, previous literature shows that these hybrid organizations (i.e. having the dual objective of economic and social performance) have difficulties in finding the right staff (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). This thesis is aimed at exploring the differences in the recruitment process between commercial, hybrid and social organizations.
The study comprehended a mixed method content analysis of vacancies. 251 vacancies were collected from 114 different organizations. Firstly, a quantitative analysis was executed to compare the salaries offered, and the amount of required skills and abilities asked, by three types of organizations (that is, ‘traditional’ for-profits, non-profits , and hybrids). Secondly, the qualitative analysis uses text analysis to explore the differences in the way organizations describe themselves and the personal characteristics they look for in their employees.
The quantitative results show that hybrid organizations offer lower salaries and require fewer skills and abilities as compared to for-profit organizations. On the other hand, we learn from the qualitative data that hybrid organizations do offer unique secondary benefits of nonpecuniary nature. Also, hybrid organizations value an informal working environment where sustainable and social goals are on top. They look for employees that are intrinsically motivated and passionate to make an impact and who are willing to add something to society. Hybrid organizations seem to believe that these characteristics are more important than the right quantity and quality of skills and abilities.
The thesis reveals some corresponding results with previous research and extends the literature of social entrepreneurship and human resources. The thesis is however limited by several factors. Firstly, the amount of missing observations in the data. Secondly, the vacancies represent all kind of jobs from different industries; which might lead to unobservable results due to incomparability. Thirdly, only the sole perspective of the employer is studied; the employee perspective has not been explored. Future research should incorporate the perspective of potential employees to find out what they are looking for in a job. This enables better matching in the job market, since supply and demand of jobs and personnel will be better coordinated.
Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship, Social Purpose Business, Hybrid Organization, Human Resource Management, Recruitment, Vacancies.
Index
Preface ... 2
Summary ... 3
Chapter 1: Introduction ... 5
Chapter 2: Literature Review ... 9
§2.1 Types of Entrepreneurship ... 9
§2.2 Staffing ... 12
§2.3 Hypothesis... 13
Chapter 3: Methodology ... 15
§3.2 Data Collection ... 16
§3.3 Reliability & Validity ... 16
§3.4 Data, Analysis & Results ... 17
Chapter 4: Results ... 20
§4.1 Monthly Salary ... 20
§4.2 Skills and Abilities ... 22
§4.3 Remuneration and Secondary Benefits ... 22
§4.4 Firm Descriptions ... 24
§4.5 Personal Characteristics ... 27
§4.6 Work Environment ... 28
Chapter 5: Conclusion & Discussion ... 31
§5.1 Findings and Recommendations ... 31
§5.2 Limitations and Further Research ... 33
References ... 35
Appendix I – Database Format ... 38
"I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community. I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in." - Anita Roddick, The Body Shop.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The social awareness of the population seems to be increasing (Potter, Binns, Elliott & Smith, 2004). Pure economic value is not the only thing people care about anymore, more people are willing to contribute to society. It seems that acting socially responsible is more common than ever before (Dees, 1998). Entrepreneurs are the driving force in the implementation of this changes in our economy. They incorporate the trends and developments of society and business into their organizations and are the ones that move along with society. Entrepreneurship leads to the generation of employment, innovation and growth (Van Praag & Versloot, 2007). Nowadays entrepreneurs thus also incorporate the creation of social value in their organization, under the heading of social entrepreneurship.
Social entrepreneurship is however still emerging as an area for academic research (Mair & Marti, 2006; Cuckier, Trenholm, Carl & Gekas, 2011). Even though it is not a new field of research, it remains dwarfed by the research on commercial entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and social movements (Cuckier et al., 2011). It seems to be the case however that all these types of businesses can be linked together on the parameter of type of returns. A distinction can be made between the two extremes of the creation of economic value, which are pure commercial enterprises, and the creation of social value, which are charities (Dees & Anderson, 2003a; Emerson, 2003; Peredo & Mclean, 2006). In between those extremes lies the social purpose business, which is also referred to as for profit social entrepreneurship or hybrid organizations. The social purpose business (SPB) provides a way to solve social problems on the one hand and on the other hand tries to achieve financial objectives (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999; Wry & York, 2015). This goal is called the double bottom line and incorporates the creation of blended value (Dees & Anderson, 2003b). The blended value creation brings however complex challenges with it, since such enterprises try to achieve two seemingly competitive goals (Dees & Anderson, 2003b).
One of these challenges has to do with organizational development, which is key for entrepreneurs to achieve long-term survival. Organizations have to adapt to market demand quickly and re-allocate resources in the best way, therefore skilled personnel is needed (Dees & Anderson, 2003b). For profit ventures however have an easier job in attracting skilled personnel than social ventures (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). Firstly, as more money is available to managers in the commercial sector, the financial rewards at social purpose businesses are perceived to be more limited. Secondly, in a social enterprise exposure to the social problems addressed can have impact on the mental state of managers. Buffers and support might be needed to handle those difficult situations. This constant exposure to social
problems can take its toll. Finally, working in an enterprise that has to create blended value requires more energy, skills and responsibilities than a single purpose organization. Expectations from managers should therefore be realistic.
Finding and retaining skilled management staff is central in the success of a venture but this seems to be harder for a hybrid organization than for a purely economic or social organization (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). On the other hand; society has a growing social awareness and more people want to contribute to the creation of social value. These two statements contradict one another. In this thesis the gap that arises in the recruitment process of personnel is investigated. For the retention of managers several strategies have already been developed, on the structural, cultural and operational level (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). Such as incorporating a training & counseling program, creating a long range vision, cross training staff and team building. Recruitment and selection are however the starting point to find and hire the right personnel. The literature has yet to identify a solution to the challenges of finding candidates with the dual expertise needed in social purpose businesses.
The recruitment and selection process is thus very important in the eventual survival of organizations, since the right employees are needed to induce organizational development. Pure commercial and pure social organizations do not have issues regarding the recruitment of the right personnel (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). Therefore it is interesting to examine what those types of businesses do differently in the recruitment process in comparison with social purpose businesses. The aim of this research is to investigate the way the three types of organizations recruit their employees using vacancies. The main research question is as follows:
How do descriptions of job opportunities differ between commercial, hybrid and social organizations?
To get an answer on this question I will analyze the characteristics of employees that social purpose businesses are looking for and how these are compared to nonsocial and pure social businesses. Next to that I will compare what social purpose businesses have to offer to potential employees in comparison to nonsocial and pure social businesses.
In this thesis different aspects will be analyzed and therefore different methods are needed to get an answer on the main question. Firstly, I will review the literature to gain insight in the theoretical concepts that are central in this thesis. Namely, social entrepreneurship, social purpose businesses and the recruitment process. To get reliable and viable data I used the databases and search engines of the University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Secondly, a mixed method content analysis of vacancies is done. The thesis takes as a starting point the issue of finding qualified personnel in social purpose businesses, knowledge about this subject has to be gathered. An explanation for this issue is
sought by comparing the recruitment process of pure commercial, pure social and hybrid businesses. Data is retrieved from public vacancy-databases from the internet to investigate the employers perspective. By comparing the content of vacancies I can analyze the differences of recruitment between the several types of businesses. The analysis is done using a mixed methods analysis tool called Dedoose and the statistical software IBM SPSS. Based on the results of the analysis suggestions might be formulated that can be implemented in the recruitment practices to attain qualified personnel in hybrid businesses. The research is thus aimed at contributing to the theory about social purpose businesses and recruitment processes (Boeije, 2012). The research is therefore primarily theoretically focused, but it also has an external objective with regard to the practice (Bleijenbergh, 2013).
The results show that social purpose businesses offer relatively low salaries in comparison with pure commercial and social organizations. In exchange, employees of hybrid organizations are rewarded with unique secondary benefits and an informal working environment. Hybrid organizations look for employees who are truly motivated to add something to society and who are passionate to change the world for the better. Hybrid organizations do not require more skills and abilities from their employees, despite the demanding jobs. It seems that social purpose businesses prefer employees who are committed and willing to work for such an organizations over employees who are perfectly suited and qualified to do a certain job.
The field of research on social entrepreneurship is young, but it is getting more attention and is growing (Mair & Marti, 2006; Cuckier et al., 2011). The importance of creating social value is more acknowledged by entrepreneurs as well as by large established companies. Social purpose businesses will become more a rule rather than the exception. This will make it even more challenging for businesses to find and attract suited employees. It is important for entrepreneurs to be aware of this fact and know how to deal with this in the future. Therefore this thesis will be useful for businesses in practice. In addition to this, few of the contributions in the nascent social entrepreneurship literature have been empirical.
The recruitment process of organizations is on the other hand already extensively investigated by professors in the field of human resource management (Bloisi, 2007; Boseli, 2010). Best practices have been developed to implement the most suited human resource management strategy for specific companies (Deshpande & Golhar, 1994). This is however primarily studied in companies of different sizes and ages. In this thesis I will compare the recruitment process between organizations based on the type of value created. This thesis is thus aimed at a different target group, which might lead to different results.
In the next chapter the theoretical concepts that are central in the thesis will be discussed. Based on this, hypothesis will be formulated. In chapter three the research methods will be discussed and
explained. Subsequently in chapter four the findings of the study will be presented. Finally in chapter five a conclusion will be given and the results will be discussed.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
In this chapter the most important theoretical concepts for the thesis will be discussed. The chapter starts with an overview of the concepts entrepreneurship and social purpose businesses. In the second part human resource management will be discussed with a specific focus on the staffing process. The chapter is concluded with the formulation of hypothesis which will form the basis for the empirical research.
§2.1 Types of Entrepreneurship
The literature on entrepreneurship is growing. Two types of value creation can be distinguished in the literature on entrepreneurship. Namely, financial value creation and social value creation (Peredo & McLean, 2006). In between those extreme types of value creation distinct types of business have been developed based on different mixes of returns. An overview of all the types of businesses is shown in figure 1.
Generally three business types are acknowledged: pure commercial organizations, pure social organizations and hybrid organizations or social purpose businesses. In this thesis the hybrid social purpose businesses is central. As described in the introduction social purpose businesses have specific challenges to deal with due to the blended value creation. I will first describe the field of social value creation in social purpose businesses followed by the pure social enterprise.
Social Purpose Business
Social entrepreneurship has been a rising field of research, which gained a lot of attention in the past decade. It is however still an emerging area for academic inquiry (Austin, Stevenson & Wei-Skillern, 2006). As of yet there is no consensus on the definition of social entrepreneurship, the concept of social entrepreneurship means different things to different people (Dees, 1998; Mair & Marti, 2006). One group sees social entrepreneurship as a means to alleviate social problems and initiate social transformation (Alvord, Brown, Letts, 2004). The second group of researchers looks at social entrepreneurship as not-for-profit initiatives in search of alternative funding strategies, or management schemes to create social value (Austin et al., 2006). A third group sees it as social responsible acting of commercial businesses
(Sagawa & Segal, 2000). The overarching theme in the different views on social entrepreneurship is the aim of creating social value. The primary objective of commercial, or non-social entrepreneurship, on the other hand is the creation of personal or shareholder wealth1 (Dacin, Dacin & Matear, 2010). Social entrepreneurship is aimed at benefitting society instead of purely maximizing individuals profit (Tan, Williams & Tan, 2005). Social entrepreneurs use traditional entrepreneurship with a social mission to change society by discovering, defining and exploiting opportunities (Dees, 1998; Zahra et al., 2009).
Mair & Marti (2006) and Peredo & McLean (2006) both developed a framework of social entrepreneurship. Based on their assumptions social entrepreneurship can be viewed as a process of creating social value by combining resources in new ways. The combinations of resources are intended primarily to explore and exploit opportunities to create social value by stimulating social change or meeting social needs. Innovation is employed to do so. It involves the offering of services and products, but it can also refer to the creation of new organizations. Social entrepreneurs also tolerate and accept an above average level of risk, like regular entrepreneurs. It is thus about adapting to a social mission to create and sustain social value by using innovation (Dees, 1998). The driving factor for social entrepreneurship is the social problem being addressed and the creation of social value. Economic value creation is seen as a necessary condition to ensure financial viability (Austin et al., 2006; Mair & Marti, 2006). Economic wealth is seen as a means to an end for social entrepreneurs (Dees, 1998; Peredo & McLean, 2006). Social entrepreneurship can refer to innovative activity with a social objective in either the for-profit sector or in the nonprofit sector (Austin et al., 2006).
In the for-profit sector hybrid structural forms with mixed for-profit and non-profit characteristics arise (Dees & Anderson, 2003b; Austin et al., 2006). According to Mair & Marti (2006) the choice of organizational form is dictated by the nature of the social needs addressed, the amount of resources needed, the scope of raising capital, and the ability to capture economic value. There is a continuum on the type of social goals, as seen in figure 1, ranging from purely producing social benefits to the stipulation that social goals are only somewhere among the aims of the organization (Peredo & McLean, 2006).
The social purpose business is an enterprise that is both for profit and aims to create social value, and thus stands at the center of the continuum where it is seen as a hybrid organization (Wallace, 1999). These kind of businesses provide a balance of resources, equity and opportunity to the society by trading like a commercial enterprise but they are complemented with charitable intentions. Social goals are
1
Commercial, for-profit, entrepreneurship is seen as the regular form of entrepreneurship. There is yet no agreement in the literature on a universal definition of entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1990; Sharma & Chrisman, 2007). An entrepreneur is always searching for change, responds to it and exploits opportunities in the pursuit of financial profit (Dees, 1998; Dacin, Dacin & Matear, 2010). Entrepreneurs recognize opportunities and take a risk to exploit those opportunities with the ultimate objective of creating personal or shareholder wealth (Ulhoi, 2005).
prominent among other goals of the enterprise. Profit-making to the entrepreneur, supporters and others can also be an objective. Social purpose businesses embrace the traditional values of the business world, but are therefore sensible to all external factors that affect successful business operation. They make use of social mission driven, market-based approaches (Marshall, 2011). The objectives of the organizations are at least partly social, which are measured in terms of social impact. Social entrepreneurs should try to achieve long-term high impact, instead of growth of the own organization (Austin et al., 2006). The output of social impact remains however hard to quantify and measure. Comparing economic and social output is therefore difficult. Researchers are currently developing suited output measures for social impact.
Pure social business
The other type of social entrepreneurship is the pure social enterprise. This type of organization does not create any financial value and is solely focused on creating social value. This not-for-profit nature of social entrepreneurial activities is seen as a distinctive type of social entrepreneurship (Mair & Marti, 2006). This type of organizations are philanthropic funds, charities and other foundations. They can be recognized by their legal form. They fund their social mission with external financial funds, e.g. tax abatements, inexpensive loans, negotiated contracts, grants or subsidies (Dees, 1998; Wallace, 1999). Non-profit businesses use commercial organizations as a way to obtain money. Next to that they reinvest their profits, or surpluses, back in the company to do more social good (Acs, Boardman & McNeely, 2013).
Non-profit social entrepreneurs pursue their goals by catalyzing social transformation. They want to change the environment and society for the better in either instrumental, structural, relational or cultural dimensions that constitute the structures and systems underlying society (Castles, 2001; Maton, 2000). This can be the building of capacities to achieve goals, empower groups, built community relations or creating a shift in the belief of the system, values, norms, traditions and practices. The purpose of most of these types of organizations is to alleviate immediate suffering rather than initiate deep social change as social purpose enterprises do (Acs, et al., 2013).
Conclusion
Based on the descriptions of entrepreneurship, three types of entrepreneurship are distinguished in this thesis. Based on the weights for the two types of value the distinction between the three types of organizations is made. Firstly, there is the pure commercial organization that only creates financial value. Secondly the hybrid, social purpose organization that creates both social and economic value. Different
weights for the two types of value are possible. Finally the pure social organization is described that only creates social value.
§2.2 Staffing
According to the Human Resource Management (HRM) literature employees can be considered as “the organization’s most valuable assets” (Boselie, 2010). The management of employees – HRM – is therefore of critical importance for the success of the organization in the achievement of goals. The right attitude, behavior and cognition of the organizations employees are paramount. Three major subfields in the literature on HRM are distinguished. Micro Human Resource Management (MHRM) is about the sub-function of HR policy and practice such as recruitment & selection, training & development and performance management (Boxall et al., 2009; Boseli, 2010). MHRM thus incorporates the staffing process that is central in this thesis. Also Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and International Human Resource Management (IHRM) are fields of research in HRM. SHRM focuses on the linking and fit of HRM to the overall strategy of the business and other business units (Boxall et al., 2009). SHRM takes a look at the broader context and interfirm connections. IHRM is concerned with HRM practices in multinational companies and across borders (Boxall et al., 2009).
The overall objective of HRM is to increase the efficiency and the profitability of the company. All actions and decisions of the management influence the employees, therefore HRM has a key role in the organization. There is a general consensus on five key HR practices in the MHRM literature which incorporate specific activities. These are staffing, development, appraisal and performance management, compensation and employee participation and relations. In this thesis the staffing process will be central. In table 1 the components of the staffing process are shown.
Table 1 - Staffing practices. Based on Boselie (2010) and Jonkman (2008).
Staffing
Job design The process of getting information about the jobs, defining the way work
will be performed and list the tasks that are required
Job description and specification
A list of task, duties, responsibilities, knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics an employee has to do and have.
Recruitment Process of seeking applicants for potential employment.
Selection Process of identifying the right applicant for the job
The staffing process is about attracting potential candidates and choosing individuals who have the relevant qualifications for the job (Boselie, 2010). Selecting and recruiting the right people increases the chance on success for both the organization in terms of performance and the employee in his or her well-being. Successful recruitment refers to an optimal fit between the employee’s and employer’s
perspective. The recruitment process can be defined as: “the different activities of attracting applicants to an organization” (Bloisi, p. 107, 2007).
Publishing job vacancies on the internet is a common way for organizations to recruit potential employees. Vacancies are based on the job design process and consist of a job description and job specification. Vacancies give clear expectations of what the job comprehends. According to Wanous (1989) presenting a honest and realistic picture of the organization will increase job satisfaction, employee motivation, trust, commitment and employee retention after hiring the applicant. When hired employees expected something different upfront the employee turnover will increase. A realistic job preview in a vacancy can thus be of critical importance in the recruitment process.
A vacancy consists of different components an organization can use to describe the job offer. Each vacancy is written for a specific function in a specific organization. Generally vacancies consist off the following parts:
- Firm descriptions - Industry characteristics - Job title
- Job description & tasks - Job responsibilities
- Required skills, abilities & experience - Desired personal characteristics - Employment conditions
- Career opportunities
Flannery & Deiglmeier (1999) state, as discussed in the introduction chapter, that employees of social purpose businesses have a more difficult job in recruiting the right employees. This thesis is aimed at finding an explanation for this situation. The recruitment process of organizations is compared across firms with different types of value creation to analyze the differences.
§2.3 Hypothesis
Based on the literature in the field of entrepreneurship a differentiation between three types of organizations is made. I hypothesize that those types of business make use of a different recruitment process, on the level of vacancies, and that this is the cause for the limited access to the best talent in hybrid organizations (Dees, 1998). The empirical research will be used to test this assumption. The research makes use of a mixed approach. The first part exists of a quantitative, statistical analysis. The second part is qualitative and explorative.
I firstly expect that commercial businesses will reward employees with higher financial rewards and offer better employment conditions in comparison to social purpose businesses and social enterprises.
This hypothesis is based on previous research. According to Flannery & Deiglmeier (1999) commercial businesses generally have more financial resources than social enterprises. Besides that, Hamilton (2000) gives rise to the concept of compensating wage differentials. This theory states that employees are willing to enter and remain in a job despite receiving lower returns at an alternative job due to nonpecuniary benefits. Employees seem thus willing to receive lower wages in a job in return for more satisfactory work. This could be the case for social work. Finally Borzaga & Depredi (2005) find in congruence with Hamilton (2000) that employees with better interpersonal relations in a job accept a lower wage, using a sample of 228 Italian organizations. Work can be an opportunity for professional and personal fulfillment by making a contribution to society. Working at an social enterprise fulfills this need and thus requires lower monetary compensation. Based on the statements above hypothesis 1 is formulated:
Hypothesis 1: Commercial businesses have better employment conditions and give higher monetary rewards to employees in comparison with social purpose businesses and social enterprises.
I expect on the other hand that the amount of skills and abilities required for a function in a social purpose business will be higher in comparison with a pure commercial or pure social business. This is because employees in social purpose businesses have to create blended value (Dees & Anderson, 2003b; Wry & York, 2015). Employees in social purpose businesses have to take into account both financial and social objectives which requires more skills and abilities to achieve. Therefore hypothesis two is presented:
Hypothesis 2: For a specific functions the amount of required skills and abilities will be higher in social purpose businesses then in pure social or commercial businesses.
The second part of the research in this thesis takes a qualitative explorative approach. I expect that there are differences within the several parts of vacancies across the three types of businesses. The qualitative research gives insight into these differences. Firstly, based on Flannery & Deiglmeier (1999) I expect that social purpose business require different personal characteristics compared to commercial businesses due to differing mental requirements of employees. Hybrid businesses seem to require employees with more empathic capabilities, who are more ethical and responsible, respect diversity and are more flexible (Fanning, 2012). Secondly, I expect that social purpose businesses will use different terms and characteristics to describe the organization because of the social value created and the differing organizational culture (Dees & Anderson, 2003b). Social purpose businesses seem to have a culture that values diversity, promotes learning, rewards risk-taking and encourages patience (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). In the next chapter the methods for the empirical research and analysis are described.
Chapter 3: Methodology
In the previous chapter the most important concepts of this thesis have been discussed and hypothesis have been formulated. In this chapter the methodology that is used for the empirical research will be presented. Firstly, the research strategy and approach will be outlined. Thereafter the methods to collect and analyze the data are explained. Subsequently the reliability and validity of the methods are addressed. Finally, the first results are presented.
In this thesis a hybrid approach is used, a mix of both quantitative and qualitative research is used. Quantitative research is characterized by the fact that a theoretical framework is drawn up and the empirical research is used to verify to what extent the theory remains tenable (Vennix, 2011). Qualitative research on the other hand has theory development as a part of the empirical research process, the aim is to understand the meanings people allocate to the social reality (Vennix, 2011). In this thesis the hypothesis will be tested with quantitative statistical analysis, subsequently qualitative research is used to give insight in the expected differences (Boeije, 2012). The two types of research succeed one another and complement each other.
The strategy used to do the study is content analysis. Content analysis is used to deduce valid inferences from textual material (Bauer & Gaskell, 2000). It is the processing of information wherein the content of the communication is transformed by the lens and the systematic application of categorization rules (Bauer & Gaskell, 2000). The quantitative part of the content analysis is used to examine systematically the heights of monetary rewards and the amount of required skills and abilities across the three types of business (Boeije, 2012). The qualitative analysis is used to interpret the underlying content of the vacancies and to reconstruct the structure of meaning by examining the characteristics that appear and assess if those are coherent with other characteristics and to assess if patterns emerge (Vennix, 2011). Content analysis is suited for researching many observation units. Samples are taken from the population to create a representative overview.
The thesis makes use of existing literature as discussed in the literature review. From the perspective of this literature the most important concepts in this thesis will be reviewed and measured. The presupposed differences of the recruitment process between the three types of businesses will be tested. Insight is gained in these differences. From general observations in the recruitment processes I will deduct particular conclusions that are specific for social purpose businesses. This approach follows therefore the deductive approach (Boeije, 2012; Bleijenbergh, 2013).
§3.2 Data Collection
In this thesis I will use jobs that have managerial tasks and responsibilities as a basis for the data collection. All kinds of industries will be incorporated in the research. Pure commercial, pure social and hybrid organizations will be equally represented in the data collection.
A data source has to provide the relevant data needed to answer the main question of the research (Boeije, 2012). The sources used for the thesis are vacancies. Vacancies are generally publicly available on company websites and career websites. By using vacancies from different companies and industries a complete image can be created. The vacancies are selected based on their completeness of information. They should contain information about the job responsibilities and tasks, the personal characteristics looked for, description of the organization and the employment conditions. In appendix I all the items that were collected per vacancy are shown. Vacancies will be classified in one of the three categories based on the characteristics of the organization. Pure social organizations are characterized by their non-profit and legal form (e.g. foundations and charities). Commercial organizations are characterized by their primary aim of creation financial value. An organization that incorporates corporate social responsibility will also be classified as commercial, since this is only a secondary objective (Social-enterprise, 2015). Social purpose businesses are classified based on their ability to generate revenue via the market, limited distribution of profit and the foremost aim of creating social value. All the hybrid businesses were members of the online social-enterprise NL community and were thus acknowledged as an social purpose business (www.social-enterprise.nl). The classification of organizations in one of the three categories is checked by an independent coder to increase the reliability of the research.
§3.3 Reliability & Validity
The quality of the thesis is described by two indicators, namely validity and reliability. Reliability refers to the influence of unsystematic errors on the observations in the research (Boeije, 2012). It is about the precision of the measurements, would the same results appear when the study is repeated? The measurement method should be independent from the researcher (Vennix, 2011). In this thesis the vacancies are randomly retrieved from the internet and represent all kinds of industries. To balance out these differences and to make sure that no business is in abundance a large sample is needed. Also the three types of businesses that are distinguished should be almost equally represented in the sample. By standardizing the procedure in which vacancies are analyzed repetition should lead to equal outcomes (Boeije, 2012). In the qualitative part there could be an influence from the investigator who analyzed the data on his own.
Validity is about the influence of systematic errors on the research (Boeije, 2012). In other words, validity assesses if the way of measurement gives a right reflection of the concept that is measured, does the researcher measure what he wants to measure (Vennix, 2011)? In this thesis only publicly available
vacancies are used. Quite some employees are recruited via internal networks, this is not incorporated in this research which reduces the validity. The categorization of vacancies in one of the three categories is based on the literature review. The data sources, vacancies, are created without influence or independent from the researcher. The coding of the vacancies and interpretation of the results is on the other hand dependent on the researcher, which has a negative influence on the validity. The researcher coded all the vacancies alone based on his interpretation. This might have leaded to some subjectivity in the analysis since there was no second coder involved in the process. But since the vacancies are publicly available and the data is available a repetition of the study is possible to check the validity and reliability. Finally the studying of a large amount of vacancies from different industries results in a higher external validity of the thesis which makes the outcomes generalizable (Bleijenbergh, 2013).
§3.4 Data, Analysis & Results
As discussed the thesis makes use of content analysis as a research design. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis is incorporated. A database is created consisting of vacancies of the three categories. The vacancies are coded using the mixed method scientific program Dedoose (www.dedoose.com). Dedoose is suited for the handling of numerical and text-based data. It can import qualitative and quantitative data and structures it for the user. It makes use of coding to review qualitative text across multiple categories. The analysis makes it possible to visualize the insights. For the coding I made use of a coding scheme that was developed partly upfront and partly during the coding process. The codes were primarily based on the literature and were divided in the following categories: Required personal characteristics, Firm description, Required skills & abilities and Rewards & benefits. I started coding the vacancies of hybrid organizations to find out what was common for these organizations. Thereafter I coded the vacancies of social and commercial organizations respectively. During the coding process notable and recurrent themes were given a new code. The code tree thus grew during the coding process. Therefore all the vacancies were coded twice to make sure all were coded using the same codes. The final code tree is shown in appendix II. The qualitative analysis of the vacancies is based on the coding. Codes are counted and compared on the content of the excerpts across the different types of vacancies. The qualitative part of the study aims to explore the relationships, meanings and mechanisms that underlie the difference in recruitment between the three types of organizations. The results of this analysis are discussed in the next chapter.
During the data collection several quantitative variables were registered for each vacancy, namely: proposed monthly salary (in €), required work experience (in years), required education (in years) and the amount of required skills and abilities (counted). These variables are quantitatively analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics. In total 251 vacancies were analyzed from 114 different organizations. Commercial, hybrid and social organizations were almost equally represented in the data,
see table 2. The labeling of the organizations into one of the three categories is checked by a second coder. The result of the interrater analysis is Kappa = 0.904 (p = .000). This measure of agreement, which is statistically significant, shows an almost perfect agreement between the coders.
Table 2 - Frequency of vacancies per type of organization
Type of organization Amount of vacancies (N) Percentage (%)
Commercial 79 31.5
Hybrid 82 32.7
Social 90 35.9
Total 251 100
In table 3 the results of the initial analysis are shown. The three types of organizations with their scores on mean, standard deviation, valid scores and missing’s are shown. Also the total score on each variable is shown.
Master thesis K.C.A. Persoon M SD N # M is si n g M SD N # M is si n g M SD N # M is si n g M SD N a la ry (a, b , c) 4 ,1 4 5 .2 4 1 ,6 4 9 .0 1 21 58 2 ,5 2 9 .5 7 1 ,1 0 5 .3 9 23 59 3 ,2 7 0 .4 7 9 9 6 .3 5 73 17 3 ,2 8 1 .8 3 1 ,2 5 0 .5 9 117 w o rk e (a, b , c) 5 .4 7 3 .4 7 59 20 3 .6 5 2 62 20 4 .3 9 2 .0 3 78 13 4 .4 8 2 .6 2 199 e d u c a ti o n (a, b , c) 9 .3 9 0 .6 1 77 2 8 .7 1 0 .7 5 73 9 9 .1 0 .6 7 84 6 9 .0 7 0 .7 3 234 f re q u ir e d s k il ls s (a, b ) 1 2 .9 4 4 .6 9 78 1 9 .3 3 3 .4 4 82 0 9 .7 2 3 .0 1 90 0 1 0 .6 4 .0 5 250 a C o m m e rc ia l o rg a n iz a ti o n s d iffe r si g n ifi c a n tl y fro m h y b ri d o rg a n iz a ti o n s u si n g a n i n d e p e n d e n t sa m p le t -t e st a t th e 9 5 % c o n fi d e n c e l e v e l b S o c ia l o rg a n iz a ti o n s d iffe r si g n ifi c a n tl y fro m c o m m e rc ia l o rg a n iz a ti o n s u si n g a n i n d e p e n d e n t sa m p le t -t e st a t th e 9 5 % c o n fi d e n c e l e v e l c H y b ri d o rg a n iz a ti o n s d iffe r si g n ifi c a n tl y fro m s o c ia l o rg a n iz a ti o n s u si n g a n i n d e p e n d e n t sa m p le t -t e st a t th e 9 5 % c o n fi d e n c e l e v e l C o m m e rc ia l H y b ri d S o c ia l T y p e o f O rg a n iz a ti o n T o ta l Tab le 3 Q u an ti tati ve an al ysi s; g e n e ral r e sul ts
Yi = a + b1W + b2E + b3SA+ b4*H + b5S Y = monthly salary
a = constant
W = work experience E = education
SA = amount of skills and abilities H = dummy_hybrid
S = dummy_social
Chapter 4: Results
In this chapter the results of both the quantitative and qualitative analysis are presented and discussed. Firstly the quantitative testing of the hypothesis is assessed followed by the qualitative in-depth analysis of the content of the vacancies.
In table 3 in the previous chapter the mean scores on the quantitative variables of the three types of organizations are shown. The means of the different types of organizations are compared using an independent sample t-test. The results show that the three types of organizations show different results on all the variables when their mean scores are compared. Only hybrid organizations seem not to differ significantly from social organizations on the amount of skills and abilities required. Hypothesis have been formulated in chapter 2 in response to the expectations based on the theory, the test results are discussed here.
§4.1 Monthly Salary
Hypothesis 1 stated the expectation that commercial businesses reward their potential employees with higher salaries in comparison with hybrid businesses and pure social businesses. The mean scores on monthly salary offered in the vacancies are compared between the three groups. The independent t-test shows that commercial organizations offer a significantly higher salary than both hybrid (Mdifference =
1,615.67, SD = 419.84, p = .000) and social organizations (Mdifference = 874.77, SD = 378.27, p = .030).
Also the salary offered by social organizations is significantly higher than hybrid organization (Mdifference =
740.90, SD = 244.60, p = .003). These results confirm the expectations stated in hypothesis 1 that commercial organizations offer the highest salary.
However due to a possible biased sample the results might be influenced by other factors. The type of organizations might not be the only explanatory variable for the height of the salary. Table 3 shows that the vacancies of commercial organizations have a higher mean score on work experience, education and the amount of skills and abilities required. To check the results of the previous analysis there will be controlled for the other observables in the sample. This is done by making use of linear regression analysis where monthly salary is the dependent variable. The independent variables are required work experience, required education, the amount of required skills & abilities and the type of organization. Two dummy variables are made for hybrid (dymmy_hybrid) and social organizations (dummy_social), commercial organizations are the
reference category in the regression. The regression equation is shown in figure 2. The regression model with monthly salary as dependent variable and the type of organizations as an independent variable is significant,
as shown in table 4 (F (5, 79) = 12.120, p = .000). The model is thus suited to predict the monthly salary offered. 39.8% of the variance around the dependent variable is explained by the independent variables which makes it a reasonable model (adjusted R2 = .398). A change of 3.3% in the explanatory rate of the independent variable becomes visible when type of organization is added in the regression (ΔR2 = 0.033). The coefficients of the variables in table 4 are shown as standardized Beta coefficients (b*). The standardized coefficients refer to how many standard deviations a dependent variable will change, per standard deviation increase in the predictor variable (Field, 2013).
Table 4- Regression results
Regression Monthly Salary
Model 1 (b*) Model 2 (b*)
Constant -2032.749 -573.766
Work experience 0.327*** 0.391***
Education 0.310*** 0.250**
Skills & Abilities 0.197** 0.096
Hybrid -0.240* Social -0.233* R2 0.401 0.434 adj. R2 0.379 0.398 F 18.108*** 12.120*** ∆R2 0.401 0.033 ∆F 18.108*** 2.281 * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01
Residuals approximate a normal distribution No tendency of heteroscedasticity in the error terms Amount of valid observations: 84
Even though the regression model is significant, and thus suited to predict the monthly salary, the type of organization is only a marginally significant predictor in the model (Hybrid, b* = -0.240, t = -1.961, p = .053; Social, b* = -0.233, t = -1.939, p = .056). They do indicate the same effect as found in the independent t-tests, namely that when an organization is hybrid or social a lower monthly salary is offered than for commercial organizations. More specifically, when an organization is hybrid the mean salary reduces with €789,45 and with €557.20 when an organization is social, as compared to the salary offered by commercial organizations. The type of organization has a higher effect on the monthly salary offered than the required amount of skills and abilities (b* = 0.096, t = 0.951, p = .345). Work experience has the largest effect on the offered monthly salary (b* = 0.391, t = 3.861, t = .000), followed by education (b* = 0.250, t = 2.393, p = .019). One year more of working experience increases the salary with €222.50, a year extra education increases the offered salary with €358.65. I can conclude that even though the model
is significant the independent variable of the type of organization does not have a significant effect on monthly salary when controlled for observables. The coefficients do indicate an effect in the same direction as the t-tests. Therefore hypothesis 1 is accepted. Commercial organizations offer a higher salary than both hybrid and social organizations.
§4.2 Skills and Abilities
Hypothesis 2 stated that hybrid organizations would require more skills and abilities for a job then commercial or pure social organizations due to the extra skills needed to create the different types of value. The three types of organizations are compared on their mean amount of required skills and abilities with an independent t-test. The results are shown in table 3. The analysis shows that commercial organizations require the most skills and abilities (M = 12.94, SD = 4.69) and hybrid organizations the least (M = 9.33, SD = 3.44). Commercial organizations require significantly more skills and abilities than both hybrid (Mdifference = 3.61, SD = 0.647, p = .000) and social organizations (Mdifference = 3.214, SD =
0.618, p = .000). There is no significant difference between the amount of skills required by hybrid and social organizations (Mdifference = 0.393, SD = 0.492, p = .425).
These results are inconsistent with the expectations stated in hypothesis 2. Therefore hypothesis 2 is rejected; hybrid organizations do not require more skills and abilities than commercial organizations. Even more, the results show that commercial organizations require more skills and abilities than hybrid organizations.
§4.3 Remuneration and Secondary Benefits
Qualitative analysis is used to explore the content of the vacancies further. Firstly, remuneration and secondary benefits are explored. As shown in table 3 it seems that both commercial and hybrid organizations often do not specify their offered monthly salaries, a lot of missing observations in the quantitative data are the result. Several codes have been developed to analyze the remuneration and secondary benefits of the different types of organizations. In table 5 the codes are shown and their frequency in each type of organization.
Beforehand, I expected that commercial organizations would offer the highest salary in comparison with hybrid and social organizations. The vacancies show that commercial organizations are more likely to offer a competitive salary which is in accordance with the expectations. Commercial organizations regularly state that they “offer a generous total rewards package” (Nike2) or “have an
extremely comprehensive, competitive employment conditions package” (ASML3). They try to attract employees by offering higher salaries and extensive secondary benefits. Commercial organizations
2 Quoted from the vacancy for a Payments Consultant at Nike, Inc. 3 Quoted from the vacancy for a Business Consultant at ASML
frequently offer employees personal development opportunities, like trainings and education. BAM even has its own business school and Philips4 specifically looks for employees with growth potential, who are capable of “rapid learning and making high impact”.
Table 5 - Qualitative analysis outcomes; remuneration and benefits
Pure social organizations on the other hand primarily give a specified salary in their vacancies. They give clear expectations beforehand to job applicants what salary they can earn with a certain job. Since pure social organizations are dependent on external financial resources they are not able to deviate from their budget and are only able to offer a specific salary. Next to that social organizations most of the time have their own Collective Labor Agreement (CLA) with own employment conditions and terms, e.g. CLA Longfonds, CLA Hersenstichting and CLA AnneFrankStichting. Social organizations do not offer specific secondary benefits, nor do they pay much attention to personal development.
Hybrid organizations primarily offer market conform salaries, therefore they don’t specify the salary in a vacancy which leads to the high amount of missing observations, as shown in table 3. Hybrid organizations adhere to the CLA of the industry they are in and offer generally a fair salary for the job. Next to the salary, they offer opportunities for personal development, by means of education and personal coaching and mentoring. The most outstanding remuneration hybrid organizations offer to their employees are the secondary benefits. Fairphone5 offers for example: “daily, healthy lunch, organic Fairtrade coffee, … … public transport allowance,… … weekly yoga sessions at the office and bootcamp sessions with a personal trainer”. Other secondary benefits hybrid organizations offered were for example: Friday afternoon drinks, table football, stock options and the possibility to make home-cooked meals in the office.
The qualitative analysis shows that commercial organizations offer most frequently competitive salaries which is in line with the expectations of hypothesis 1. Hybrid organizations adhere to market
4 Quoted from the vacancy for a Head of Audit Finance at Philips
5 Quoted from the vacancy for a Software Development Manager at Fairphone
Code Type of organization Total
Commercial Hybrid Social
N (79) % N (82) % N (90) % N (251) %
Market Conform Salary 24 30.4 30* 36.6 16 17.8 70 27.9
Specified Salary 15 19.0 12 14.6 55* 61.1 82 32.7
Competitive Salary 15* 19.0 4 4.9 5 5.6 24 9.6
Special Secondary Benefits 8 10.1 18* 21.9 6 6.7 32 12.7
Personal Development 52* 65.8 25 30.5 7 7.8 84 33.5
rates and besides provide non-pecuniary secondary benefits. Pure social organizations state specific salaries that are conform their own CLAs.
§4.4 Firm Descriptions
Vacancies are also compared on the way the firms introduce and describe themselves. Firstly hybrid organizations were analyzed and the most dominating characteristics were transformed into codes. Secondly commercial and social organizations were compared on these characteristics with hybrid organizations. The codes, their frequency and percentage per type of organization are shown in table 6.
As described in paragraph 2.3 I expected that hybrid organizations would use other characteristics to describe their organization. Based on the literature I stated that hybrid businesses seem to have a culture that values diversity, promotes learning and rewards risk-taking (Flannery & Deiglmeier, 1999). These three characteristics were present in hybrid businesses but they also used the terms dynamic, informal and sustainable to describe their organization. Cooperation between internal and external partners also seemed to play a role in such businesses. In firm descriptions the main target of the job opening was coded if it was mentioned; financial targets or social goals.
Table 6 - Qualitative analysis outcomes; firm descriptions
Code Type of organization Total
Commercial Hybrid Social
N (79) % N (82) % N (90) % N (251) % Cooperation 38 48.1 29 35.4 67* 74.4 134 53.4 Diversity 35* 44.4 20 24.4 34 37.8 89 35.5 Dynamic 43* 54.4 26 31.7 18 20.0 87 34.7 Sustainability 23 29.1 43* 52.4 11 12.2 77 30.7 Informal 24 30.4 33* 40.2 19 21.1 76 30.3 Learning 26* 32.9 24 29.3 8 8.9 58 23.1 Risk-taking 9* 11.4 1 1.2 6 6.7 16 6.4 Financial Targets 33* 41.8 9 11.0 9 10.0 51 20.3 Social Goal 3 3.8 48 58.5 66* 73.3 117 46.6
*most frequent type of organization per code
In contrast with what was expected; diversity, learning and risk-taking seem not to be typical for hybrid organizations. These characteristics are more frequently used in vacancies of commercial organizations. Several commercial organizations state specifically that they want a diverse group of employees: “We believe that equal opportunities are for inclusion, diversity and fair treatment for
everyone” (Coca-Cola Enterprises6
), “Our culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination” (Nike7
). Whilst in social organizations diversity is used to describe the ability to cooperate with different multi-cultural target groups; like partners, colleagues, consumers and minority groups. Hybrid organizations on the other hand understand diversity primarily in the context of an international working environment. Fairphone2 for example requires employees to “feel good working with many nationalities in a multicultural environment” and Hivos8
calls itself “a professional international organization with very dedicated staff”. Diversity in the sense of a multi-cultural workforce is thus most present in commercial organizations. Risk-taking is only little encountered in the data and also the least in hybrid organizations. Both social and commercial organizations require courage, execution power and the willingness to experiment when alluded to risk-taking. Learning as a characteristic of the organizations is primarily found in commercial and hybrid organizations. Hybrid organizations are up-to-date with recent developments of the industry, have programs for professional and personal development using education and coaching and pay a lot of attention on knowledge sharing in a transparent way. Commercial organizations are capable and eager to learn continuously, are open for new innovative ideas and offer many training and education possibilities to their employees. Hybrid organizations expect that employees bring knowledge from outside the organizations, whilst commercial organizations require their employees to receive information from inside the organization. Lastly social organizations describe themselves just as quick learners.
Other characteristics that stood out were cooperation, dynamic, sustainability and informal. Cooperation is for many hybrid organizations a way to achieve their goals. Networking with other organizations seem to be an important aspect of their business operations. Hybrid organizations have to deal with multiple stakeholders in different contexts to be able to flourish. The Raedthuys Groep for example, which is a sustainable energy supplier, has to deal with political, economic, social and technical interests by working with the government, civilians, investors and manufacturers. All stakeholders require different ways of working together. Hybrid organizations stand in the middle of a network of interest groups and cooperation is therefore essential to achieve the mission. Social organizations have to cooperate on another level. For those organizations it is important to get funds from investors which they can spent in other countries. Relationship management is essential to be at the top of mind from investors. Stichting Dier&Recht9 states that: “cooperation with scientists, politicians, celebrities, authors, media and lawyers is an integral part of our work”. For social organizations cooperation is not used for the actual operational work but it is a mean to an end by “promoting awareness, understanding and support
6
Quoted from the vacancy for a Manager Field Sales at Coca-Cola Enterprises
7 Quoted from the vacancy for a IT Business Consultant at Nike, inc. 8 Quoted from the vacancy for a Project Officer at Hivos
for the social mission” (Aflatoun10
). Cooperation in commercial organizations is used to describe the internal cooperation between different functional departments and on the other hand to describe the external cooperation with customers. Commercial organizations use cooperation among other things to stimulate open innovation (Philips).
Both hybrid, commercial and social organizations describe their work environment as dynamic. They all use it in the same context in a vacancy. Thus even though commercial organizations use this the most frequent there is no difference in the meaning of a dynamic working environment between the three types of organizations.
Informal as a firm description is mostly used by hybrid organizations. Hybrid organizations use the term to describe the working atmosphere. An informal working atmosphere in an hybrid organization is characterized by collegiality, fun and diverse co-workers, time for relaxation and transparency. The working environment of commercial and social organizations is sometimes also described as informal in organizations where collegiality, team working, a flat structure and short communication lines are present. Hybrids however seem to be more characterized as informal than commercial and pure social organizations.
Attention to sustainability seem to be a distinctive characteristic for hybrid organizations, which is in line with the definition of hybrid organizations. They want to pursue a social mission and create social value. Sustainability is for many organizations a way to achieve this mission. This can be a characteristic for organizations in the sample, since quite some organizations operate in the energy industry, and thus lead to a measurement bias. According to the company Manus11: “Quality and sustainability go hand in hand with social entrepreneurship”. Sustainability is also used in commercial and social organizations, but in both sustainability is more a way of conducting corporate social responsibility than that it is the true objective of the organization. The objectives of commercial and social organizations can be seen in the codes financial targets and social goals. Commercial organizations often have a financial target where creating financial value is the objective of the organization. All social organizations on the other hand ultimately have a social goal. Hybrid organizations have both social goals and financial goals. In the analyzed vacancies hybrids do not pay much attention to those financial targets. They however are almost as many times coded as social organizations on social goal. Commercial organizations lag far behind on the code social goal. Hybrid organizations pay attention to sustainability, social goals and financial targets. These results are in line with the double-bottom line or the blended value creation of social purpose businesses (Dees & Anderson, 2003b).
10 Quoted from the vacancy for a Programme Manager at Aflatoun 11 Quoted from the vacancy for a Foreman at Manus
§4.5 Personal Characteristics
Finally the three types of organizations are compared on the personal characteristics they are looking for in their employees. As stated in paragraph 2.3 I expected that social purpose business require different personal characteristics compared to commercial businesses due to differing mental requirements of employees. Hybrid businesses are expected to require employees with more empathic capabilities, who are more ethical and responsible and are more flexible (Fanning, 2012). These characteristics were the initial codes. Those were extended with recurrent characteristics in hybrid businesses. All the eventual codes are shown in table 7.
Table 7 - Qualitative analysis outcomes; personal characteristics
Code Type of organizations Total
Commercial Hybrid Social
N (79) % N (82) % N (90) % N (251) % Ambitious 50* 63.3 31 37.8 18 20.0 99 39.4 Add to society 5 6.3 41* 50.0 22 24.4 68 27.1 Commitment / Affinity 14 17.7 29 35.4 35* 38.9 78 31.1 Creativity 32* 40.5 15 18.3 27 30.0 74 29.5 Emphatic capabilities 27 34.2 44 53.7 45* 50.0 116 46.2
Ethical & Responsible 0 0.0 18 22.0 23* 25.6 41 16.3
Flexibility 20 25.3 34 41.5 39* 43.3 93 37.1
Make Impact 9 11.4 25* 30.5 10 11.1 44 17.5
Networker 47 59.5 37 45.1 67* 74.4 151 60.2
Passion 21* 26.6 21* 25.6 8 8.9 50 19.9
Seeing Opportunities 29 36.7 22 26.8 41* 45.6 92 36.7
*most frequent type of organization per code
The characteristics emphatic capabilities, ethical and responsible and flexibility are all little present in vacancies of commercial organizations in comparison with hybrid and social organizations. They are all three the most represented in social organizations shortly followed by hybrid organizations. Also commitment to or affinity with the organization its mission, vision and value are required by both social and hybrid organizations. Those four characteristics are thus more required in organizations that create social value than in organizations that create financial value. This is in accordance with the expectations. Next to those characteristics two other characteristics seem to be distinctive for hybrid organizations only, namely the willingness to add something to society and the willingness to make an impact. Hybrid organizations look for people that “want to change the world for the better” (SnappCar12)
