Hybridity, institutional logics and value creation mechanisms in the corporatisation of social care

Abstract

Hybridisation of public services has increased under neoliberalism and New Public Management policies, over the past four decades since the 1980s. Hybrid arrangements for service provision blend public, private and nonprofit approaches to organising in ways imbued with a range of institutional logics impinging on their value creation mechanisms. Within this context, the corporatisation of public services represents a striking manifestation of hybridisation. However, comparatively little research has considered how hybrid organising through corporatisation shapes the mechanisms through which value is created in corporatized public services. To address this gap, through a field level study, this paper examines hybridity, institutional logics and value creation mechanisms in the corporatisation of adult social care in English local government. The study found that the use of different hybrid corporate forms – blended, segregated, segmented and blocked - to provide services to elderly and vulnerable citizens had important implications for the mechanisms through which financial and social values were created. Nevertheless, it was also apparent that different forms of hybrid organising could co-exist within the same organization along with multiple value creation mechanisms, underlining the unique dynamics of hybridisation pertaining to the corporatisation of public services.