The Organizational Place Building Inventory: An Instrument for Assessing and Facilitating Place-Based Corporate Social Responsibility

• Published in: The journal of corporate citizenship 2016-09, Vol.2016 (63), p.17-41
• Main Authors: Thomas, David F., Kimball, Michael, Suhr, Diane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Buildings; Business structures; Community associations; Community life; Community relations; Economic value; Environmental ethics; Office buildings; Organization theory; Residential buildings; Social responsibility; Studies; Values; Wellbeing
• ISSN: 1470-5001; 2051-4700
• DOI: 10.9774/GLEAF.4700.2016.se.00004

Through a discussion of Organizational Place Building Theory (OPBT) and the presentation of a professional services firm (PSF) case study, the purpose of this paper is to present the justification for and efficacy of the Organizational Place Building Inventory (OPBI). The OPBI is an objective instrument designed to assess an organization’s values and strategies along five dimensions or latent constructs of place building: ethical, social, natural, built environment and economic. The paper discusses the significance of the OPBI’s scores with respect to four place building profiles: exploitive, contingent, contributive and transformational. It concludes by offering a three-phase process in which the OBPI may be incorporated into participatory research. Although the literature provides several methods for measuring corporate social activities, they do not include corporate social responsibility from a place perspective, that is, one that recognizes, values and integrates the meanings individuals and groups give to a place in terms of its geographic and social contexts. This perspective focuses on how place can and should play an important role in the strategic relationships organizations have with their communities, their clients and employees. Organizational Place Building serves as both a mirror and a lens through which organizations can: 1) locate themselves on a continuum of values and strategies with regard to place (i.e. their relations to its social, natural, material, economic and ethical dimensions); and 2) develop strategies for how they might stay where they are or get where they would rather be.