Does serving the community also serve the company? Using organizational identification and social exchange theories to understand employee responses to a volunteerism programme

Abstract

Little is known about how employees might respond to their company's socially responsible business practices. Hypotheses derived from organizational identification and social exchange theories were tested to explain why employees (N=162) may respond positively to their company's volunteerism programme, a programme through which employees could spend time volunteering during their paid work hours. Support was found for mediated effects suggesting that employees' attitude towards the volunteerism programme ultimately predicted outcomes (e.g., intentions to stay) through its effect on organizational identification. Results also showed that exchange ideology moderated the effects of volunteer‐programme attitudes on supervisor‐reported organizational citizenship behaviour measured 6 months later, suggesting that some employees reciprocate the benefits they receive from a volunteerism programme. The implications of these findings are discussed for theory and research, and for leveraging volunteerism programmes and other socially responsible business practices to benefit companies and their employees.

Enhancing Volunteer Engagement to Achieve Desirable Outcomes: What Can Non-profit Employers Do?

“…More widely, it has been noted that participating in voluntary work is associated with positive feelings for volunteers (Post, 2005), and Tidwell (2005) showed that volunteers who identify with their voluntary employer's vision and values are more satisfied and committed with their volunteering work. These findings resonate with studies on corporate sponsored volunteering, which demonstrate that volunteer involvement leads to beneficial outcomes for the volunteers, the voluntary organization, and the employer who sponsored the volunteering activities (e.g., Booth et al, 2009;Jones, 2010;Rodell, 2013). For example, Caliguri et al (2013) showed that volunteering assignments which included meaningful projects, social support within the voluntary organization, and opportunities for skill development yielded positive benefits for the employer (i.e.…”

“…Previous research has suggested that organizations can foster volunteering by offering employees the opportunity to participate in volunteering activities (e.g., Booth et al, 2009;Caligiuri, Mencin, & Jiang, 2013;Grant, 2012;Jones, 2010;Rodell, 2013). This is usually done as part of corporate volunteerism programs where employers sponsor release time and regular compensation to enable interested employees to donate their time to a specific cause.…”

Heritage tourism, CSR and the role of employee environmental behaviour

“…Individual factors which have been studied include attitudes and beliefs (Jones, 2010;Chun, Shin, Choi & Kim, 2013;Manika, Wells, Gregory-Smith & Gentry, 2014), norms (Scherbaum, Popovich & Finlinson, 2008;Carrico & Riemer, 2011), self-efficacy (Smith & O'Sullivan, 2012), habit (Siero et al, 1996), motivation (Lee, De Young & Marans, 1995;Tudor, Barr & Gilg, 2008), knowledge (Siero et al, 1984) and socio-demographics (Wehrmeyer & McNeil, 2000). The most comprehensive study of employee environmental behaviour within the tourism literature focused on individual (individual environmental beliefs, personal environmental norms, self-reported environmental behaviour) and organisational variables (green organisational climate) as well as demographics to explain employee behaviour (Chou, 2014).…”

Internal Corporate Social Responsibility and Performance: A Study of Publicly Traded Companies

“…Research has unveiled a positive relationship between corporate social responsibility and workers' commitment to the companies they work for (Brammer, Pavelin, & Porter, 2009), either through the strengthening of the emotional ties they have to these organizations, or through an increased sense of duty and obligation to their companies (Eisenberg, Kilduff, Burleigh, & Wilson, 2001). Other studies have shown that when employees believe that the company which they work for is committed to them, guaranteeing their rights as workers, protecting their health and safety and investing in their professional development, their emotional ties and desire to remain at this company are positively influenced (Brammer, Millington, & Rayton, 2007;Jones, 2010).…”