Personal and corporate volunteerism: employee motivations

Mary Runte and Debra Z. Basil

International Journal of Business Environment, 2011, vol. 4, issue 2, 133-145

Abstract: A nationally representative sample of Canadians was surveyed regarding their experience with and perceptions of corporate volunteer initiatives. The motivations for volunteer engagement by those employees who have engaged both in personal volunteerism (PV), activities during personal time undertaken without employer involvement or direction, and company-initiated and supported volunteerism (CV) were assessed. The rankings of motivational factors were similar under each condition with the principle motivators for CV and PV being the desire to help a cause and the motivation to 'feel good' about the behaviour. The relative importance of each motivational factor, however, varied significantly. Employees were motivated more by each of the assessed intrinsic motives (desire to help cause, to escape own troubles, to gain knowledge, to feel good and to forge social contacts) when engaging in PV than when engaged in CV. Personal volunteering was less motivated by a desire to help one's career, an extrinsic motivator, compared to CV volunteering.

Keywords: employee volunteerism; employee motivation; personal volunteerism; Canada; volunteer initiatives; individual perceptions; volunteer engagement; personal time; employer involvement; employer direction; motivational factors; principle motivators; intrinsic motives; social contacts; desire to help; personal troubles; feel good; knowledge gain; extrinsic motivators; careers; non-profit sectors; charity; charities; business environment; corporate volunteering; volunteers; conceptual embedment; empirical research; future perspectives. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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