A new spirit across sectors: Constructing a common justification for corporate volunteering

Abstract

Corporate volunteering is an activity located at the intersection of the corporate and nonprofit spheres. Its coordination and implementation create interesting encounters between professionals from both sectors. This article adopts a pragmatic sociological approach to analysing the discursive processes that nurture or hinder these encounters and the corporate volunteering activities they aim to produce. It brings to the fore the nonprofit perspective by analysing 39 semi-structured interviews with Dutch and Belgian nonprofit professionals who were engaged in corporate volunteering coordination. The study shows that a flexible and project-oriented justification regime, which is mainly promoted by nonprofits that match companies with other nonprofits, creates a common discursive terrain that nurtures cross-sectoral collaboration. Other justification regimes, particularly the civic one, are increasingly marginalised, as they are perceived as hindering collaboration rather than enabling it. Thus the proliferation of corporate volunteering, and the dominance of the project-oriented justification that is intertwined with it, together challenge classical identifications of the nonprofit sector with civic action.

The Obligation to Volunteer as Fair Reciprocity? Welfare Recipients’ Perceptions of Giving Back to Society

“…The application of Boltanski and Thévenot's worlds of justification is also valuable for research into other thirdparty relations in volunteering. Application of their interpretative scheme may enrich academic debate by differentiating more systematically between justifications for or objections to third-party involvement, and may enable analysis of encounters at the intersection of the nonprofit sphere and other spheres, like the domestic and corporate sphere (e.g., Shachar et al 2018).…”

“It is hard to say ‘no’ to someone who wants to help”: An exemplary model of corporate volunteer management and its challenges

“…The discussion suggests that nonprofits have few tactics and management techniques for initiating volunteer partnerships with other organizations. Shachar et al (2018) bring the nonprofit perspective to the fore by analyzing 39 semi‐structured interviews with Dutch and Belgian nonprofit professionals who were engaged in corporate volunteering coordination. The study shows that a flexible and project‐oriented justification regime creates a common discursive terrain that nurtures cross‐sectoral collaboration.…”

“…These reviewed studies of CV from a nonprofit's perspective still exhibit a focus on identifying the antecedents and the outcomes (e.g., Samuel et al, 2013), or establishing its legitimacy (through studying CV benefits for the nonprofits) (e.g., Liu & Ko, 2011; Shachar et al, 2018). With the exception of a few studies that explore CV recruitment (Peterson, 2004b) and the engagement and retention of CVs using work design theories (Grant, 2012; Pajo & Lee, 2011; Van Schie et al, 2019).…”

“…The extant CV literature primarily focuses on the for‐profit's perspective, exploring the antecedents, for example, factors contributing to and motivations for CV (e.g., Rodell, 2013; Rodell et al, 2016) and outcomes of CV (i.e., win‐win‐win narrative) (e.g., Caligiuri et al, 2013). Insights into the concrete management processes and strategy of nonprofits in CV‐related partnerships remain limited (e.g., Samuel et al, 2013; Shachar et al, 2018).…”

Capitalism and Civil Society Revisited or: Conceptualizing a Civil, Sustainable and Solidary Economy

“…At best, the effects of a "colonialization" of civil society are noted, as when the increasing "monetarization" of volunteer work or the "marketization" of the third sector is criticized (cf. Hasenfeld and Garrow 2012;Adloff and Kocka 2016;Shachar et al 2018).…”