Scholarly record

ROLE OF THE LEADERSHIP AND THE VALUES IN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Andrejs Cekuls

Abstract

This year, for the first time in Latvia, the government will adopt a set of standards that will regulate social entrepreneurship and its goals. Social entrepreneurship means balancing social goals and the commercial component for which money is not the direct goal but rather a means of achieving social goals. The social aspect should not only target the surrounding community, but also ensure responsible and correct treatment of employees. A leader in a social enterprise has to put an end to the controlling style of leadership because in a social enterprise is run by followers, rather than pure employees. By employees who actually want to follow their leader. The purpose of this study is to look at different points of view regarding the role of the leader in the development of the internal environment of social enterprises and the organizational values. Tasks of the study were analyze how the values of a leader differences in a social enterprise and a general company. The research was undertaken in the form of an in-depth interview about social organization values, leadership values and beliefs, as well as commercial aspects in social enterprises. The interview included questions about the cultural values of companies working within the social industry, the role of the leader, the main differences between a leader and a general business manager. Totally, 39 answers have been evaluated representing 38% of big enterprises with more than 200 employees and 62% of medium size enterprises with the number of employees 51-200. The research showed that social entrepreneurs must be able to inspire the ones around them so that the employees can quickly shift between various previously unseen tasks. A leader like that has to find a way to the hearts of the employees. They have to be able to prove that the goals of the organization align with that of every employee. If the employees believe that the world will become a little better by doing their work well, then they themselves will become better too.

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