Meet the team behind our new Social Purpose Centre
Melbourne Business School's new Social Purpose Centre is helping organisations across all sectors deliver sustained and meaningful social impact.
There is growing pressure on organisations to play an active role in finding solutions to our most pressing societal problems.
That's why the new Social Purpose Centre at Melbourne Business School – spearheaded by its inaugural Director, Professor of Leadership Will Harvey and Executive Director Libby Ward-Christie – is focused on providing organisations with evidence-based insights on complex problems that relate to creating, managing, delivering and sustaining social and economic value.
"Organisations of all shapes, sizes and structures do not operate in a vacuum from social problems, and a range of stakeholders are putting pressure on these businesses to meet their social requirements," Professor Harvey said.
"We want to ensure that organisations, regardless of their sector, are equipped to help address some of the most wicked problems facing society today."
Professor Jenny George, Dean of Melbourne Business School, said the Centre was another example of how the School is helping organisations deal with the major global challenges facing business today.
"Leaders are currently guiding their organisations through the risks and strategic opportunities in climate change, environmental sustainability, social impact, economic and social inclusion of First Nations people, the emerging role of artificial intelligence, and the growing importance of data and analytics," Professor George said.
"The Social Purpose Centre is working alongside our other Centres, including the Centre for Sustainability and Business, the Centre for Business Analytics and the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Leadership, to address these challenges and develop innovative outcomes that are good for business, people and planet."
Strengthening Australia's social purpose organisations
While social purpose is a term that is relatively new to the business community, it's a familiar concept among not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises.
"Social purpose organisations, such as community service organisations and social enterprises, are established to achieve a social mission and as such, purpose is core to their organisational reason for being," Ms Ward-Christie said.
"The Centre's work with these organisations is therefore focused on helping them maximise the impact they generate, and we are committed to ensuring that Australia's social purpose organisations are robust, resilient, and able to scale."
The Centre has developed a Capacity Building Framework for not-for-profit and other social purpose organisations, as well as launching the Emerging Social Purpose Leaders program, supported by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, to help new leaders working in these organisations.
Helping larger organisations find their purpose
Addressing society's most pressing problems isn't the work of social purpose organisations alone. The Social Purpose Centre intends to work with all forms of business, to help them build a strategic commitment to making a positive social impact.
"We want to ensure we are working with and across sectors, as this is the key to addressing the complex issues our society is facing," Ms Ward-Christie said.
"For larger organisations, this means helping them understand how social purpose fits with their broader organisational purpose."
The Centre has started working with several companies to develop a set of case studies illustrating why social purpose should be central to corporate purpose and strategy. It has also been building a social purpose ecosystem by delivering guest lectures on social entrepreneurship across the School, the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology.
"We want to help leaders to deliver social purpose in a strategic and meaningful way that creates social value and value for their organisations, rather than just feeling pressured into quick wins, or checking a box to keep stakeholders satisfied," Professor Harvey said.
Impactful leadership
Professor George said that Professor Harvey’s unique experience made him the ideal candidate to lead the Centre.
"Professor Harvey's distinctive combination of expertise, skills and experience straddle both academia and industry," she said.
Joining the School from the University of Bristol Business School, Professor Harvey has previously held leadership roles at the University of Exeter Business School, as well as appointments at the University of British Columbia, the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford.
Having completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, Professor Harvey is an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation, with his research in the areas of reputation, talent management and leadership within organisations having been published in a range of international journals including the Harvard Business Review and California Management Review.
Formerly Director of the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne and a member of the Centre for Social Impact National Executive, Ms Ward-Christie is also an alum of Melbourne Business School and recipient of an alumni award for her work with not-for-profit and social purpose organisations.
Professor Harvey said that Libby’s wealth of experience which cuts across applied social purpose research, education and engagement made her an invaluable leader in the team.
"Her specialist knowledge that spans research and practice in social entrepreneurship, social finance and philanthropy, impact measurement and evaluation and for-purpose strategy and governance is proving essential as we work to scale the activities of the Centre," he said.
To learn more about how the team is strengthening the for-purpose ecosystem, visit the Social Purpose Centre page.
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