On the effectiveness of professionals in hybrid organizations

Day by day, professionals in organizations are dealing with decisions, some of which may lead to conflicts. The role fulfilment of the professional determines the level of conflict and will be a trade off with the effectiveness of the task. Previous research on conflict, role fulfilment and effectiveness focuses on single business sectors. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of professionals within a hybrid organizational structure. Such a structure mixes several sectors the interests of which may be conflicting. Specifically, we consider hybrid organizations equipped with a learning structure exemplified by two case studies: (i) the Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences and (ii) the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands. Here, the professional (lecturer or priest) operates within a triangle spanned by the laymen (students or parishioners), the organization (university or church) and the context (industry or society). In practice, serving the organization as well as paying attention to the context may require the professional to deal with diametrically opposed processes. This paper presents a framework to understand the behavior of the professional in a range of organizational settings. In addition to this, the framework will support professionals in enhancing their employability through effectively fulfilling their role in conflicting goal settings.