Johanna Mair and Miriam Wolf awarded 2019 “Best Paper” by the journal Voluntas

Johanna Mair, Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School and Miriam Wolf of the Humboldt institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and a former Hertie School postdoctoral researcher, have been awarded “Best Paper” of 2019 by the journal Voluntas for their article outlining ways for social enterprises to tackle key governance challenges.

The article, “Purpose, Commitment and Coordination Around Small Wins: A Proactive Approach to Governance in Integrated Hybrid Organizations”, published in the June 2019 issue of Voluntas, “is highly relevant in terms of policy for the third sector in different countries, giving valuable sense by arguing on the importance of going beyond control and compliance approaches in hybrid organizations,” according to Faina Diola, chair of the Voluntas award committee.

Among the main challenges for such “hybrid” organisations, which aim to solve social problems with for-profit business models, is “mission drift,” according to the authors.

The paper goes beyond traditional governance questions of compliance and looks at how organisations can coordinate around small wins in order to align their commitment and purpose over time and ensure that they develop and adapt to changing situations, according to Diola.

It will be posted as an open access article in September, October and November on the journal’s website.

More about the award can be found here.

The article is available for purchase here.