Social housing organisations in England and the Netherlands: Between - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

12/22/14

Challenge the future

Delft University of Technology

Housing & Communities Group seminar series “Social housing organisations in England and the Netherlands: Between State, Market and Community” Dr Darinka CZISCHKE

University of Birmingham, 17 November 2014

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Structure

1. Background 2. PhD research questions 3. Research design 4. Contextual drivers 2008-2012 5. Conceptual framework 6. Strategic decision-making 7. Cases 8. Conclusions 9. Theoretical propositions: strategic decision-making

• 10. Implications for policy and practice
• 11. Discussion questions

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• 1. Background

2006-2007 CECODHAS Study on management strategies of social housing organisations in EU countries:

• 43 organisations, 13 countries, 6 company-case studies
• Found common thread linking these organisations together: core

missions and values

• Tensions between different strategic orientations (State, market,

community) vis-à-vis macro-structural changes

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Social housing organisations and their

• perating environment

State Community

Social housing

• rganisations

Market

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• 2. PhD research questions

1. How are contextual developments impacting on the missions, values and activities of social housing organisations? 2. How do these organisations position themselves vis-à-vis the State, the market and community? 3. How are competing drivers enacted in the decision-making process of social housing organisations vis-à-vis contextual drivers?

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• 4. Contextual drivers

2008-20012

Continuous State withdrawal Increasing and widening housing exclusion Social housing

• rganisations

Global financial and economic crisis

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• Stull (2003), Crossan & Van Til

(2009), Defourny (2009), Jäger (2010)

Social enterprise

• Brandsen (2005), Billis (2010)

Hybridity

• Giddens (1979, 1984)

Agency

• Di Maggio (1988), Garud et al

(2007)

Institutional entrepreneurship

• Mintzberg et al. (1976), Eisenhardt

& Zbaracki (1992)

Strategic decision- making

• 5. Conceptual framework

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Descriptor variables

Descriptor variables

Legal structure Profit

• bjective

Ownership Core business Governance Funding income Catchment

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Motivator variables

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Behaviour variables

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• 6. Studying a strategic decision-making in

social housing organisations:

• Developed in the field of psychological studies (Flanagan, 1954)
• Outlines procedures for collecting observed incidents having

special significance and meeting systematically defined criteria.

• Transposition from ‘psychological’ level (the individual) to the

‘organisational’level: recourse to an operational concept: à à ‘Strategic decision’: a decision “recognised as having significant implications for the structure, direction or purpose of an

• rganisation”.

Critical incident technique

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‘Strategic decision’ and critical incident(s)

Strategic decision p r o c e s s Start of strategic decision Outcome of strategic decision

CI 1 CI 2 CI 3 CI n

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Methods

• Data sources:
• Interviews
• Observation
• Secondary sources
• Diary keeping (phone)
• Analytical tools:
• a. Decision stories (timeline; formal and content aspects)
• b. Decision climate profiles (majority and minority reports)

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• 7. CASES

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CASE #1: Company E (England)

Critical incident: The impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and the major shake up of the welfare system on the mission, values and activities of the company (October 2011) Strategic decision: The bid for capital grant in the new policy environment (Oct 2011 – July 2012)

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Changing policy environment

Major changes to social housing policy and regulation coupled to wide-ranging welfare reform creating a new environment for housing associations:

Ø Reduction in capital grant Ø ‘Affordable rental’ product: possibility for social landlords to charge higher social rents to new tenants (up to 80% market rents) Ø Housing benefit significantly cut Ø Localism bill, ‘big society’ discourse: emphasis on the role of third sector actors in service delivery Ø Government pledges 150,000 new social units in four-year term.

Wide ranging policy reform in England

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CASE #2: Company N (The Netherlands)

Critical incident: The announcement by the Dutch government of a new ruling on social housing affecting income limits and the financing of the sector (December 2010) Strategic decision: Decision on whether to follow the ruling (income aspect) or not, and on how to re-organize its financing to comply with the SGEI/ non-SGEI split.

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Changing policy environment

Major changes to social housing policy and regulation are creating a new environment for housing associations:

Ø State aid discussion triggered by complaint from Dutch commercial house building companies to the European Commission (2005) Ø Letter from the EC to the Dutch government

Ø State aid used for commercial activity (State guarantee…) Ø Excessive capacity (2.3 mill homes for 1.2 mill households entitled to housing allowance)

Ø 2010 Dutch government ruling on social housing:

Ø Income limit (<33.614 euros) Ø SGEI/non-SGEI split (funding of activities) Ø Wider reform: new Housing Act (governance, etc.)

Debates on the role, scope and financing of housing associations in the Netherlands

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• 8. Conclusions

RQ #1 Contextual developments and the missions, values and activities of social housing organisations are in a two-way relationship RQ #2 The positioning of social housing organisations vis-à-vis their environment can be described as a constant balancing act RQ #3 Enacting competing values in social housing organisations entail multiple rationalities at play in decision-making

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• 9. Strategic decision-making:

Theoretical propositions

1. Different modes of decision-making co-exist in the process 2. Participants use a variety of tactics to influence the decision- making process 3. Social housing organisations operate with multiple rationalities 4. Social housing organisations face ‘dilemmas of hybridity’ which can be related to Sate, market and community drivers

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Dilemmas of hybridity

1. Does fulfilling the mission of a social housing organisation imply choosing between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’? 2. Which should be the leading rationale of a social housing

• rganisation: ‘front office’ or ‘back office’?

3. To develop or not to develop?

Certain attributes might not correspond exclusively to community nor commercial nor public orientations…

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Theoretical propositions (cont’d)

5. Social housing organisations and risk: an ambivalent relationship 6. Social housing organisations have consistent stated values but are constantly making choices on how to enact these values

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• 10. Policy and practice implications

1. The role and scope of housing associations in England and the Netherlands: towards convergence? 2. Uncertainty and policy confusion: constant and incongruent changes from the State domain 3. Differentiation of social housing providers 4. Mandate vs. mission: a key defining feature for social housing providers 5. Prospective analysis on community developments to underpin short-term decisions 6. A social housing organisation’s identity: focus on values

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• 11. Issues for further discussion

1. Emerging gap in provision for a spectrum of middle-income groups excluded both from market and from subsidized housing 2. Rise of new players e.g. community-led housing: a viable alternative to solving housing exclusion for many? 3. Increasing differentiation of housing associations in each country: towards an identity split within the sector? 4. Are housing associations mere agents of (State) policy or are they capable to shape their environment?