Social innovation processes in dignity-centered organizations: evidence from hybrid and indigenous enterprises

The social and environmental issues that humanity is currently facing demand solutions that challenge current organizational practices. Such practices have also been blamed for increasing some of these problems, and different stakeholders are more strongly demanding that organizations seek different, more innovative approaches to sustainability, wellbeing and the generation of profits. One of the approaches that is gaining tremendous attentions is social innovation. However, this concept has also different approaches and scholar are still looking for frameworks that foster more social inclusion and enhance well-being. In this sense, the concepts of dignity and dignity-centered organizations have recently gained traction as a form of organizing that prioritizes the inherent worth of individuals, offering pathways to human flourishing. This new form of organizing may constitute a social innovation that is based on the principle of dignity. How these concepts intersect to generate processes that shape effective organizational practices and generate positive societal outcomes is a literature gap worth exploring and with important implications for managerial practices. The first study emphasizes the central role of dignity in shaping social innovation process. Humanistic management theory constitutes a promising framework that provides a different, more-human approach to how a social innovation generates and consolidates. The authors examined four Indigenous enterprises in Latin America and proposed a four-stage process of social innovation (origin, mobilization, execution, and integration) based on a four-case qualitative study that explores how the notions of dignity and humanistic management practices are present at every stage of the social innovation process. This study is one of the first to explore the relationship between humanistic management principles, dignity, and social innovation processes, a literature gap with important praxeological implications. The second article applies the four-stage framework of social innovation developed in the first article to explore how hybrid organizations can shape their practices around the concepts of dignity and humanistic management. This work shows that hybrid organizations that promote dignity-centered practices can potentially have more impact that other organizations that focus on the same issue. A qualitative case study of a successful hybrid organization that focuses on animal welfare in Monterrey provide evidence that hybrid organization may aim to raise awareness and mobilize society more effectively when they make a dignity-based analysis of the problem, aiming to prevent unnecessary suffering. These organizations ultimately reconnect individuals with their community and reconfigure public spaces to create permanent social change and foster social justice. The article shows that dignity is a potent concept that serve as a fundamental organizing principle. Further exploring the importance of dignity in organizations, the third study uses Indigenous social enterprises as an instrument to explore what constitutes a dignity-centered organization. The blend of Indigenous cultural values with Western business practices create unique organizational arrangements that restore structural dignity violations, and promote cultural preservation and human flourishing. The findings derived from a qualitative case study of a successful tourism enterprise highlight the role of cultural reaffirmation and meaningful human connections in restoring dignity and enhancing well-being, offering practical insights about the decision-making, practices, and boundaries of dignity-centered organizations. Together, these studies illuminate the transformative potential of social innovation processes that incorporate humanistic management principles. The three works suggest that prioritizing dignity not only fosters individual and community well-being but also addresses long-standing structural injustices and barriers to human flourishing. As organizations worldwide seek to generate better outcomes for society, this type of social innovation offers a promising path that needs further exploration, especially by documenting empirical cases from regions in urgent need to develop their own managerial practices such as Latin America.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3521-0118