Abstract
Considering insights from socio-economics, work psychology, and occupational health, this study focuses on the job satisfaction and well-being of employees working in nonprofit social enterprises (SE). We question the idea suggested by the recent literature that working for a SE brings employees a high level of job satisfaction and well-being. We also investigate whether being involved in social innovation is associated with even higher job satisfaction and well-being. Indeed, understood as a manifestation of positive social change, social innovation is expected to improve outcomes such as the quality of life at work. However, because social innovation is an umbrella concept, it embraces different innovation-related concepts. Here we explore the distinction between service innovation and workplace innovation. This article applies a multivariate analysis to an original dataset covering 1134 employees working in the field of elder homecare in Wallonia. Its implications for social entrepreneurs and scholars are also examined.
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Notes
Social enterprises (SE) hereafter.
A transdisciplinary project involves researchers from various disciplines (in this case socio-economics, work psychology, occupational health, and sociology) and stakeholders (in this case, umbrella organisations of non-profit providers), which are considered partners in defining and implementing the research objectives (Popa et al. 2015).
Following Gallie (1956), Ayob and colleagues referred to strong normativity by using the criterion of ‘appraisiveness’.
In Cayrol et al.’s (2016) study, the scope for the selection of the SE comprises the following entities employing paid staff: Social Enterprises (‘Sociétés à finalité sociale- SFS’ under Belgian law), service co-operatives, national and international not-for-profit associations, de facto associations, private and charitable foundations, as well as mutual societies.
An average of 28 and 23% respectively at the national level.
WISDOM is a multidisciplinary research project on changing practices by social enterprises providing health and social care services for the elderly living at home in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium). Change in the field is interpreted through the lens of social innovation. Methodologically, the research followed a multiple case study design and was conducted in partnership with local stakeholders (umbrella organisations of non-profit providers).
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Acknowledgements
We want to thank Olivier Brolis and the two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript, their insightful suggestions resulted in its significant improvement. We also want to thank Olivier Schmitz, Marthe Nyssens, Bruno Gerard, and the members of the support committee of the WISDOM study, for their helpful comments and encouragement during the early phase of the publication process. Finally, we want to thank all the organisations, managers, and workers who agreed to participate in this study.
Funding
This study was funded by the Wallonia Region, DGO6 Program: Germaine Tillion (Grant No. 1318203).
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Casini, A., Bensliman, R., Callorda Fossati, E. et al. Is Social Innovation Fostering Satisfaction and Well-Being at Work? Insights from Employment in Social Enterprises Providing Long-Term Eldercare Services. Voluntas 29, 1244–1260 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-0001-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-0001-3