Employee Participation In Corporate Volunteering

What drives employees to volunteer? And what determines their sustained involvement and support for corporate volunteer programs? Employees seem to involve in corporate volunteering for a variety of reasons. Several studies have examined the motives for participating in volunteer programs (Clary et al., 1998; Gatignon-Turnau and Mignonac, 2014; Peloza and Hassay, 2006; Pajo and Lee, 2011). Wilson (2000) reviews volunteering, drawing the influence of several factors like human values, beliefs, human capital (education, nature of job and income), social resources (social networks, family relations, marital status and parental status), age, gender, context and nature of volunteering work. This provides insights into the multidimensional nature

to gain reputation/image) and/or community serving (e.g. help people in need). It is found that employee participation is high when they see the organization as community serving than that of self-serving. Further, Peloza and Hassay (2006) propose that employee participation in volunteering is subject to the evaluation of cost and benefits of volunteering. They assert that charitable support behavior differs in serving employee’s egoistic motives (satiating the volunteer) and/or altruistic motives (to help people in need). Further, Rodell et al.(2016) reviews employee volunteering and asserts that understanding the motives of employees helps in effectively recruiting and sustaining employee volunteering. In addition, Parker and Strauss (2010) highlights that self-initiated participation of employees in non-mandatory programs are most often happens with proactive motivation. In light of these, several qualitative and quantitative investigations have found that employees are driven to participate in volunteer programs for more than a single motive or need (Pajo and Lee, 2011; Peloza and Hassay, 2006; Rodell et al.,

It assists in augmenting volunteering behavior as a result of ‘the needs being met, the motives being fulfilled, and social and psychological functions being served by the activities of those people who engage in volunteer work’ (Clary and Snyder, 1999). They highlight six categories of psychological functions involved in the volunteer motivations through a survey instrument Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) (Clary et al., 1998; Clary and Snyder, 1999) - Pro-social values (to benefit others), Understanding (learn or gain new knowledge and skills), Enhancement (Grow and develop psychologically), Career (Increasing career related learning and job prospect), Social (Strengthen and build relationship) and Protective (Reduce negative feelings such as guilt or to address personal problem). This functional approach suggests participation and sustained participation in volunteering to happen when volunteers find a match between their interests and the type of volunteering activity. Further, it asserts that volunteers may support similar or same volunteering activity for different psychological functions. For instance, Houle et al., (2005) examined how various volunteering programs characteristics and benefits serve employee motivation and observed that individuals prefer those volunteering work which aligns with their