Intra-organizational Volunteerism: Good Soldiers, Good Deeds and Good Politics

Despite the millions of hours donated to charity each year by employees on behalf of their employers there has been relatively little research into the motives for such pro-social behavior. The current paper extends Peterson’s (2004, Journal of Business Ethics 49, 371) study by exploring a unique form of employee volunteerism identified as intra-organizational, or employer-sanctioned volunteerism, and uniting the heretofore distinct charity support and organizational citizenship behavior literatures. Results of a preliminary study revealed that employee participation in such intra-organizational volunteer programs is motivated by charity, firm, and personal benefits. Managerial and research implications are presented.     

Corporate social responsibility and employee volunteerism: What do the best companies do?

Employee volunteerism as a practice of corporate social responsibility aids corporations by strengthening employee satisfaction and retention internally and by strengthening corporate reputations and connections with stakeholders externally. Of particular interest are the specific practices and procedures used by companies to encourage and support volunteer activities of their employees. We reviewed publicly available documents of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For ranking to gain insight into how these best companies practice employee volunteerism and whether they link employee volunteerism to their corporate social responsibility strategy. We propose a connection of the position and importance of employee volunteerism in the corporate practices of social responsibility. Our findings suggest that many highly regarded companies specifically link employee volunteerism to their corporate social responsibility strategy. These companies also utilize similar practices to encourage and support employee volunteerism. We highlight the practices that managers could consider to support their corporate social responsibility efforts and offer several suggestions for future consideration.     

Connecting the Two Faces of CSR: Does Employee Volunteerism Improve Compliance?

In 2004, the United States Sentencing Commission amended the Federal Sentencing Guidelines to allow firms that create “effective compliance and ethics programs” to receive better treatment if prosecuted for fraud. Effective compliance and ethics, however, appear to be limited to activities focused on complying with the firms’ internal legal and ethical standards. We explored a potential connection between the firms’ external corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors and internal compliance: Is there an organizationally valid relationship between these two firm activities? That is, when organizations demonstrate CSR with behaviors external to the firm, such as employee volunteerism, are their employees more likely to demonstrate uncompromised legal and ethical compliance behavior internally? We collected data from 164 working professionals enrolled in a top-tier MBA program in the southeastern United States regarding their employer-sponsored volunteer activities and their intentions to comply in various organizational compliance vignettes. We found that employer-sponsored volunteerism is associated with uncompromised compliance choices in one of the three vignettes. This finding indicates preliminary support for further inquiry into the relationship within the firm between external CSR behaviors and policies regarding organizational compliance. Post hoc analyses suggest that employer-sponsored volunteerism is strongly associated with a positive organizational identity, but organizational identity is not associated with the significant compliance vignette. This evidence suggests that the underlying mechanism that connects external CSR behaviors and internal compliance intentions is complex and requires future study.     

Enhancing frontline employee support during a product-harm crisis: Evidence and strategic managerial implications for firms

Product-harm crises can negatively affect a firm's corporate image, reputation, and credibility. This research investigates antecedents and factors that can impact the extent to which frontline employees will be supportive of their organization when the firm faces such a crisis. Leveraging social exchange theory and its focus on reciprocal exchanges, we theorize and test processes using regression models, which shed light on how managers can solicit employee support during crises situations by providing the frontline employees with ethical and supportive working conditions. To offer convergent validity across multiple methodologies, we also test the influence of experimental effects of the relative severity of a crisis and whether a firm was quick or slow in its response on frontline employee support. Furthermore, our research demonstrates that the firm's strengths in corporate social responsibility, the employees' organizational citizenship behavior, and employee organizational identification serially mediate the supportive relationship, which provides a unique contribution to the marketing literature. Finally, we provide managerial implications to further enhance frontline employee support.     

The perceived effectiveness of democratic management,job performance,and citizenship behavior: evidence from a large Chinese state-owned petrochemical company

Democratic management, a unique union-based form of employee participation in China, is seldom studied in the employee participation literature. This paper investigates the associations between employees’ perceived democratic management effectiveness, employee job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), using 988 matching surveys of both workers and their supervisors in a state-owned petrochemical firm from the central region of China. We find that our measure of an employee’s perception of democratic management effectiveness is positively associated with an employee’s job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. However, the association between perceived democratic management effectiveness and employee performance is negative if the employee is a dispatch worker. Our interpretation of the findings suggests that an employee’s perception of democratic management effectiveness is a source of employee performance.     

The perceived effectiveness of democratic management,job performance,and citizenship behavior: evidence from a large Chinese state-owned petrochemical company

Democratic management, a unique union-based form of employee participation in China, is seldom studied in the employee participation literature. This paper investigates the associations between employees’ perceived democratic management effectiveness, employee job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), using 988 matching surveys of both workers and their supervisors in a state-owned petrochemical firm from the central region of China. We find that our measure of an employee’s perception of democratic management effectiveness is positively associated with an employee’s job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. However, the association between perceived democratic management effectiveness and employee performance is negative if the employee is a dispatch worker. Our interpretation of the findings suggests that an employee’s perception of democratic management effectiveness is a source of employee performance.     

Motives for Corporate Philanthropy in El Salvador: Altruism and Political Legitimacy

This paper discusses how Salvadoran companies practice corporate philanthropy in El Salvador, and what might motivate it. First, I briefly discuss three principal theories of corporate philanthropy, and explore some current trends in international corporate philanthropy to highlight some of the motives Salvadoran companies may have to participate in charitable activities. Then, I discuss the history of the Salvadoran private sector to help us understand philanthropic activity today. Next, I suggest that philanthropic acts by Salvadoran firms are driven by altruistic and politically strategic motives, and reflect individualistic and paternalistic attitudes. In the discussion, I include examples of Salvadoran corporate philanthropy as it is practiced today, based on recent field research in El Salvador.     

Corporate Support for Employee Volunteerism Within Canada: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Company support for employee volunteerism (CSEV) is one mechanism whereby businesses meet the escalating expectation for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Institutional theory is applied to examine patterns of convergence and divergence in CSR programs cross culturally, with a particular focus on intra-country cultural differences. Using a national (Canada) survey of businesses, we examine cross-cultural differences regarding CSEV in two regions of Canada—French Canada (Quebec) and English Canada. Our results suggest that cultural differences, rooted in historical conditions, may shape CSEV program implementation in Canada. Quebec companies are less likely to engage in CSEV. If they do encourage employee volunteerism, they may exclude certain cause types from support and appear to focus more on the external benefits of CSEV, such as community perception, than do firms in English Canada. Recognizing that no nation is culturally homogenous, our study illustrates that CSR and CSEV may vary significantly whenever or wherever cultural differences occur. Businesses and nonprofit organizations need to consider culture as an important variable when implementing corporate volunteer programs.     

Responsible Leadership: Pathways to the Future

After defining the essential elements of Aristotelian citizenship, the article proposes to apply these criteria in its search for the equivalent of a citizen within the corporate polis. It argues that shareholding managers are the best positioned among a firm’s constituents or stakeholders in fulfilling the role of corporate citizens. Greater participation by management not only in the control but also in the ownership of firms brings about benefits for the firm as a whole and for the managers themselves, as organizational citizenship behavior literature, among others, suggests.     

The Promise of a Managerial Values Approach to Corporate Philanthropy

This article presents an alternative rationale for corporate philanthropy based on managerial values of benevolence and integrity. On the one hand, top managers with benevolence and integrity values are more likely to spread their intrinsic concern for others into the wider society in the form of corporate philanthropy. On the other hand, top managers high in benevolence and integrity are likely to contribute to improved managerial credibility and trusting firm-stakeholder relationships, thereby improving corporate financial performance. Therefore, the article makes the argument that both corporate philanthropy and corporate financial performance can better be interpreted as resulting from managers’ benevolence and integrity values. Jaepil Choi is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research is focused on organizational justice perceptions, leadership, work-family interface issues, and corporate social performance. He has published in Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Leadership Quarterly, Administration & Society, and Management and Organization Review. Heli Wang is currently an Assistant Professor in strategic management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Her areas of interests are in the resource-based view of the firm, stakeholder incentives, risk management and social performance. She has previously published in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Long Range Planning.     

Intragroup Transactions,Corporate Governance,and Corporate Philanthropy in Korean Business Groups

This study examines how the corporate philanthropy decisions of group-affiliated firms in Korea (Chaebol firms) are made. Based on the attention-based view, we argue that when corporate decision makers at group-affiliated firms focus their attention more (less) on internal markets than external stakeholders because of the firm’s high (low) reliance on intragroup transactions, the firm will decrease (increase) its level of corporate philanthropy. We further argue that the relationship will be stronger when governance mechanisms focus on the instrumental value of corporate philanthropy. Using a panel sample of group-affiliated firms in Korea from 2011 to 2015, we find that as intragroup sales increase, the level of corporate philanthropy decreases, and such a negative relationship is stronger when outside director representation and foreign investor ownership are high. Our study suggests that internal dependence and corporate governance mechanisms jointly affect the level of corporate philanthropy at firms in a business group. Thus, this study contributes to the literature on corporate philanthropy, business group, and corporate governance.     

The Impact of Operational Diversity on Corporate Philanthropy: An Empirical Study of U.S. Companies

This paper investigates the impact of diversity on corporate philanthropy. Compared to previous studies that have considered the influence of board diversity and CEO gender on corporate philanthropy, this study introduces the concept of operational diversity, which is the implementation of diversity programs at management, employee, and supply chain levels, and further, it explains why operational diversity influences corporate philanthropy, by using the premises of resource dependence theory. Second, this study also investigates the influence of board diversity on corporate philanthropy. Third, this study uses a large sample of U.S. firms over the period of 1991–2009 and tries to mitigate possible omitted variables and endogeneity problems that are often overlooked in previous research. We demonstrate that firms with operational diversity programs are likely more dependent on a broad variety of resources and give more to community as a strategic maneuver; hence, operational diversity is a better indicator for predicting future corporate giving than board diversity alone. However, having a woman or a member of a minority as a company’s chief executive officer is not sufficient to impact its charitable giving. A battery of robustness tests support our conclusion and confirm that our results are not driven by a firm’s general corporate social responsibility (CSR) score, gender or independence of board members, or firm ownership. This paper will assist researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in deepening their understanding of the predictors of corporate giving.     

Exploring Corporate Donation Behavior: A Case Study of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Given that funding from governments and donations from individuals have declined and are unstable, it is important for nonprofit organizations to identify corporate donors' real motives for making contributions and potential corporate donors' reasons for not making contributions and to design appropriate marketing strategies accordingly. This paper utilized both in-depth interviews and a survey to explore these aspects with Taiwanese firms. The results indicate that, from these firms, Social Responsibility, followed by Top Management's Influences and External Solicitation, are the highest motives. It appears that enhancing Product Sales, Corporate Image, and Sales Promotion or Reducing Pressure from Competitors are not participant firms' primary motives when making corporate contributions. With regard to reasons for not making corporate contributions, the data reveal that Lack of Human Resources is the primary cause that leads participant firms to make no corporate contributions, followed by Insufficient Funds. This paper also develops scales for measuring motives of corporate philanthropy and reasons for not making corporate contributions.     

Mediating roles of karma and self-enhancement in the effect of religious and spiritual primes on bystanders' reporting intention

Religious priming promotes engagement in prosocial action; however, findings about spiritual priming are relatively scant. Using Hindu (India) and Christian (U.S.) participants, a two-part study was conducted. The aim of the first part (i.e., Study 1) was to observe which motives to volunteer (i.e., egoistic or altruistic) related to religiosity and spirituality. Findings show that religiosity had a positive impact on egoistic volunteering, while spirituality had a positive impact on altruistic volunteering. The aim of the second part (i.e., Study 2) was to apply the findings from Study 1 to test priming effects in public service announcements about domestic violence prevention. The mediating effects of karma and self-enhancement in the relationship between religiosity or spirituality and reporting intention were also examined. Findings show that the religious ad was more effective than the spiritual ad in priming religiosity and spirituality among Hindus; that is, karma mediated the effect of religiosity and spirituality on their reporting intention. Among Christians, spiritual primes were effective, and self-enhancement mediated the impact of spirituality on reporting intention; at the same time, religious primes led to the direct impact of religiosity and spirituality on reporting intention. Overall, the apparent efficacy of religious and spiritual priming is promising, and the findings indicate the significance of spirituality in domestic violence prevention messaging. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Understanding Managerial Perspectives of Volunteering at Nonprofit Leisure Events: A Comparison of Typologies Within Open Gardens Australia

Nonprofit volunteer motivations have been widely researched and discussed as the sector is volunteer-dependent. For nonprofit, community-based events, volunteers frequently fulfill multiple roles, yet motivations across roles are infrequently studied. This study explores managers’ views of volunteers across roles for Open Gardens Australia and whether existing typologies for leisure motivations and generic volunteering can be used to classify volunteer motivations. Examining managers’ perceptions is important as managers deliver volunteer-driven events by designing strategies to attract and manage volunteers’ experiences. Results suggest that existing typologies do not adequately capture the motivations of volunteers for these events with additional motivations of significance for some roles being - Obligation, Inertia, Filling a Personal Void or Gap, Elitism and Competitiveness. Of the 14 motivations found, many overlap and more than half may be simultaneously altruistic and egoistic, suggesting complex interactions within and across the different motivations, although motivational differences across volunteer rolesare limited.     

Different forms of corporate philanthropy,different effects: A multilevel analysis

This study investigates how different types of corporate philanthropy impact employees' life satisfaction. Grounded in signaling theory, we explore and clarify the nuances among three types of corporate philanthropy values: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy, the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past level, and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size. Results of multilevel analyses on a large scale sample with 218 firms and 2,261 employees at two time points reveal that: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy positively influences employees' life satisfaction; the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past philanthropy negatively impacts employees’ life satisfaction; and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size positively affects employees' life satisfaction. The results indicate that the influences of corporate philanthropy on employees' life satisfaction vary depending on the evaluation benchmarks. Firms may benefit by taking their size and past philanthropy into consideration when making corporate philanthropy investment decisions.     

营销渠道中的企业声誉、合同治理与角色外利他行为

以企业声誉理论、组织公民行为和渠道行为治理等理论为基础，分销商角色外利他行为为研究对象，提出了供应商企业声誉、合同治理与分销商角色外利他行为之间关系的概念模型。以分销商为调研样本，通过问卷调查获取了214份有效调研数据，采用层级回归分析方法对研究假设进行了检验。实证分析表明，供应商企业声誉的不同维度均对分销商角色外利他行为有显著的正向影响；同时合同治理在供应商企业声誉与分销商角色外利他行为关系中起着不同的调节作用。合同治理弱化了供应商分销能力声誉、创新声誉与分销商角色外利他行为的正向关系，强化了供应商公平交易声誉对分销商角色外利他行为的正向作用。研究启示供应商要积极运用声誉治理来激发分销商角色外利他行为，同时在此过程中要充分注意合同治理的边界条件，实施差异化策略来提高渠道治理绩效。     

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) employer brand process: integrative review and comprehensive model

ABSTRACT

Firms are increasingly drawing on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their employer branding to improve attractiveness and engage current and potential employees, and to ensure consistency in employee brand behaviours. However, there is a dearth of literature synthesising CSR and employer branding research to understand employee engagement with CSR-firms from a branding perspective. In this article, the authors carried out an integrative literature review of CSR and employer branding literatures. Informed by signaling theory, the authors develop a conceptual model of the CSR employer branding process as a cohesive view from the potential and current employee perspective. Our review highlights the need for firms to achieve CSR consistency in terms of (a) embeddedness of CSR values, and (b) levels of internal CSR. These two factors frame a typology that enable managers to better execute their CSR employer brand identity to achieve favourable results, such as a high-quality talent pool and positive affective, cognitive and behavioural employee outcomes.     

How hedonic and perceived community benefits from employee CSR involvement drive CSR advocacy behavior to co-workers

This study seeks to determine how organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can be influenced by employee perception of the benefits arising from their involvement with corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The work is significant because of growing investment in CSR activities involving employees and increased firm expectations of employee dissemination of CSR information. A unique model examined how two types of perceived benefits, accruing to US-based employees from their CSR engagement, impacted OCB. The variable of co-worker-directed CSR advocacy was used as a unique measure of OCB. An integrative theoretical framework combined social exchange theory with organizational citizenship behavior to provide a more comprehensive understanding of relationships. The first employee benefit tested was hedonic value, while the second was perceived community value. CSR reputation was modeled as a mediating variable. Data were collected via two scenario-based experiments based at each respondents’ workplace. Analytical techniques included analysis of co-variance and structural equation modeling using partial least squares. While both types of benefit had a significant effect on co-worker-directed CSR advocacy, the pathways differed. Perceived community value had a stronger effect on the mediating variable of CSR reputation, and consequently a significant indirect effect on the dependent variable. In contrast, hedonic value directly affected co-worker-directed CSR advocacy with CSR reputation playing no mediating role. This study contributes to the CSR literature through better understanding of the processes leading to the organizational citizenship behavior variable of co-worker-directed CSR advocacy. This dependent variable extends previous conceptualizations of OCB.