The Marketing of Employee Volunteerism

Employee volunteerism can be an effective strategy for increasing the effectiveness of corporate philanthropy. However, in order to be effective, volunteer initiatives should be directed by the firm to ensure a strategic fit and focus on the core competencies of the firm. Therefore, internal marketing strategies are needed to ensure managers receive employee support. Our research quantitatively extends research by Peloza and Hassay (Journal of Business Ethics 64(4), 357–379, 2006) who argued that employee volunteerism is motivated by egoistic, altruistic and organizational citizenship motives. Our findings suggest that volunteer opportunities that fulfill egoistic and organizational citizenship motives will be effective, but that the altruistic motive is not significant. We also find that formal policies concerning manager recognition or time off are not effective, providing more discretion for individual managers. Implications for managers seeking to increase the effectiveness (and therefore support the business case) of their corporate philanthropy are discussed.     

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.     

Value Congruence Awareness: Part 2. DNA Testing Sheds Light on Functionalism

Part 1 of this exploratory study demonstrated that for terminal, instrumental, and work values, supervisors could only accurately assess the extent to which their terminal values are congruent with their employees, whereas, employees could only accurately describe degrees of alignment with their supervisors' work values. Thus, supervisors appear to possess conscious awareness of the terminal values held by their employees and employees similarly possess conscious awareness of their supervisors' work values. Part 2 of the study examined what each of these two parties might do with their conscious knowledge concerning value congruence with the other member. Supervisor ratings and employee self-ratings concerning employee job performance, citizenship, climate fit, working relationship (LMX), and other issues, were correlated with supervisor terminal value congruence estimates and employee work value congruence estimates respectively. For supervisors, only one significant finding was noted, indicating a positive relationship between the supervisors' awareness of terminal value congruence with the employee and the supervisors' estimate of the employee's potential for future promotion. For employees, seven hypotheses received support demonstrating relationships between the employees' 0awareness of supervisor/employee work value congruence and self-ratings of work behaviours, citizenship behaviours, volunteerism behaviours, work climate behaviours, work climate attitudes, work climate organizational-wide attitudes, and the supervisor/employee working relationship. Implications for management and future research are discussed.     

Company Support for Employee Volunteering: A National Survey of Companies in Canada

Company support for employee volunteerism (CSEV) benefits companies, employees, and society while helping companies meet the expectations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A nationally representative telephone survey of 990 Canadian companies examined CSEV through the lens of Porter and Kramer’s (2006, ‘Strategy and society: the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility’, Harvard Business Review, 78–92.) CSR model. The results demonstrated that Canadian companies passively support employee volunteerism in a variety of ways, such as allowing employees to take time off without pay (71%) or adjusting their work schedules (78%). These Responsive CSR efforts contribute to the company’s value chain by enhancing employee morale, a perceived CSEV benefit. More active forms of support requiring company time or money are less common; for example, 29% allow time off with pay. Companies perceive that support for employee volunteering enhances their public image, a Responsive CSR strategy when employed to ameliorate a damaged reputation or a Strategic CSR strategy when contributing to a competitive position. A minority perceive challenges like covering the workload. Many companies target and/or exclude particular causes and link CSEV efforts with other philanthropic donations, suggesting a Strategic CSR application of CSEV. Where programs exist, they frequently are neither tracked nor evaluated, suggesting that companies are not using these programs as strategically as they might.     

Does Vice Make Nice? The Viability and Virtuousness of Charity Lotteries

ABSTRACT

Globally, charities are under increasing pressure to find alternative sources of funding. Although charitable gaming has long been considered a viable source of revenue for charities, opponents of gaming have raised concerns about the potential negative consequences associated with gambling. The current paper examines a unique form of charity gaming–the charity super lottery (CSL)–that offers a number of fund-raising benefits to cash-strapped charities. Results from a preliminary study of CSL ticket buyers suggest that the CSL may be both a virtuous and viable source of fundraising. Interviews revealed that CSL consumers (1) viewed the ticket purchase as a donation rather than gambling, (2) were unlikely to be involved in other forms of gambling, and finally (3) perceived the CSL purchase as a complementary rather than supplementary form of charity support behavior. Implications for the fundraisers of charitable organizations and directions for future research are discussed.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Employee Behavior/ Non-Behavior and Customer Satisfaction in Quick Service Restaurants

ABSTRACT

The major objective of this research is to explore the relationship between employee behavior/non-behavior and customer satisfaction in quick service restaurants. Four behavioral components (employee reliability, employee responsiveness, employee assurance, and employee empathy) and one non-behavioral component (the physical environment) are identified.

The survey questionnaire included the modified SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1991) in addition to questions about satisfaction. A convenience sample of 125 participants was used to collect data by frequenting selected quick service restaurants. The results identified significant positive correlations between three of the five behavior/non-behavior constructs (employee responsiveness, employee assurance, and the physical environment) with three of the four identified dimensions of customer satisfaction (satisfaction with the food, satisfaction with the task/service, satisfaction with the price, and overall satisfaction).     

Company support for employee volunteerism: Does size matter?

This article examines the relationship between company size and support for employee volunteering. Based on organizational ecology and organizational stages theory, the study hypothesizes that larger versus smaller companies demonstrate greater formalization and codification of their support for employee volunteering. Similarly, larger versus smaller companies use employee volunteering efforts more strategically; this finding is consistent with a need to justify decisions. These outcomes in turn impact the nature of volunteering and the organizations benefiting from such programs. Survey data from a size-stratified sample of 990 randomly selected Canadian businesses indicates that large companies support employee volunteerism in a more formalized and strategic manner than small companies. This behavior includes having formal policies and programs, as well as exercising greater influence over the causes which benefit from employee volunteering. Additionally, large companies are more likely to tie other forms of charitable support to employee volunteering. The article discusses how the more formalized approach of large companies may impact society.     

Organizational environmental orientation and employee environmental in‐role behaviors: A cross‐level study

Amid the growth of scholarly research on environmental workplace behaviors, two limitations stand out. First, there has been scant research on the cross‐level effects of organizational‐level determinants on individual employee environmental behaviors using a methodologically appropriate multilevel analytic approach. Second, there has been an overwhelming focus on voluntary, as opposed to task‐related, employee environmentally friendly behaviors. In addressing these limitations, this field study (N = 615 U.S.‐based employees nested in 51 organizations) makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature, specifically by linking the dimensions of organizational‐level environmental orientation with individual‐level employee environmental in‐role (i.e., task‐related) behaviors using multilevel analysis. The results indicate that organizational internal environmental orientation is positively related to employee recycling behavior. Managerial status exerts a moderating effect, such that the positive relationship between internal environmental orientation and energy‐saving behavior is stronger among managers than among non‐managers. Furthermore, an organization's external environmental orientation has an unequivocal positive relationship only with employee energy‐saving behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

The Effect of Sequential Structure in Charity Advertising on Message Elaboration and Donation Intention: The Mediating Role of Empathy

Abstract

This study examines how a sadness-happiness sequential structure affects how individuals process a charity advertisement. Cognitive elaboration is measured by capturing eye-movement. A negative-positive sequential structure in the charity advertisement induces individuals to focus on the incoming messages, thus evoking positive emotions and empathy for the needy person. Empathy plays a mediating role by mitigating the negative emotions induced by the negative element of the advertisement. The study’s results demonstrate that a negative-positive sequence in a charity advertisement enhances message elaboration, thus increasing individuals’ receptivity to charity advertising messages.     

Positive and Negative Affectivity as Mediators of Volunteerism and Service‐Oriented Citizenship Behavior and Customer Loyalty

This study sought to examine the impact of volunteerism (motivation to help) on service‐oriented organizational citizenship behavior (S‐OCB) of salespeople as mediated by the positive and negative affectivity, and further how the involvement of salespeople in S‐OCB would affect the customer loyalty toward the company. The context chosen for empirical investigation was the Indian pharmaceutical sector and the sample consists of 125 medical sales representatives from four companies that are well‐established players, including three multinational firms and one Indian company, as well as their supervisors (n = 48) and doctors (n = 150). The data are analyzed through partial least squares approach to path modeling to estimate the measurement and structural parameters. All of the hypotheses are confirmed. The results of this study indicate that volunteerism exhibits a significant positive impact on S‐OCB and customer loyalty. In addition, this positive impact is partially mediated by positive and negative affectivity. In sum, the proposed model explains a large amount of variance in S‐OCB and customer loyalty, suggesting that it will serve as a useful tool for analyzing service‐oriented organizational sale persons’ behavior and customers’ reactions. The implications of these results include improving service OCB by promoting volunteerism in the service industry and emphasizing the important roles of service staff in enhancing the customer loyalty.     

If employees “go the extra mile,” do customers reciprocate with similar behavior?

This study proposes an integrated framework depicting the effects of two types of employee behavior (employee citizenship behavior and employee dysfunctional behavior) on customer satisfaction, which in turn, influences customer commitment. Customer satisfaction and commitment are then expected to affect two types of customer behavior (customer citizenship behavior and customer dysfunctional behavior). A survey of matched responses from 123 employees and 590 customers reveals that employee citizenship behavior, employee dysfunctional behavior, customer satisfaction, and customer commitment are important predictors of customer citizenship behavior and customer dysfunctional behavior. Furthermore, this study identifies variables (relationship age, group size, and communication frequency) that moderate the relationships being considered. The results show that the effects of two types of employee behavior on customer satisfaction are stronger when relationship age and communication frequency are higher. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Extra- and intra-organizational drivers of workplace deviance

Workplace deviance is an employee behavior with detrimental effects on the organizational bottom line, which makes it of great interest for services management research. The author develops and estimates a model for understanding the relationship between extra- and intra-organizational antecedents and job satisfaction, which relates to workplace deviance. The model is tested using a sample of more than 270 occupationally diverse service employees. Results show that perceived customer unfriendliness, role ambiguity and service climate predict job satisfaction, which negatively affects workplace deviance. These results suggest implications for service management research and practice.     

Cultural Values,Economic Growth and Development

This empirical study investigates the effects of nine ethical climate types (self-interest, company profit, efficiency, friendship, team interest, social responsibility, personal morality, company rules and procedures, and lastly laws and professional codes) on employee work satisfaction. The ethical climate typology developed by Victor and Cullen (in W. C. Frederick (ed.) Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, 1987; Administrative Science Quarterly 33, 101–125, 1988) is tested on a sample of staff and managers from 62 different telecommunication firms in Turkey. The results obtained from the 1174 usable questionnaires confirm the existence of nine different ethical climate types observed in western cultures in the present sample context, which is a developing Muslim country. Regarding the effects of ethical climatic factors on employee work satisfaction, self-interest climate type appears to negatively influence work satisfaction, whereas team interest, social responsibility and law and professional codes climate types are found to have positive impacts. Managerial and further research implications of the findings are discussed.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Benefits of Employee Trust: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective

Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has tended to focus on external stakeholders and outcomes, revealing little about internal effects that might also help explain CSR-firm performance linkages and the impact that corporate marketing strategies can have on internal stakeholders such as employees. The two studies (N = 1,116 and N = 2,422) presented in this article draw on theory from both corporate marketing and organizational behavior (OB) disciplines to test the general proposition that employee trust partially mediates the relationship between CSR and employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Both studies provide evidence in support of these general relationships. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of CSR and corporate marketing research.     

Information privacy and performance appraisal: An examination of employee perceptions and reactions

Role-failure acts (Waters and Bird, 1989) have been described as a form of morally questionable activity involving a failure to perform the managerial role. The present study examined employee perceptions and reactions with regard to one form of role-failure act, failure to maintain adequate privacy of performance appraisal information. The study assessed employees' attitudes toward various performance appraisal facets as an invasion of privacy and determined the relationships between these privacy-related attitudes and employees' satisfaction with components of their appraisal system, the system as a whole, and their jobs. Responses that organizations might take to counteract appraisal privacy concerns were also discussed. Kevin W. Mossholder is Lowder Professor of Management at Auburn University, Auburn, AL. His research interests include performance appraisal, dispositional/situational issues, and organizational behavior processes. He has published articles in Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Management, among others. William F. Giles, is Professor of Management at Auburn University. His research interests include performance appraisal, career development, ethical behavior, and employee benefits. His articles have appeared in Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, and Personnel Psychology among others.Mark A. Wesolowski is a doctoral candidate at Auburn University. He is currently an instructor of human resource management at Miami University of Ohio. His research interests include human resource selection issues, performance appraisal, management development, and supervisor/subordinate work relationships.     

The battle for commercial hearts and minds and the internal brand within a charity shop network in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Charities are increasingly adopting commercial branding strategies to capture consumer hearts and minds for competitive gain, with little attention on the internal organisational battle for hearts and minds within a not-for-profit context. This paper explores the internal brand of a charity that currently operates 227 charity shops on the island of Ireland, using Hankinson’s 2004 framework that focuses on functional, symbolic, behavioural and experiential components. An exploratory case study was developed based on a survey of organisational members (n = 138), interviews with six regional shop managers, observation in retail stores and supplemented by organisation documentation. Findings indicate a clarity of perception on mission, purpose and core values for the charity, but more ambiguity around perception of the charity shop brand and identified issues relating to communication of policies and procedures, managerial practice and the workplace environment. The study also reveals a gap between the charity’s organisational identity and the brand identity for the charity store network, a clarity in the perception of core values that does not underwrite the store brand and resistance to the implementation of commercial practice within a volunteer-led charity. Trust may be the key in the internal battle for hearts and minds within the charity and may be crucial for the charity to realise its’ potential and successfully meet its’ mission for maximum societal gain.     

On the relationship of hope and gratitude to corporate social responsibility

A longitudinal study of 308 white-collar U.S. employees revealed that feelings of hope and gratitude increase concern for corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, employees with stronger hope and gratitude were found to have a greater sense of responsibility toward employee and societal issues; interestingly, employee hope and gratitude did not affect sense of responsibility toward economic and safety/quality issues. These findings offer an extension of research by Giacalone, Paul, and Jurkiewicz (2005, Journal of Business Ethics, 58, 295-305). Lynne M. Andersson, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Human Resource Management at the Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her teaching and scholarship focus on the dark side of business organizations; in particular, she’s been examining some social maladies that are arguably associated with late capitalism (cynicism and incivility) as well as the role of social activism in countering capitalist barriers to sustainability. Robert A. Giacalone, Ph.D. is Professor of Human Resource Management at the Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His research interests focus on the impact of workplace spirituality and changing values on business ethics. He is currently Co-editor of the Ethics in Practice book series. Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Ph.D. is the John W. Dupuy Endowed Professor and Women’s Hospital Distinguished Professor of Healthcare Management at Louisiana State University. She has published numerous research articles, books, and news articles on the topics of organizational ethics, leadership, and behavior.     

Pollay's Pertinent and Impertinent Opinions: “Good” versus “Bad” Research

Abstract

The final issue of the Journal of Advertising for 1993 contains a series of editorials about tobacco advertising. The series is keyed by Jean Boddewyn with responses from Lawrence Soley and Richard Pollay. Certainly the issue raised by Boddewyn concerning the appropriate venue for this type of research has been discussed and challenged in that series. However, the response from Pollay goes beyond the issue of where smoking/advertising related research should be published. The Pollay editorial raises additional issues for debate and contains some “facts” which call for correction.     

Dangerous Donations? The Effects of Cause-Related Marketing on Charity Attitude

SUMMARY

How might cause-related marketing affect attitudes toward the charity involved? Could charity attitudes be harmed? These questions were addressed in a controlled laboratory study. Positive/negative fit between the organizations was manipulated, and company attitude was measured. The results suggest that charity attitude may be negatively impacted if consumers' attitudes toward the company are negative, or if the organizations have negative fit. Alternatively, CRM may improve charity attitude if company attitude is positive or the organizations share positive fit. The effect of fit is stronger than the effect of company attitude, so positive fit may compensate for pairing with a company toward which consumers' attitudes are negative.     

Charitable Donations as Social Exchange or Agapic Action on the Internet: The Case of Hungersite.com

SUMMARY

Donations to charity have long been of interest to marketing academics seeking to understand the relationships between nonprofit organizations and their customers. A key area of concern is that of motivation-why do individuals donate time, money and other resources to charities in general or to particular charities? While marketers in particular, and social scientists in general, have explained donation and gift giving in terms of the exchange paradigm, more recently consumer researchers have introduced the notion of agapic (or unselfish) behavior to explain some aspects of gift giving. Using the case of a successful charitable Internet site, Hungersite.com, this paper attempts to contrast the exchange and agapic paradigms of donation behavior, with the re sulting strategic implications this may have for charity marketing strategy.