Corporate Citizenship and Higher Education: Behavior, Engagement, and Ethics

281 Pages·2019·3.066 MB·English

by  Morgan R. Clevenger

Morgan R. Clevenger
CORPORATE
CITIZENSHIP
AND HIGHER
EDUCATION
Behavior,
Engagement,
and Ethics
Corporate Citizenship and Higher Education
“Partnerships between corporations and universities have become commonplace,
yet there is much we don’t know about the dynamics of these arrangements.
Morgan Clevenger’s comprehensive study of a university and its corporate partners
shines a bright light into the black box of inter-organizational relations to show us
how and why collaborative activity between the two sectors takes root, the chal-
lenges that arise in the process of working together, and the larger socio-cultural
changes that are occasioned by their joint work. Scholars and practitioners alike
will benefit immeasurably from the theoretical and empirical insights contained in
this volume.”
—David J. Siegel, East Carolina University, USA
“Dr. Clevenger’s Corporate Citizenship and Higher Education—Behavior,
Engagement, and Ethics is a much-needed empirical examination into how corpo-
rations interact with tertiary institutions. As he points out, the core values and
cultures of both companies and colleges or universities are mutually supported
when synergistic relationships are formed. In the modern era, it is not possible for
institutions of higher education to function with no connection to a climate domi-
nated by corporate structures. Similarly, any corporation that fails to properly
engage the academy is at risk of losing meaningful contributions to society that go
beyond the marketplace. Clevenger’s careful research and astute observations pro-
vide a solid framework for professionals in both worlds to better understand pos-
sibilities and expectations, giving guidance about how symbiotic relationships can
form and succeed.”
—Ross Perkins, Associate Professor of Educational Technology,
Boise State University, USA
“Such a timely book, given the increasing public scrutiny of corporate giving to
higher education. A great read for fundraisers who want a comprehensive picture
of corporate citizenship and motivations for philanthropy.”
—Tanya Easton, EdD, Vice President for Institutional Advancement,
Notre Dame of Maryland University, USA
“Dr. Morgan Clevenger brings his knowledge and passion for corporate citizen-
ship to the practical questions involved in corporate partnerships with institutions
of higher education. His focus on this relationship adds clarity to our understand-
ing of how business ethics are expressed in our communities.”
—Corey Golden, Founder, Pittston Ketchup
“Clevenger challenges us to better understand the symmetrical relationship of
corporate citizenship—the benefits to both business and higher education—in
corporate philanthropy. Through his case study, Clevenger implicitly asks the
reoccurring question, yet in a new context: Does philanthropy have to be altruistic
or can it be a partnership, where both the donor and recipient have distinct ben-
efits? This book raises important questions for higher education administrators,
corporate leaders, and those generally interested in the influence of philanthropic
giving on colleges and universities.”
—Noah D. Drezner, Associate Professor, Teachers College,
Columbia University, USA
Morgan R. Clevenger
Corporate Citizenship
and Higher Education
Behavior, Engagement, and Ethics
Morgan R. Clevenger
Post-doctoral Fellow in Corporate Social Responsibility
and Global Business Ethics
Monarch Business School
Zug, Switzerland
This important research is being replicated in 12 colleges and universities
across the United States thanks to a 2016 CASE Award for Outstanding
Research in Integrated Educational Advancement, sponsored by Grenzebach
Glier and Associates.
ISBN 978-3-030-02446-8 ISBN 978-3-030-02447-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02447-5
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Placement of dissertations from doctoral work in electronic format has become
commonplace and readily available to researchers, the public, and readers.
However, a 2017 study indicates that only 3.5% of dissertations are ever
rewritten and published as books (Johnson, Goldberg, & Detmering, 2017).
Thus, the efforts of doctoral students—and the support from their faculty
research committees—are often buried, un-accoladed to the world, and not
refined into implications pieces to elicit further discussion, circulation of new or
improved information, or pushed into the mainstream. This book is therefore
dedicated to the faculty mentors who served on the dissertation committee
contributing hundreds of hours: Dr. Jeni Hart, Professor of Higher Education,
and Dean and Vice provost for Graduate Studies, University of Missouri-
Columbia; Dr. Robert Watson, Professor Emeritus at Missouri State
University; Dr. Beth Hurst, Professor of Reading at Missouri State University;
and dissertation supervisor, Dr. Cynthia MacGregor, Professor of Educational
Leadership and Policy Analysis at Missouri State University and MU-MSU
EdD Site Coordinator. Their wisdom and thoughtful responses have helped to
foster and shape the ideas, research, and writing in not only the original
dissertation work but also this book as well as several other publications.
RefeRence
Johnson, A. M., Goldberg, T., & Detmering, R. (2017). Dissertation to book? A
snapshot of dissertations published as books in 2014 and 2015, available in open
access institutional repositories. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly
Communication, 5(General Issue), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-
3309.2177
f
oRewoRd
In fall 2016, Dr. Clevenger and I gave two presentations at the Association
for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) annual conference in Columbus,
Ohio. In reviewing the conference offerings, I was disappointed in the
deficiency of presentations regarding higher education and the American
business context. Overall, there is a lack of information or in-depth research
about the inter-organizational relationship between corporate America and
higher education, despite abundant anecdotal experiences of interdepen-
dency between corporations and universities. While experiences may inform
the nature and effectiveness of these interactions, little has been systemati-
cally researched about this specific type of relationship. The work in this
book is the first rigorous academic investigation of the relationships
between an American university and its business partnerships.
Specifically, this book illuminates the research findings from Clevenger’s
(2014) dissertation that examined corporate citizenship through the inter-
organizational relationships between a public American doctoral research
University and six of its corporate partners from 2006 to 2010. For confi-
dentiality, all organizations desired to remain unnamed, thus you will not
find the name of the university or the names of the corporate partners in
this book. Organization of the research is framed through Cone’s (2010)
corporate citizenship spectrum, which has not previously been used for
scholarly research. Thus, this work is instrumental in nature. The work is
also being replicated with 12 additional colleges and universities.
Three research questions were used to explore this relationship: (1) Why
does a higher education institution accept corporate citizenship engage-
ment and financial support? (2) Why do U.S. corporations engage as
vii
viii FOREWORD
corporate citizens in relationships with a higher education institution? (3)
What ethical concerns arise in the engaged inter-organizational relation-
ships between corporations and a higher education institution? Data
included interviews, document and audio-visual materials, and a forensic
campus investigation. This extensive data collection informed the three
research questions and provided an instrumental use of Cone’s (2010) cor-
porate citizenship spectrum—the first study to do so. Three themes emerged
for the first research question, that is, viable resources, student enrichment,
and real-world connectivity. Four themes from the second research ques-
tion were workforce development, community enrichment, brand develop-
ment, and research. For the third research question, three themes emerged:
generally no ethical dilemmas; general ethics discussions emerged concern-
ing public relations; solicitation, policies and stewardship; accountability and
transparency; and leadership behavior; and ethical concerns, none involving
any of the corporate participants. The data yielded four additional themes
relating to culture, economic challenges, alumni connectivity, and geography.
This research adds to a context of multiple views on the purpose, merits,
consequences, and reality that exist in the relationship between corporate
America and higher education. Research scholar Spradley (1980) encour-
aged “ethnographic research to understand this form of social organiza-
tion…and to know the extent to which corporations affect all our interests”
(p. 19). Additionally professors and American philanthropy researchers
Ostrander and Schervish (2002) argued that a two-way social relationship
exists between a sponsor such as a corporation and a recipient such as a
higher education institution. This dynamic relationship involves a social
cause and financial backing—and sometimes engagement—of that cause;
however, byproducts or other tangible and intangible benefits exist and can
be manipulated. The specific nature of such a dynamic relationship can be
seen in the findings from this book.
Higher education institutions have had various reasons to be engaged
with corporations (Fischer, 2000; Gould, 2003). Post-World War II,
higher education began partnering with companies to determine profes-
sional and job demand areas to better serve the country and economic
productivity. Also, during times of double-digit inflation (i.e., the 1970s
and 1980s), higher education leaders turned to corporate America to
assist in efficiency systems to strive for balanced budgets. The corporate
partners in this study play an important role in the viability of the university.
Likewise, corporations have had various reasons to be engaged with
higher education, which “often reflect national and international economic
FOREWORD ix
pressures and events” (DaSilva & Kerkian, 2008, p. 13). Some examples of
corporate support and engagement include view of shareholder philan-
thropic support, managerial discretion and passion for social- related causes,
ability to give from profitability and economic status, board emphasis on
charitable causes, and a host of strings-attached reasons such as return on
investment, advertisements, and relatively low-cost investments such as
research, public relations, image, and social currency. The analysis of data
from the Clevenger study brings to life the generic examples provided by
DaSilva and Kerkian.
People expect corporations to be profitable as the economic corner-
stone of the capitalist system. With this economic motive come legal and
ethical expectations regardless of size of business (Carroll & Buchholtz,
2017; Ciconte & Jacob, 2009; Drucker, 1946). The American people
expect corporations to obey all laws and regulations, to protect society
through safe products and business practices, to assist in human capital
development, to fulfill contractual obligations, and to honor promises in
guarantees. Ethically, corporations are supposed to avoid questionable
practices, respond to the spirit and letter of the law, and protect employees
and the environment (Reichart, 1999). Corporate citizenship provides cor-
porations with a direct engagement with higher education institutions.
Basically, corporate citizenship—or corporate social responsibility—is con-
cerned with minimizing harm in society and maximizing benefit through
shared value with all stakeholders (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012; Googins,
Mirvis, & Rochlin, 2007; Waddock, 2004). What are the motivations and
expectations of both corporate America and higher education in their
inter-organizational relationship, and are the motives and expectations of
engagement performed ethically? The exploration of ethics within a spe-
cific set of university-corporate partnerships demonstrates the reality of
ethical tensions, revealing surprisingly few actual ethical problems.
Scholars have avoided much research in the field of resource develop-
ment and charitable engagement because they were “reticent” about the
topic as it is too “complex, value-laden, [and] … burdened by issues of the
unequal distribution of power” (Walton & Gasman, 2008, p. xxiii).
Previous studies in fundraising and philanthropy have focused on individu-
als’ philanthropic giving because it constitutes more than 80% of c haritable
dollars contributed annually in the United States (Kaplan, 2018). While
the field of fundraising has grown during the past 60 years, little informa-
tion is available on corporate behavior related to higher education. Within
the research presented in this book, a richer portrait of fundraising and
resource development between business and higher education is displayed.
x FOREWORD
Business researchers and scholars have also marginalized the topic of
corporate social responsibility with little active research within the field of
management—although corporate social responsibility has been growing
as a sub-topic on its own (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012; Campbell, 2007). (For
more exploration regarding the growing discussion in business press and an
emerging body of ideas, see Buhr & Grafström, 2004; Margolis & Walsh,
2003; Walsh, Weber, & Margolis, 2003.) Most emphasis has been on the
organizational level followed by institutional level with none focused on
corporate interaction with higher education specifically, but rather general
support or agendas for social causes as a whole. Further, research agendas
from a business perspective delineate predictors, outcomes, mediators, and
moderators as variables that interplay to affect a company’s corporate social
responsibility through internal planning, actions, and measurement of
inter-organizational and societal outcomes and impacts (Aguinis & Glavas,
2012). Little attention has been paid to theoretical frameworks to under-
stand why and how corporations behave in socially responsible ways, let
alone the breadth and depth of such behavior (Campbell, 2007; Kang &
Moon, 2012; Rowley & Berman, 2000; Ullman, 1985).
This book joins several significant and meritorious academic books on
related components such as fundraising, American higher education,
American philanthropy and resource management, and the U.S. nonprofit
sector. These books include Ciconte and Jacob’s (2009) Fundraising
Basics: A Complete Guide, Cohen’s (2010) The Shaping of American
Higher Education: Emergency and Growth of the Contemporary System,
Curti and Nash’s (1965) Philanthropy in the Shaping of American Higher
Education, Scanlan’s (1996) Corporate and Foundation Fund Raising: A
Complete Guide from the Inside, Hammack’s (1998) Making the Nonprofit
Sector in the United States, Hall’s (2001) Inventing the Nonprofit Sector,
Walton and Gasman’s (2008) 896-page anthology of Philanthropy,
Volunteerism & Fundraising in Higher Education, and Thelin’s two books,
A History of American Higher Education (2011) and American Higher
Education: Issues and Institutions (2017). While these thorough works
provide historic information, corporate foundation perspectives, and how-
to advice on grant proposals and sponsored research, they offer little rele-
vant content in the matter of corporate behavior relating to higher
education.
Additionally, Corporate Philanthropy Report, The Corporate Citizen, and
The Journal of Corporate Citizenship have had no articles relating to the
relationship between higher education and corporate America. It is noted,