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Corporate Citizenship as Social Capital
The Building Bridges Project as a Model for the Promotion of Cooperation between Companies and Social Institutions

PhD Programme in Psychology
University of Innsbruck, Austria

Supervisors: Prof. Wolfgang Weber, Prof. Heidi Möller

November 2005

Abstract
As a result of changes in the labour market connected with on-going socio-political transformations, the welfare state is no longer able to fulfil its traditional mandate. The focus of debate has thus shifted to civil society, which aims to involve citizens more strongly in the design and realization of social structures. Similarly, companies are increasingly being called upon as corporate citizens to play an appropriate part, beyond their economic activities, in the creation and maintenance of functioning community structures. The project Building Bridges seeks to create a connection between two spheres of work and life that are often perceived as opposites. Through a week-long exchange of management personnel from companies and social institutions, the project aims to provide a mutual enrichment of experience and knowledge. The sociological question that arises from the Building Bridges project is whether and in what form this exchange leads to social engagement on the part of companies. This thesis investigates whether, alongside effects on the level of the individual, longer-term results can be observed that give rise to cooperation between companies and social institutions. The thesis approaches this problem through the application of qualitative methods. With the assistance of the methodological approach provided by hermeneutically-oriented depth psychology, both the relationship between experiences and the concrete interpretative moments that constitute a statement about these experiences and their relationships can be preserved. In this way, both the subjectively lived experiences of the participants and their repressed significance can be reconstructed. Finally, the results are discussed with reference to the theoretical concepts of corporate citizenship and social capital.

Information on the author
Martina Battisti is Research Fellow at the Department of Management and Research Methods at the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg, where she teaches Human Resource Management and Research Methods. At the moment she holds a Post-doc Scholarship at the University of Innsbruck where she works on Social Networks and Entrepreneurship.

Contact details
Martina Battisti PhD, MSc
Department of Management and Research Methods
University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg
Hochschulstraße 1
A – 6850 Dornbirn
Phone: +43 699 10906939
e-mail: martina.battisti@fhv.at

Download the thesis
For any inquiry on this thesis, please contact the author at the address martina.battisti@fhv.at

Additional information
This thesis is written in German and is listed also in sections Economics, Psychology, English and in the Chronological archive.

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