International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 21; November 2012 140 Developing a Community Engagement Operational Framework for De La Salle University Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business Florenz C. Tugas, CISA, CPA Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business De La Salle University Manila, Philippines Abstract Proactive concern for the people in the community has recently been an emerging and strong force and is positively influencing the strategic initiatives of higher education institutions locally and abroad. For De La Salle University (DLSU), where the researcher is from, the redefinition in its vision-mission statement emphasizing the poor effective academic year 2012-2013 has resulted in a conscious strategic and operational effort for every academic and support office to take into active consideration the poor sector in their everyday activities. Among a number of strategies employed by DLSU to institutionalize this is the creation of an external affairs office in every college effective academic year 2011-2012. One of the tasks of the office is the coordination of community engagement projects among and within the colleges and academic departments. This research study focuses on the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business (RVRCOB). For more than a year now, though the external affairs office of the RVRCOB has been effective in coordinating and delivering tangible community engagement projects to the community, it is still undeniable that the insufficiency of scientific and scholarly documentation on the creation of this office puts into question the appropriateness of community engagement projects for a particular academic department, the alignment of community projects among the academic departments, and the overall impact of these projects to the community. As such, this research study aims to develop a community engagement operational framework which the external affairs office can use to evaluate its existing community engagement strategy and map out future strategies in the hope of creating greater impact to the community. To do this, the researcher conducted a literature review of the available community engagement frameworks and identified frameworks that are applicable to the existing DLSU community engagement framework. Thereafter, the researcher analyzed how total quality management (TQM) can be fitted in the resulting framework. From this, a community engagement operational framework anchored on the service-learning framework of Vickers et al. (2004) and community connectedness framework by Brown and Keast (2003) with two of the key dimensions of TQM (continuous improvement and competitive benchmarking) comprehensively articulated all throughout resulted. At the center of this proposed community engagement operational framework is the community engagement framework of DLSU. Keywords: community engagement, competitive benchmarking, continuous improvement, service-learning component, total quality management. 1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the study The creation of the External Affairs Office in the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business (RVRCOB) of De La Salle University (DLSU) last academic year 2011-2012 has served as an enabling platform in articulating the concern for the poor in the new vision-mission statement of DLSU. Though this was already present in the previous vision-mission statement, it was indirect that a redefined vision-mission statement is necessary to provide for a conscious reinforcement of the original motivation why St. John Baptist de La Salle founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. This motivation was service and concern directed especially for the poor. As such, the DLSU vision-mission has been reworded as “a leading learner-centered research university, bridging faith and scholarship in the service of society, especially the poor.”