Team Researches Corporate Social Responsibility with Heart of Arkansas United Way

A team of students at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service have spent the year working with the Heart of Arkansas United Way researching local views of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The Clinton School team of Linda Dipert (Arlington, Texas), Blake Farris (Conway, Ark.), Nada Hamida (Aleppo, Syria), and Baraka Kengwa (Mwanza, Tanzania) have surveyed and interviewed local employees and business leaders to collect their thoughts on CSR – a business or company’s sense of responsibility toward the community and environment in which it operates.

“The biggest question we wanted to answer is ‘What is CSR?’” Dipert said. “We wanted to define it and give it a history. We also wanted to learn if business leaders employed practices to encourage CSR and how employees felt about working for a company engaged in CSR.”

The team worked closely with Mollie Palmer, Vice President of Communication and Engagement at the Heart of Arkansas United Way. Palmer said the organization applied for a team after working with Clinton School graduate Izehi Oriaghan (’19) on her final Capstone project.

“The Clinton School is a resource that not every city has and not every state has,” Palmer said. “I think for those of us particularly in the nonprofit sector and those of us locally, it makes a lot of sense to determine how you can best make use of that resource.”

The Heart of Arkansas United Way’s plan to research local attitudes toward CSR began in the spring of 2019 after United Way Worldwide released its own research which looked at CSR impressions from major corporations in large markets. United Way Worldwide surveyed 1,500 adults who work for companies that participate in United Way Workplace Giving Campaigns regarding their views of CSR. More than 80% responded that it was important they work for a company that gives back to the community.

Palmer said that the Heart of Arkansas United Way wanted to see what that kind of research would look like in central Arkansas.

“We’ve got this basis of research from United Way Worldwide,” Palmer said. “But we felt like a lot of that spoke to really large markets where there may be a significant number of headquartered companies that have locations in multiple places. What does that look like in our context and in our community?”

The team’s research started with a literature review that included the United Way Worldwide research. The students interviewed leaders from 15 different companies in central Arkansas – including Central Arkansas Water, Hathaway Construction, Bank of America, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and Entergy, among others – to collect their views on how CSR fits into their business models, and surveyed more than 200 local employees on their views of CSR.

“One of the things that was affirming is that in the interviews in particular, even for companies that were not headquartered here, a significant number of them highlighted that local impact is important,” Palmer said.

The team will deliver its findings online on Tuesday, April 21. The team’s final deliverable will include a document with the findings from their surveys and interviews, and recommendations for how companies can implement CSR in their workplace.

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