Abstract—This paper discusses leveraging organizational competencies in hospitality management education through employee volunteerism in business- education partnerships, and the needs for partnership accountability and performance measures for continued investment from business partners. Study results of employee-volunteerism in a casino management business- education partnership suggest untapped corporate social responsibility benefits for employers. Index Terms—Business-education partnerships, casino, hospitality and tourism management, corporate social responsibility, employee volunteerism, organizational competencies, performance measurements, Phillips ROI Methodology™. I. INTRODUCTION HE U.S. is losing global competitiveness and this trend is evident in institution competitiveness, higher education, and the U.S. casino industry [1], [2], [3], [4]. An industry’s competitiveness depends on its ability to produce a highly skilled workforce and higher education plays a key role in preparing students with skills critical to workplace success [5]. To help close student skill gaps and industry needs, higher education entities form business-education partnerships [5], [6]. The use of organizational competencies in business- education partnerships (BEPs) through employee volunteerism (EV) is the “design specs” for preparing students to succeed in the 21st century workplace [7]. The skills can reduce the growing mismatch between industry needs and workforce skills preparedness. Additionally, corporations use employee volunteerism as a Manuscript received September 21, 2012. E. K. Green is with the Casino, Hospitality and Tourism Management Department, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406 USA (phone:601-266-6511; fax:601-266-6707; email: evelyn.green@usm.edu). C. H Gaudet is with the Economic and Workforce Development Department, The University of Southern Mississippi, Long Beach, MS 39560 USA (e-mail: cyndi.gaudet@usm.edu) H. A. Annulis is with the Economic and Workforce Development Department, The University of Southern Mississippi, Long Beach, MS 39560 USA (email: heather.annulis@usm.edu). corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy to enhance corporate image and increase public trust [8]. However, EV is frequently not aligned with mainstream business strategy and is not well-captured or formally reported [9], [10], [11]. Lack of accountability by education partners often leads to partnership breakdowns or failures [12], [13]. When unable to account for, and align EV in BEPs with corporate goals, business leaders become reluctant to continue investing in the partnerships [14], [15]. The purpose of this study is to describe employee volunteer and employer benefits from BEPs as perceived by employee volunteers (EVs) of a BEP. The study population consists of EVs from business partners in a United States (US) casino jurisdiction engaged in a US undergraduate casino management program. The study seeks to establish a systematic reporting process and standard to measure corporate employee volunteerism in BEP for casino, hospitality and tourism management programs. II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Workplace Skills Gaps and Shortages Employers find U.S. students deficient in skills critical to workplace success [16]. Casner-Lotto [16] suggests the first step toward ensuring a work-ready 21 st century U.S. workforce is to define the skills gaps and address them through collaborative business-education partnerships. According to the American Society for Training and Development [5]: A skills gap is a significant gap between an organization’s skill needs and the current capabilities of its workforce. It is the point at which an organization can no longer grow and/or remain competitive in its industry because its employees do not have the right skills to help drive business results and support the organization’s strategies and goals. (p. 5) The leadership-competency model for the lodging industry identifies self-management, strategic positioning, implementation, critical thinking, interpersonal, communication, and leadership as competencies future hospitality leaders must possess [17]. Reasons skill gaps occur include changes in workforce demographics; the loss of jobs in many industries; the startling numbers of unprepared high Measuring the Benefits of Employee Volunteerism in Business-Education Partnerships as a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy Evelyn K. Green, Cyndi H. Gaudet, and Heather M. Annulis T DOI: 10.5176/2010-4804_2.2.187 GSTF Journal on Business Review (GBR) Vol.2 No.2, October 2012 © The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access by the GSTF 91 brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by GSTF Digital Library (GSTF-DL): Open Journal Systems (Global Science and Technology...