Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2022
Titel der Quelle:
ביטחון סוציאלי
Angaben zur Quelle:
117 (תשפב) 75-106
Keywords:
Voluntarism
;
Social responsibility of business
;
Nonprofit organizations
Abstract:
Corporate volunteering refers to corporate employees volunteering in thecommunity on behalf of their workplace, as part of a corporate social responsibility strategy. These voluntary activities usually take place in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) that provide services to vulnerable populations,such as people with disabilities and health problems, and children andyouth at risk. Similar to emerging global trends, corporate volunteering is arapidly growing phenomenon in Israel, and yet it has received littlescholarly attention. The aim of the present study is to examine the meaningof corporate volunteering from the perspectives of the main stakeholdersinvolved: corporate executives and volunteers; NPO leaders, employees andservice users.The research draws on three qualitative case studies. The first is acommunity garden (2015-2016), which involved real-estate companyemployees volunteering in a mental health rehabilitation NPO. The second case study is a transportation service (2006-2018), in which insurancecompany employees volunteered in a medical aid NPO, transporting peoplewith chronic illness to hospital treatments. The third case study is a farm(2014-present), in which employees from an irrigation technology companyvolunteered to provide at-risk youths with an opportunity to work inagriculture.Data for this study were collected from 2016-2019 using mixed methods.Semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with key stakeholders:executives, employees, corporate volunteers as well as service users (N =28). We also conducted observations within the organizations and at jointevents. Finally, we analyzed a variety of relevant documents, includingmeeting minutes, emails, letters, and social media posts. The data collectedwere analyzed qualitatively in two stages: within-case followed by a crosscase analysis.The findings provide a glimpse into the “backstage” of corporatevolunteering, indicating that business executives perceive it as a meaningfulactivity that contributes to community welfare and company reputation.Nevertheless, our results also indicate that volunteering took place mostlyon a sporadic base – once a month or once a quarter – with significantturnover of volunteering employees. The business companies struggledwith substantial difficulties in recruiting and retaining volunteers, in somecases leading them to actually force employees to "volunteer" in theseactivities.For these reasons, corporate volunteering did not achieve a meaningfulencounter between corporate employees and NPO service users, but waslimited to the concrete activities carried out, with limited social interaction.Thus, the findings demonstrate a significant gap between the positiveperception of corporate volunteering in the literature and the reality on theground, in which volunteering offers only limited benefits.
Note:
With an English abstract.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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