Between Mission and Revenue:

Measuring Performance in a
Hybrid Organization
 Purpose
The paper aims to contribute to the literature concerning
performance measurement tools which allow a balanced
control of both social goals and financial performances in a
hybrid organization.
• The relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility
(hereafter CSR) and financial performance is indeed a
recurring topic in management.
• The action research project presented in this work is ICTCo, a
hybrid organization of Northern Italy.
• The selected tool, namely the Sustainability Balanced
Scorecard (hereafter SBSC), helped the organization evaluate
whether CSR practices are consistent with the goals and
values of companies in the long run.
 Methodology
This paper shows the result of an action research project
performed within a hybrid organization in Northern Italy. The
tool and the main indicators it should reflect were selected
cooperating with the management and stakeholders, and the
project was brought on by following Lewin’s (1947) three
stages approach (freezing, moving, unfreezing).
• An action research is a collaborative partnership between the
researcher and the organisation participating in the process
of the action research.
• An action research works in each phase as a cycle of joint
planning, action, observation and reflection.
• The results become ‘actionable knowledge useful to both the
practitioner and academic communities.
In Lewin’s view a successful project of change
required three steps:
• Unfreezing. In Lewin’s thought, behaviours are based on a quasi-
stationary equilibrium supported by complex forces. Before the
old behaviour can be discarded (unlearnt) and the new behaviour
successfully adopted, the equilibrium needs to be destabilized
(unfrozen).
• Moving. The action research-based approach enables groups,
individuals and organizations to move to a more acceptable set of
behaviours.
• Refreezing. This step aims at stabilizing the group at a new quasi-
stationary equilibrium in order to ensure that the new behaviours
are relatively safe from regression. Within organizations,
refreezing requires changes to organizational policies and practices
 Findings
The paper shows how a useful tool for measuring social and
financial performances has to be driven by the stakeholders’
needs and has to take into consideration the organizational
mission.
The management wanted to develop a model to help controlling
the firm’s performance, while giving the right attention to
many social responsibility values related to the organizational
mission.