Purpose -Many organisations are operating in a dynamic competitive environment and experiencing increasing competition. As a result organisations in the service sector are continually seeking opportunities to remove waste and improve performance. Six sigma has been embraced by the service sector and is receiving increasing attention within both academe and practice. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate lean six sigma from a middle managers' perspective. Design/methodology/approach -A mixed method approach was adopted involving a structured survey to 200 managers and semi-structured interviews with two of the management team. Findings -The paper highlights the importance of developing learning capabilities in the middle management team and the empowering of them. A greater role should be given to middle management in performance improvement and strategy formulation.Research limitations/implications -The research findings only apply to one case so it is difficult to make assumptions across different sectors. More research is required with regard to change management in lean six sigma implementations. Originality/value -This paper shows that developing dynamic capabilities in middle management along with a learning culture will facilitate participation in strategy formulation.

The present study examines the relative influence of two distinct leadership styles, servant leadership and entrepreneurial leadership, on the organizational commitment and innovative behavior of employees working in social enterprises. Analyzing data from 169 employees and 42 social entrepreneurs, we found that, although servant leadership was positively related to followers’ organizational commitment, the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and organizational commitment was insignificant. In contrast, whilst we found evidence that entrepreneurial leadership was positively related to followers’ innovative behavior, the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ innovative behavior was insignificant. Our research contributes to the underdeveloped literature on leadership in social enterprises by exploring the relative effectiveness of different leadership styles (namely an entrepreneurial leadership style and a servant leadership style) in promoting follower work attitudes and behaviors in social enterprises. In addition, our research demonstrates the importance of leadership over and above followers’ individual differences such as pro-social motivation and creative self-efficacy

The recent global financial crisis has seen investors turn away from real-estate bonds, given their role in distributing risk during the crisis. However, since 2009, a new type of real-estate bond market has grown in London, enabling social housing groups to issue bonds. This could be viewed as further evidence of the extension of financialization practices into new spaces, beyond those of traditional capital markets and associated intermediaries. In this paper, we examine how financialization has begun to permeate the third sector, reordering the priority of housing associations' values, displacing social value creation with the economic. We highlight how reduced state funding has led social housing providers to become more reliant on capital market intermediaries, and explore how locally orientated social housing associations have become embedded within wider financial networks. While policy makers have viewed financial markets as a panacea to fund social housing developments in an age of austerity, tensions have emerged, requiring localized social housing organizations to become more commercial in their activities, jeopardizing their ability to protect vulnerable communities through social value creation.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of a performance management system using the balanced scorecard (BSC) within a not for profit small and medium sized enterprise (SME). Design/methodology/approach -This is a casebased methodological approach exploring the perceptions of two management stakeholder groups. This ensured that the issues were appraised in both an operational and a strategic context. Findings -The findings of this research are that balanced scorecards can be implemented within a SME context. However, the motivations for the adoption of the scorecard were both internal and external due to the heavily regulated nature of the organization.Research limitations/implications -The limitations of this research are that only one SME was compared with the body of knowledge relating to larger organizations and this could be viewed as a potential mismatch. Originality/value -Currently there is a lack of published research on BSC implementations within this sector.

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This paper illustrates the progress from the application of a performance measurement system to that of a performance management system within a registered charity operating in the United Kingdom Third Sector. The organization is a housing association and its service users are socially excluded members of society. The balanced scorecard (BSC) was chosen as a catalyst for improving the performance management system between 2004 and 2006. A case study analysis using semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources over a four-year period provides empirical insight into an evolving performance management culture. This research reveals that culture as well as trust and capability building are inextricably linked and govern organizational performance. These elements are also bounded by the ‘steering media’ of the Big Society philosophy currently being rolled out across UK public services which is affecting the general lifeworld of this sector

Drawing on data from six social enterprises in the UK, we demonstrate that social enterprises negotiate their legitimacy borrowing from the state, the corporation and the service logics. The paper illustrates the existential crises of legitimacy as experienced in the social enterprise sector. The utility of a principled ethical approach is discussed as a way forward. The paper also outlines challenges that social enterprises face when adopting an ethical approach. We mobilise theoretical tools of Gramsci and Bourdieu in order to render visible the often implicit and unquestioned structures of hegemonic power that shape the habitus of legitimacy in social enterprises.

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