DATABASE OF EoC THESIS ABSTRACTS



DATABASE OF EoC THESIS ABSTRACTS

|GENERAL |INFORMATION |

|NAME nome: |Elizabeth Garlow |

|ADDRESS indirizzo completo: |25065 Castlereigh Dr. |

| |Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA 48336 |

|TELEPHONE telefono: |(248) 508-7898 |

|FAX fax: |elizabeth.garlow@ |

|E-MAIL e-mail: | |

|UNIVERSITY università: |Kalamazoo College; Kalamazoo, Michigan |

|GRADE OF STUDY livello di studio: |1° livello (bacellierato, triennale) |

|FIELD OF STUDY campo di studio: |Political Science, International Economics |

|TITLE OF THESIS titolo della tesi: |“Key Connections for a Way of Communion: Linking the Economy of Communion |

| |Project to Corporate Social Responsibility and Workplace Democracy” |

|YEAR COMMENCED anno inizio: |August 2006 |

|DATE COMPLETED data discussione: |June 3, 2007 |

|(DAY/MONTH/YARS) (giorno/mese/anno) |3/6/2007 |

|SUPERVISOR relatore: |Dr. John Dugas; Kalamazoo College |

|PAGES n. pagine: |181 |

|LANGUAGE lingua: |English |

ABSTRACT

|AIM obbiettivo |This thesis involves an evaluation of the extent to which the Economy of Communion (EOC) |

| |project embodies the criteria established by the paradigms of Corporate Social |

| |Responsibility (CSR) and Workplace Democracy, while examining the practices of EOC |

| |businesses in Brazil and Argentina (with Brazil as the primary case study). This thesis |

| |provides such an evaluation with the intention of examining the possibility of establishing|

| |a link between the EOC and the larger debates of CSR and Workplace Democracy, with the |

| |awareness that in so doing, the EOC may be able to tap into the potential of creating new |

| |networks in both public and private sectors. |

|METHOD metodo |Literature on the paradigms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Workplace |

| |Democracy was examined in order to provide the reader with a brief overview of the context |

| |in which each paradigm emerged, the principles upon which they rest, and their broader |

| |implications. The thesis furthermore involves an examination of literature on the Focolare |

| |Movement in order to explain the foundation from which the EOC emerged, based on the |

| |economic ethic of the Focolare Movement. It also provides a general understanding of the |

| |operations of the EOC, including decision-making methods, distribution methods, and |

| |guidelines for businesses. Field research was conducted over a period of seven weeks and |

| |involved fifty-two interviews in twelve Brazilian EOC businesses and ten Argentine |

| |businesses. The application of CSR criterion within a business were used in an examination|

| |of the arenas of “environmental responsibility” and “external responsibility”, including |

| |community engagement and relations with customers, suppliers, competition and legal |

| |authorities. For a more detailed analysis of the level of “internal responsibility” of a |

| |business, Workplace Democracy criterion were used in an examination of EOC businesses in |

| |the realms of employee empowerment, motivation and capability. The classifications of |

| |high-level, medium-level and low-level commitments were used in order to assess the |

| |relative importance of an activity within a given business, and were dependent upon |

| |pre-established criterion. Both the EOC business guidelines as well as the |

| |mission/strategies adopted by individual EOC businesses were taken into account when |

| |assessing the EOC´s level of commitment to certain practices. |

|CONCLUSIONS |The thesis concludes that businesses participating within the EOC in Brazil and Argentina |

|conclusioni |embody the CSR paradigm to a high degree, with a large number of enterprises demonstrating |

| |a “high-level” commitment in the areas of “external” and “environmental responsibility” |

| |where applicable. EOC businesses embody many aspects of Workplace Democracy, but vary in |

| |terms of their level of democracy regarding authoritative decision-making within the firm, |

| |as well as in the area of employee motivation. The very nature of the EOC initiative and |

| |its mission of profit redistribution make it difficult to classify EOC businesses as |

| |fitting into a paradigm of Workplace Democracy. A main area of divergence from the paradigm|

| |of Workplace Democracy involves a lack of awareness or involvement on behalf of employees |

| |in the wider mission of the EOC. Considering how this lack of employee awareness could be |

| |seen as “out of line” with the ‘goals or spirit’ of the project, it is proposed that to |

| |explain the EOC, business leaders are in need of certain “middle-level concepts”, such as |

| |CSR and Workplace Democracy, that can engage those unfamiliar with the spiritual |

| |underpinnings and ethos of the EOC. |

| |The thesis concludes that, for these reasons cited above, the EOC, in addition to serving |

| |as an excellent model of CSR, can be argued to serve as a model for business management |

| |(more so than Workplace Democracy) as EOC business owners have ensured the implementation |

| |of several policies, stemming from the EOC ethos, that are characteristic of democratic |

| |firms. The thesis proposes that an understanding of the ways in which the EOC exemplifies |

| |the characteristics of a socially responsible and/or democratic enterprise may provide a |

| |means by which to effectively engage employees and the public on a wider level. |

|KEYWORDS |Corporate Social Responsibility, Workplace Democracy; Business Ethics, Business Social |

|parole chiave |Responsibility |

|DATA / DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE |Thesis, Bibliography – available in Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word formats |

|dati/documenti disponibili |Author willing to discuss via Internet, |

| |contact: elizabeth.garlow@ |

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