Organizational Downsizing, Discrimination,and Corporate Social Responsibility

Organizational Downsizing, Discrimination, and Corporate Social Responsibility Zeinab A. Karake-Shalhoub QUORUM BOOKS Organizational Downsizing, Discrimination, and Corporate Social Responsibility Organizational Downsizing, Discrimination, and Corporate Social Responsibility Zeinab A. Karake-Shalhoub QUORUM BOOKS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Karake, Zeinab A. Organizational downsizing, discrimination, and corporate social responsibility / Zeinab A. Karake-Shalhoub. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–56720–251–9 (alk. paper) 1. Social responsibility of business. 2. Downsizing of organizations. 3. Discrimination in employment. I. Title. HD60.K37 1999 658.4'08—dc21 98–51668 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright
1999 by Zeinab A. Karake-Shalhoub All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98–51668 ISBN: 1–56720–251–9 First published in 1999 Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.quorumbooks.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Victor, my husband and friend; To my daughters, Rana, Reem, and Ruba; And to the better world I constantly pray for. Contents Tables Preface 1. Establishing the Context ix xi 1 2. Corporate Social Responsibility and Discrimination: The Literature 13 3. Organizational Crisis and Downsizing 53 4. Relative Index for Downsizing Employees (RIDE) and Company Performance 77 5. Empirical Analysis and Results 91 6. Concluding Remarks and Discussion 121 Bibliography Index 139 151 Tables 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Sample Distribution by Industry Sample Firms by Year Distribution of Firms by Industry Variable: DOWN% Variable: ROE Variable: SIZE 84 96 98 106 107 107 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 Variable: DISCRM Sample Statistics Pearson Correlation Coefficients Variance Inflation Factors 108 108 110 111 5.10 Results of the Logit Regression Analysis 112 Preface In this book, I will analyze a topic that has received too much attention in recent years, and around which there has been much debate, dispute, and confusion. It is a topic that has direct relevance to the question of corporate social responsibility in the developed world, in general, and the United States, in particular. The topic is corporate social responsibility and corporate downsizing. When social responsibility first burst into popularity in the late 1960s, it was a controversial subject t