Hearing narrative voices of Filipino social enterprise employees

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the personal and contextual factors that shape the work experiences of Filipino social enterprise employees by listening to voices within their narratives. Design/methodology/approach In total, 11 social enterprise employees were interviewed about their work experiences. Using the Listening Guide as a method of analysis, common themes and the multiple voices within the narratives were identified. Findings Upon analysis, four stories were identified: stories of serving others, stories of providing for family, stories of managing relationships and stories of personal learning. Results show that the experiences and multiple identities of employees evoke the duality and hybridity that characterizes social enterprise organizations. The importance of relationships in collectivist cultures, and the salience of the indigenous concept of kapwa are also discussed. Research limitations/implications The use of narratives, and particularly, of voices within narratives as a critical tool to study work experiences is highlighted. Generalizability of results may be limited by contextual factors, such as organization type and country culture. Originality/value In this study, the narratives of social enterprise workers from different positions were explored. The voices within their narratives were analyzed and used as a means to understand how they viewed the self, others, and their work in social enterprises embedded in collectivist and developing country contexts.

Community Engagement Experiences of Social Entrepreneurs in Rural Communities

“…We believe that this is distinct, considering the Philippines’ collectivistic and paternalistic culture. This agrees with the findings of Caringal-Go and Canoy (2019) that social enterprise in the Philippine context involves building and managing relationships with the people that social entrepreneurs’ partner with.…”

“…However, social enterprise work is not just about the entrepreneur. It involves building and managing relationships with various stakeholders, not least of which are the people in the partner communities (Caringal-Go & Canoy, 2019). Unfortunately, there is a dearth of studies that explore how social entrepreneurs make meaning of their experiences of relating to and working with a community.…”

Exploring the role of narrative in social enterprise and social innovation

“…, 2017; Milczarczyk, 2019; Sadílek et al. , 2022) or experiences of being and strategies for thriving or surviving as a social entrepreneur in India (Padhy and Bhaskar, 2021), the Philippines (Caringal-Go and Canoy, 2019), China (Hsu, 2017), during the Covid-19 pandemic (Borzaga and Tallarini, 2021), as a single elderly woman (Meliou et al. , 2019) or women of colour (Schachter, 2022).…”