Making Strategic Choice for Sustainable Social Enterprise: The Application of Holon Dynamics Approach

지속 가능한 사회적 기업을 위한 전략적 방향 제시: 홀론 다이내믹스의 적용

This paper aims to propose the strategy making in social enterprise for ensuring organizational sustainability and governance of social enterprise from systems thinking's perspective. Based on previous reviews on organizational sustainability and theories of governance currently advocated in the social enterprise literature, we use 'Holon Dynamics' approach, which is a synthesis of System Dynamics and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), offers the problem-solving method for dealing with social contexts and "ill-defined" situations. To do so, a researcher carried out the interpretive action research using 'Holon Dynamics' approach from September, 2009 to August, 2010. The outcomes of research are summarized as follows. Firstly, systems methodologies are useful to offer a strategic choice that makes to achieve an organizational sustainability in the case of Korean social enterprise; 'the Rediscovery of Korea'. Secondly, systems thinking offers an alternative concept of system, which is known as an 'appreciative system' that is evolved from the mental constructs amongst participants in given situations. Lastly, the paper delineates the usefulness of systems thinking and the process of inquiry, which deal with social contexts (including cultural and political factors), are contributed to making the necessary conditions for organizational legitimacy and the appropriate strategic choice for social enterprise within combined functioning of the two roles of social and commercial activities from systemic perspectives.