Harnessing Values for Impact Beyond Profit in MENA

David L. Haskell, Janice Hayashi Haskell and Jessica Jinju Pottenger

Chapter 2 in CSR in the Middle East, 2012, pp 25-48 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Are values such as love and respect just sentimental marketing slogans? Or is their practice pivotal to sustained impact in societies challenged by chronic unemployment, sectarian conflict, youth marginalization, gender discrimination and overburdened social services? We propose that social enterprises can have an impact on emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by the consistent practice of values. Management and economic development literature indicates that the practice of values enhances business performance. An innovative Egyptian social enterprise, Care with Love, made values central to its business model to equip undereducated and marginalized women and young people for employment as home caregivers for the housebound elderly and chronically ill. Encouraging the practice of values with a culturally rooted and spiritually inspired curriculum generated statistically significant improvements in caregiver performance. This case illustrates that values can be defined by participation, designed intentionally, contextualized inclusively and reinforced consistently, resulting in enhanced performance and mission impact. Analysis indicates that integration of values can fuel participation, invite engagement, sustain commitment, foster leadership, multiply returns and transform community. Implications are suggested for the contextualized integration of values in social enterprises in MENA.

Keywords: Business Ethic; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Assimilation Process; Workplace Spirituality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-26620-0_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137266200

DOI: 10.1057/9781137266200_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().