Conservative transformation: actively managed corporate volunteerism in Hong Kong

Abstract

Our Hong Kong-based study used interviews with volunteers and other stakeholders to investigate the perceived integrity and commitment of firms' adoption of actively managed corporate volunteerism (AMCV), to examine whether AMCV was removing barriers against voluntary community service work and to identify volunteers' motives for AMCV involvement. Interviewees perceived that firms were adopting strategically instrumental approaches to AMCV, combining community service provision with corporate image promotion and/or with organisational development. They indicated that although AMCV was mobilizing people, who would not otherwise have chosen to volunteer, instances of 'conscription' were uncommon. Those who had served as volunteers described positive motives for their own involvement, such as altruism, principlism, self-development, loyalty to the firm and relationship building with colleagues and service recipients. Some expressed that volunteering had been a highly rewarding self-transformation experience. Our study also used the career orientations inventory (COI) to examine career anchors. COI scores indicated that non-governmental organisation (NGO)-based employees and some firm-based paid AMCVorganisers preferred the service/dedication to a cause anchor and that firm-based unpaid organisers-cum-participants preferred the lifestyle anchor. Volunteers without organiser roles had miscellaneous preferences but leaned toward the security anchor. From our findings, we argue that it would benefit all parties if firms, in close collaboration with NGOs, were to expand the range of volunteering opportunities that are available to employees and help them to choose activities and roles that are congruent with their career anchors, if they so wish.

A Road Map for Empowering Undergraduates to Practice Service Leadership Through Service-Learning in Teams

“…At the outset, the students assumed that this would address a genuine need. They related the project plan to the course curriculum as an analogy of how actively managed corporate volunteerism provides opportunities for members of a sponsoring organization (in this case the university) to step out from normal daily work to provide valuable services to those in need (Snell & Wong, 2013). However, the project did not develop as initially conceived.…”

Social responsibility and reflexivity for co-operative goals with government units in China

“…Although we have shown that support by representatives for stakeholder‐oriented CSR and their adoption of reflexivity vis‐à‐vis government officials are likely to help in the development of co‐operative goals with government units, simply training enterprise representatives without engaging and aligning other employees with congruent CSR policies and practices would constitute opportunistic or ‘window‐dressing ethics’ (Norman and MacDonald ; Sims and Brinkmann ; Snell and Wong ), which is unlikely to be a sustainable strategy. Employee involvement in the design of CSR projects and commitment to participation in them is central to the effectiveness thereof (Gond et al.…”

Spirituality and volunteering in soft skills development

“…In addition, individuals involved in the same activity may harbour different motivations. Brockner et al (2014) and Snell and Wong (2013) suggest that corporate volunteering can be understood as the employees' participation in activities sponsored by the companies, usually during working hours and for the benefit of some local entity or society, in a broader context in which that organization operates. Usually, the company sponsors a continuous program of community activities and services and offers a platform, where employees and, sometimes, their family members, can take part in such activities.…”