Populating the social realm: new roles arising from social procurement

Abstract

Employment requirements, as part of social procurement, are increasingly used in construction procurement as a tool to mitigate issues of exclusion on the job market. To create a better understanding how employment requirements nurtures a new type of actor, here named the "employment requirement professional" (ERP), the aim of this paper is to study how this role is framed in terms of work practices and professional identity. Building on 21 semi-structured interviews in the Swedish construction sector, a detailed account of who works with employment requirements, how and why they conduct their work is provided. The findings show how ERPs mediate between contrasting interests when they create new social procurement roles and practices; how they enact different approaches to promote social sustainability, how their roles are formed by multiple and reciprocal lines of actions, and how they make sense of who they are and what type of work they engage in. The research contributes to a discussion on effects from social procurement in construction and the emergence of a new professional role, their identity and work practices.

Optimising social procurement policy outcomes through cross-sector collaboration in the Australian construction industry

“…On the other hand, as Flyvbjerg (2006) notes, the in-depth nature of single case study research ensures the validity of results is very high, and in circumstances where the case study is unique, it is the only valid approach. Furthermore, in new emerging fields of research such as social procurement which are widely recognised as being in the theory-building phase of development (Barraket et al, 2016;Troje and Gluch, 2019), in-depth case studies are of value in Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 2020, Online First Author post peer-review version Original article available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-04-2020-0221 providing the basis for the development of theories, propositions and hypotheses which can be empirically tested in subsequent field development.…”

“…These include negative perceptions of social enterprise performance; complex, costly and bureaucratic procurement procedures; cosy relationships in existing supply chains; regulatory and performance imperatives which make social enterprises seem high risk; resistance from industry incumbents; disconnects between well-intentioned head office initiatives and site priorities; and ingrained stigmas and biases associated with disadvantaged groups which social enterprises employ. More recently, Troje and Gluch (2019) have also argued that the effective implementation of social procurement in construction will require significant institutional change and the creation of new roles, practices and relationships which do not widely exist.…”

“…While complying with these policies raises many new questions for researchers and practitioners in the engineering and construction industry (Troje and Gluch, 2019), the aim of this paper is to explore the risks and opportunities of cross-sector collaboration from the perspectives of engineering and construction companies, government organisations, third -sector organisations (not-for-profits, charities, social enterprises) and community organisations, which need to collaborate in meeting these new social procurement requirements.…”

Beyond Policies and Social Washing: How Social Procurement Unfolds in Practice

“…In North Ireland and Scotland, new work roles which exclusively deal with social procurement are increasingly common, and in many ways, the work with social procurement has become business as usual [17,25]. This development, with the creation of new roles, is also seen in Sweden [19].…”

“…Despite employment requirements being seen as strategically important, both in industry and among policymakers, and that employment requirements present an opportunity for organizations to create social value in the form of employment for marginalized people, research is scarce in regard to how employment requirements actually unfold in practice [16][17][18][19]. Furthermore, although the empirical setting for this paper is the Swedish construction sector, employment requirements are novel and practices are still diffuse in many different sectors and geographical contexts, so the issue with diffuse practices and lack of knowledge is an international problem (cf.…”