Motivations, activities, timing, and employee engagement: three approaches to business involvement in disasters

Abstract

The alarming rise in disaster occurrences, along with the positive development of corporate social responsibility (CSR), has led to the growing need and involvement of businesses in disaster relief. However, this involvement differs greatly across organisations, and the fragmented research has not offered an understanding of these differences and how they affect disaster relief. This study provides a comprehensive model of companies’ involvement in disaster relief by integrating two disaster relief frameworks (activities and timing) with two CSR frameworks (motivation and employee engagement). The result is the MATE model of four inextricably linked dimensions (motivation, activities, timing, and employee engagement), examined in a qualitative study with 57 interviewees across 34 organisations in Australia. The resulting Corporate Involvement in Disasters Model details the four MATE dimensions and categorises three approaches to corporate involvement in disaster relief: reactive, relational, and comprehensive. This model details a roadmap for effective business involvement in disaster relief.