Working For Impact, But Failing to Experience It: Exploring Individuals’ Sensemaking in Social Enterprises

Abstract

Individuals start and join social enterprises to catalyze social impact but may not subjectively experience their work as impactful. In this article, we inductively uncover when social enterprise members question the impactfulness of their work and how they engage in sensemaking to experience their work as impactful. Exploring the experiences of members across two social enterprises with different missions, we provide insights into instances creating ambiguity of or discrepancies in impactfulness and unearth how individuals navigate these in different circumstances with two distinct sensemaking practices: internalizing and compensating. We reveal the efforts required to experience work as impactful, highlight the heterogeneity and agency in maintaining this perception, and suggest a potential dark side for members and missions of social enterprises.

Job Stress can be a Great Hurdle in Goal-Focused Leader Behavior with the Mediating Role of the Bottom-Line Mentality of Leaders

“…Objects, states, conditions, and other things that people value are classified as resources (Hobfoll, 1991). Individuals value resources differently, depending on their personal experiences and circumstances (Drencheva et al, 2023). It might be valuable to one person to spend time with family, but it might not be valuable to another, or it can be possible it may even exist perceived as an alarming situation resource other than this one (an abusive relationship can affect one's selfesteem (Johan & Satrya, 2023).…”