Aplicación de la RSE en las empresas peruanas

My research takes the form of a case study of the International Project for Nonprofit Leadership's Urban Routes program. The case study approach allows me to move from the specific case at hand to a generalizable model or theory (Creswell 2003, 132). Through an in- depth examination of Urban Routes as a university-community partnership intermediary, the intent is to develop a deeper understanding of the function, structure, and role of these

intermediaries, which will allow for the development of a model of the function, structure, and role of mediating entities within university-community partnerships.

Yin (1989, 19) states, “'how' and 'why' questions are likely to favor the use of case studies, experiments, or histories.” As university-community partnership intermediaries' functions and structures depend in large part upon the context within and connections to the systems in which they exist, any examination that does not take into consideration the wider context will likely lead to an incomplete theory and be unable to explain how the structure functions in its systems- bridging role. Furthermore, with little research focused upon identifying the variables or

characteristics found specifically within the mediating entity, examined through a systems theory lens, we are left to an exploratory framework within which to work. In other words, we are left asking 'how' and 'why' questions about the intermediary's functions and structure. Lastly, the study relies in large part upon direct observation of activities largely out of the researcher’s control. Therefore, the study is best crafted within the case study methodology.

Unit of Analysis

The focus or unit of analysis in this case study is the Urban Routes structure, including its institutional placement within the university infrastructure, funding methods, its interactive methodology within both the university and the community, and its overall goals or purpose.

The present case study explores how university-community partnership intermediaries: 1) Work across the multiple systems involved;

2) Are able to develop flexible, but explicit, methods of addressing the inherent barriers within university-community partnerships; and

3) Develop methods of collaborative action and decision-making between the partnering systems or organizations.

The study also explores the role structure plays in the ability of intermediaries to function effectively.

The sheer complexity and continually shifting nature of Urban Routes added considerably to the difficulty of the study. In order to overcome some of these complexities, and ease the difficulty of “hitting a moving target,” I limited the scope of the study to Urban Routes strictly as a mediating entity between the University of New Orleans and two New Orleans neighborhoods, from August 2003 through October 2004. It should be noted, however, that this shifting nature is potentially a normal aspect of university-community partnerships, and is reflected within a constantly changing mediating structure that attempts to adapt to each of these normal shifts. Lastly, several of the documents used within this study were created prior to this study's time period, but were useful within this study to inform this examination of the function, structure, and activities of Urban Routes during the study's time frame.

Role of Researcher

As an Urban Routes Project Assistant during the entire duration of this study, my natural role as researcher within this study was that of participant-observer. According to Yin (1989, 92- 3), participant-observation allows the investigator an opportunity to “gain access to events or groups that are otherwise inaccessible,” “the ability to perceive reality from the viewpoint of someone 'inside' the case study rather than external to it,” and an “ability to manipulate events or situations” which may allow for a deeper understanding of the case being examined.

As Project Assistant, I was responsible for maintaining communication between IPNL, Urban Routes staff and the Tremé community participants through phone calls, personal contacts, and e-mail. I also was responsible for co-facilitating neighborhood meetings along with the Neighborhood Coordinator. Finally, I assisted in completion and follow-up of any and all tasks accomplished within Urban Routes: Tremé.

Within this role, I had the opportunity to examine Urban Routes from a very intimate viewpoint, able to investigate various aspects of the program an outsider would find difficult or impossible to access, as well as move beyond the external rhetoric used by Urban Routes to describe program behavior and activities towards a deeper examination of what actually occurs. As a participant-observer, I was able to take advantage of what is likely the most significant source of information about Urban Routes, namely the informal source of data. Whereas formal interviews and formal documents lead to the “official” explanation of organization activities, immersion within the informal “reality” of Urban Routes and IPNL that allows me access to informal conversations and documentation, I was able to directly observe the “actual” activities of the organization and program.

Unfortunately, several major problems exist within my role that merit examination. Although participant-observer status did enable me access to potentially hidden aspects of Urban Routes, it produced a bias within my analysis. These biases potentially include the focusing of my examination to those aspects of Urban Routes that conform to my “staff view” of the

program. In addition, as part of a limited staff directly involved within Urban Routes activities, my interactions, both formal and informal, with informants and program participants were likely skewed towards particular views or understandings of the program. In other words, although I was privy to “insider information” by virtue of my role, I was also largely limited to receive only “insider-information.” Lastly, although Yin (1989) describes the ability to manipulate the

situation as a potential positive of the participant-observer role, this ability in itself posed a large threat to the study. As one of a limited number of staff, my activities within the program likely had a major impact upon the very phenomena I am attempting to investigate.

With these dangers in mind, I have taken several measures to strengthen the validity, or internal consistency, of my findings. First, although participant-observation was the primary method used within the study, all observations were checked against multiple sources of data, including formal interviews, internal program-related documents, and meeting notes, for

consistency (Creswell 2003). Second, clarification and explicitness of the limitations and biases potentially found within the research methods utilized, and mindfulness of this reality during the analysis of data, further strengthens the validity of this study (Creswell 2003). In essence, I was able to check my results against my expectations based upon this bias, helping to indicate whether the results caused by the bias or actually came out of the data.

Research Questions

With the growing reliance upon university-community partnerships for the inclusion of the university in applying solutions to urban issues and meeting community needs, the methods of maintaining these partnerships in an effective manner is in need of further examination. One such method is the use of a mediating entity between the university and the community.

The central research questions of this case study, therefore, are: What is the role of mediating entities within university-community partnerships? How do mediating entities fulfill this role? How are these mediating entities structured to implement this role? To answer these questions, I will examine Urban Routes as an example of a mediating entity.

Sources of Evidence

In order to explore the research questions, I gathered evidence from several source categories (Yin 1989). The primary method of data collection used was participant-observation over a fifteen-month period (August 2003 to October 2004). As previously stated, this

immersion allowed me to explore deeply both the explicit and the implicit aspects of Urban Routes while maintaining a dual role as researcher and program staff.

The second source used was formal and informal interviewing of key informants. Formal interviews entailed open-ended interviews with the IPNL Director, the Vice-Chancellor of

Governmental and Community Affairs, The Dean of Metropolitan College, the Assistant Dean of CUPA, three previous or current Urban Routes Program Coordinators, and two community participants within Urban Routes. Informally, everyday conversations with IPNL staff directly and indirectly involved in Urban Routes, IPNL and Urban Routes leadership, and community participants provided a rich source of information.

The third and final source was documentary evidence. Within this category fall two different types of documents providing a variety of evidence. The first type of documents used within this case study was the myriad of program and organizational documents for Urban Routes and IPNL. These included an annual Urban Routes budget; three work plans for the 2003-2004 Urban Routes project period; several monthly project reports from both neighborhood projects; one COPC funding proposal; several organizational charts; and a myriad of planning documents. The second type was of a less formal nature. These included notes from IPNL staff meetings collected from September 2003 to September 2004; notes from several community meetings collected from November 2003 to May 2004; notes from Urban Routes: Tremé Advisory Board meetings collected from September 2003 to May 2004; several intra- organizational memorandums and e-mails; and my personal notes from ad-hoc planning discussions.

Analysis of Evidence

Analysis of gathered data will follow typical procedures used within the case study

methodology. Through a highly iterative process, which began during collection, data was placed into evolving categories or “themes” (Creswell 2003). Through these themes, I was able to develop a broad understanding and description of the structure and function of Urban Routes and its activities. I further explored the identified themes utilizing the combined three-part

partnership frameworks of Cox (2000) and Silka (1999), with activities broken into each part of the framework. Interpretation of the findings proceeded using a pattern-matching mode of analysis; the empirically based findings of Urban Routes were compared with the predicted

functions of mediating entities, namely integration, interpretation, and equalization, as developed within the existing literature and research and my own reflections (Yin 1989).

Scope, Delimiters, and Limitations of the Study

As stated above, this study focused on Urban Routes as one model of a mediating entity within university-community partnerships, and proceeded within a case study methodology. As such, this examination is limited in several ways. First, considering the shifting and ephemeral nature of Urban Rotes as a project, all conclusions are limited to an examination of the project from August 2003 to October 2004.

Second, as a case study based on the examination of only a single phenomenon this study is purposely limited to the generation of theory, generalizable only through this developed theory. Future studies will be necessary to continue the development of this theory as well as its testing across a wider range of phenomena. However, the experiences of Urban Routes might have been unique and widely divergent from other intermediaries. Furthermore, the study is limited to the examination of an urban university's engagement with urban communities. For this reason, the theories generated through this study may only be generalizable to other urban settings, and should be applied only carefully to rural community engagements, as this may prove to have dynamics not considered presently.

Finally, the present study is not an evaluation of Urban Routes’ content methods, management styles, or overall efficacy. Considering that Urban Routes are relatively new, an evaluation of this sort would seem premature.

CHAPTER 4