| Prior to 1996 the welfare system was seen as a broken down wagon carrying many able-bodied individuals who could and should be working. When former President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), the private sector, specifically large corporations, was put into the spotlight as being a critical catalyst for helping welfare recipients' transition from public assistance dependency to long-term self-sufficiency and independence.; While most of the literature in welfare reform focuses on various aspects from recipients' perspective, it is important to understand various reasons why corporations might want to participate in the welfare problem. The two primary reasons cited in the literature for business participation in welfare-to-work were (1) the need to fill vacancies and (2) financial incentives offered by government to subsidize costs associated with preparing and integrating recipients in the work force. This dissertation postulates that an organization's sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR) might be another key determinant in understanding why some corporations decide to participate in welfare-to-work initiatives and others do not. Corporate social responsibility indicators that span across community, diversity, and employee relations dimensions were examined. In addition, this study explored various ways in which some corporations defined CSR, examined organizations' orientation (e.g., propensity toward economic, legal, moral, or social outcomes) toward CSR and aspects of their culture, as well as their involvement in public/private collaboration.; Two parts emerged: Part I used data from Kinder, Lyndenberg, Domini and Company, a social research organization that conducts annual ratings of social performance. Part II of the research was focused on understanding how corporations defined CSR and, given their definition of CSR, the role it plays in a corporation's decision to participate in welfare to work initiatives. Survey results showed that various CSR characteristics were statistically significant. Binomial logistic regression was used to test the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between a corporation's identification as a welfare-to-work Business Partner and its decisions to participate in various CSR activities. This research was one of the first efforts to connect welfare reform with business literature, specifically focusing on CSR. |
