Managing Hybrid Organizations

Hybrid organizations are topical in contemporary society, and literature in this area is growing. One neglected dimension is, however, empirically based theorizations of management and governance in hybrid organizations. Moreover, the literature tends to be based on observations of “new” forms of hybrid organizations, often referred to as social enterprises. We argue that if we want to learn about what managing hybrid organizations means, it is important to compare different types of hybrids and also to compare hybrids with as long history with those established relatively recently. Based on earlier literature, hybrid organizations are discussed as placed in contexts of institutional pluralism, at the cross-roads between institutional orders and institutional logics. Special focus is placed on exploration and comparison of what is defined here as constitutional hybrid organizations, thus hybrid organizations founded with the explicit purpose of fulfilling their mission by integrating either different institutional orders such as the market, the public sector and civil society or structural traits from the logics of different ideal-typical organizations such as the business corporation, the public agency and the association. We argue that multivocality is a concept that can explain why some hybrid organizations manage to remain hybrids over time while others face de-hybridization. A common analytical frame for the volume is developed, where six dimensions of hybridity are defined (institutional order, logics of organizational forms, ownership structures, purpose, main stakeholders and main sources of funding). The aim of this chapter is to introduce why it is timely to theorize on management and governance in hybrid organizations, to develop the theoretical frame for the book, and to introduce the explorative multidisciplinary approach behind the book and the selection of cases. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the chapters to come.

This chapter deals with the general issue of how hybridity in general and contested money in particular can be managed by hybrid organizations. The authors draw on a longitudinal case study of IOGT-NTO, a Swedish temperance association that raises most of its income through its own market-based lottery. Weighing the benefits of controlling the lottery against the legitimacy risks of being responsible for its operations (in light of risks of gambling addition), IOGT-NTO portrays the lottery as an actor, an organization of its own. However, in reality, the lottery is a department in the association. Following this strategy, the organization seeks to have it both ways.

This chapter explores the emergence of the Dutch citizen-led health-care cooperative Texel Samen Beter (TSB). TSB was started in 2014 by a group of concerned citizens on the island of Texel, the Netherlands, to improve health-care services. Specifically, the chapter traces how the TSB board engaged in a number of activities to give meaning to the cooperative’s emergent identity. Moving from an abstract idea to having an impact on the health-care sector, to actually ‘becoming’ a fully functioning cooperative, proved to be a challenging endeavor. Not only did the cooperative struggle with internal ambiguity and a lack of consensus about what TSB should stand for but external actors also tried to take advantage of the uncertain institutional landscape and to impose their own ideas on the budding cooperative. Ultimately, the chapter shows that, through important decisions, communications and activities, the TSB board has managed to navigate the institutional complexity it faced and come to establish itself as a legitimate actor in the Dutch health-care sector. The wider implications of the story of TSB speak to the importance of understanding the process by which an identity emerges, which is of particular relevance to hybrid organizations like cooperatives.

This chapter reports on a life story of a hybrid organization, The Natural Step (TNS), that was founded in order to foster sustainability in society as a necessary philosophy for saving the planet. The organization was established as a hybrid that blended the logics of science, activism and consulting. Staying in this position was, however, not without challenge. The chapter contributes to discussions on management in hybrid organizations by highlighting when and why hybrids face particular challenges and how managers may struggle to deal with them. Over time, TNS gradually became de-hybridized into a management consultancy. The chapter concludes with a section on dilemmas faced by hybrid managers in cultivating and maintaining a hybrid identity over longer periods of time.