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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