The motivational antecedents and performance consequences of corporate volunteering: When do employees volunteer and when does volunteering help versus harm work performance?

Abstract

Theoretical analyses and empirical studies are lacking on the antecedents, consequences, and contingencies of employee participation in company-sponsored volunteer programs. In response, we build on the motivation-based theory of volunteerism to explore the questions of why and when employees engage in company-sponsored volunteer programs and when corporate volunteering experience positively influences job performance at work. Using a three-wave time-lagged study with a sample from a large real estate company, we found that coworker corporate volunteering (but not leader role modeling of corporate volunteering) weakened and social support for corporate volunteering from family and friends strengthened the relationship between prosocial motivation and participation in volunteer programs. Furthermore, we discovered that when employees had positive learning experiences from corporate volunteering, their participation in volunteer programs did not distract from job performance, whereas when employees did not learn much from corporate volunteering, their corporate volunteering harmed job performance at work. The findings contribute to the literature on corporate volunteering and explain the joint influences of personal, social, and learning motives underlying corporate volunteering.