School of Leisure, Sport

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School of Leisure, Sport Tourism

• Corporate Social Responsibility of Large Urban
  Museums The Contribution of Volunteer Programs
• Dr Deborah Edwards
• STCRC Senior Research Fellow in Urban Tourism
• University of Technology Sydney

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Aims

• To explore the relationship between corporate
  social responsibility (CSR) and social capital.
• Outline the contribution of 3 large museums to
  social capital through their volunteer programs
• Aust Museum Sydney
• Australian War Memorial - Canberra
• Art Gallery New South Wales - Sydney
• Suggest ways in which museums can continue to
  fulfil and advance their CSR activities.

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Social Capital

• 'Social attachment' - nature and strength of
  relationships that people have with each other
  and organizations and institutions.
• Individual wellbeing and societal wellbeing are
  intrinsically affected by the interactions that
  take place within society (ABS, 2005, p. 1).
• Wellbeing is maintained by people becoming
  involved in transactions with others building
  social capital.

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Social Capital and its relevance to CSR

• Organisations through CSR activities can
  facilitate positive transactions.
• Organisations that work with society realise
  benefits
• Corporate reputation and goodwill
• Positive corporate image
• Attract and retain motivated employees
• Improve market position
• Reputation-based competitive advantage over
  competitors.

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Contribution of Large Urban Museums to Social
Capital

• Culture and leisure activities are seen as
  assisting in developing community identity and
  forming community networks ie. social attachment.
• Museums play a role in social attachment
• As institutions of culture where people can spend
  leisure time
• Bring the community into the working life of the
  organisation through volunteer programs.

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Contribution of Large Urban Museums to Social
Capital

• Volunteer programs bridge people from different
  parts of the community
• Interact with others, make new friends, and feel
  a part of the community
• Share common goals and aspirations of passing on
  art science, or history and reducing
  organisational costs
• Articulate their engagement as citizens building
  trust and reciprocity among each other.

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Contribution of Large Urban Museums to Social
Capital

• Opportunities for people to learn about each
  other which serves to build tolerance,
  acceptance, and trust between otherwise disparate
  individuals.
• Volunteers provide local knowledge with
  sensitivity.
• Experience high levels of enjoyment when engaging
  visitors.
• Extensive training that builds skills and
  knowledge.

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Findings
Research centre AWM

• Overall not clear that museums appreciate their
  CSR contribution evidenced by
• Lack of recognition of CSR capabilities and
  activities
• A narrow representation of community groups at 2
  of the museums
• No measurement or monitoring of the social
  contribution of their volunteer programs.

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Implications for Management

• Provision of training that continues to build
  interpersonal skills.
• Art, science and history can appeal to many
  people in society regardless of their nationality
  or social status.
• Develop greater diversity of community
  representation in volunteer programs.
• Enable a broader representation of the community
  to engage with museum visitors.

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Implications for Management

• Measuring the intangible and tangible social
  contribution of volunteer programs
• peoples willingness to cooperate for mutual
  benefit
• extent to which connections and friendships are
  formed
• levels of trust people have with one another
• number and strength of museums linkages with
  different community groups
• opportunity for education and skills development
  
• increased understanding by the community of the
  organizations mission, goals and values and
• communities trust towards the institution.

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Implications for Management

• Measuring and monitoring CSR will have human and
  economic resource impacts for the museum.
• Can be minimised by using volunteers to implement
  or conduct measurement and monitoring activities.
• Documenting of tangible and intangible benefits
  can be used by museums to learn from experiences,
  celebrate their CSR involvement , enhance their
  CSR capabilities, and improve its reputation and
  community relationships.

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Conclusion

• CSR is linked to social capital - opportunities
  it offers for community engagement, increasing
  social attachment and building community trust.
• Museums can contribute to building social capital
  through their volunteer programs.
• Greater contribution can be realised through the
  identifying and documenting CSR indicators of
  their volunteer programs.
• Lead to a recognition of their responsibility and
  shared possibility to creating healthy stable and
  strong communities.