A Dimensional Construct for Employee Volunteering in Corporate Community Investment Strategies

Abstract

Borrowing its title from Caroll (1991), this empirical paper determines dimensions and structure of employee volunteering practices (EVP) and places these in the context of other Corporate Community Investment. In particular it considers whether certain CCI practices (within the suite of strategies available to the firm), may be aligned, or whether distinctions appear. This paper seeks to understand how different practices of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Community Investment (CCI) interact and identifies common dimensions (or factors) that underpin these practices. This research seeks to enhance understanding of employee volunteering by providing a theoretical structure for employee volunteering and a measurement tool for expressing levels of practice. Using data from annual reports of 333 UK firms contributes a stringently developed dimensional structure and a potential measurement tool for expressing levels of practice for employee volunteering and CCI. Results provide significant evidence for distinct factors relating to: communication, engagement, and resource commitment, which differ between volunteering and other CCI practices. Further, a lack of strategic embeddedness can be observed between the some CCI practices and public CSR declarations seen in mission statements of leading firms.