Hourly Payment and Volunteering: The Effect of Organizational Practices on Decisions About Time Use

Abstract

We examine how organizational practices making an economic evaluation of time salient, such as hourly pay, can lead people to spend less time on uncompensated work-volunteering. Using nationally representative survey data, in Study 1 we showed that, with other factors that might affect time decisions controlled, people paid by the hour were both less likely to volunteer and spent less time volunteering than counterparts who were not paid hourly. Study 2 showed that having people calculate their hourly wage was associated with decreased willingness to volunteer and that this experimental manipulation only affected people not paid by the hour.

Employee Volunteering

“…Studies of employees tend to find that volunteering increases with age (Cornwell & Warburton, 2014;DeVoe & Pfeffer, 2007;Peterson, 2004b;Rodell, 2013). However, Musick and Wilson (2008) have clarified that, across the full human life span, the decision to volunteer (volunteering direction) resembles an inverted U and the amount of time spent volunteering (volunteering intensity) is more linear.…”

“…As with the other definitional components, scholars have taken various approaches to this issue. While some studies have examined participation in corporate volunteering initiatives (e.g., Caligiuri et al, 2013;DeVoe & Pfeffer, 2007), others have focused specifically on employees volunteering on their own time (e.g., Mojza & Sonnentag, 2010;Mojza, Sonnentag, & Bornemann, 2011), and still others have taken a broader approach encompassing both of these options (e.g., Booth et al, 2009;Rodell, 2013).…”

“…Scholars have adopted different definitional approaches, for example, examining the intensity versus longevity of volunteering efforts (e.g., Booth, Won Park, & Glomb, 2009;Caligiuri et al, 2013). In addition, they have conceptualized volunteering as having different boundaries, as some scholars have examined volunteering exclusively conducted through workplace initiatives (e.g., DeVoe & Pfeffer, 2007) and others have focused on, or at least included, volunteering after work hours (e.g., Mojza & Sonnentag, 2010;Rodell).…”

“…The majority of studies summarized in Table 1 relied on cross-sectional research designs, limiting causal interpretation of findings. A small percentage of the existing studies (approximately 17%) employed alternative approaches, such as experiments or longitudinal designs (e.g., DeVoe & Pfeffer, 2007Jones et al, 2014;Mojza et al, 2011;Mojza & Sonnentag, 2010).…”

“…Scholars have adopted different definitional approaches, for example, examining the intensity versus longevity of volunteering efforts (e.g., Booth, Won Park, & Glomb, 2009;Caligiuri et al, 2013). In addition, they have conceptualized volunteering as having different boundaries, as some scholars have examined volunteering exclusively conducted through workplace initiatives (e.g., DeVoe & Pfeffer, 2007) and others have focused on, or at least included, volunteering after work hours (e.g., Mojza & Sonnentag, 2010;Rodell).Second, research on volunteering is multidisciplinary and fragmented. It is currently spread across several areas-including organizational behavior (e.g., Grant, 2012), psychology (Clary et al, 1998), sociology (Musick & Wilson, 2008), marketing (e.g., Mattila & Hanks, 2013, corporate governance (Sanchez-Hernandez & Gallardo-Vázquez, 2013), and nonprofit management (e.g., Samuel, Wolf, & Schilling, 2013)-with minimal integration.…”