PHYSICAL VERSUS SKILL-BASED VOLUNTEERING: ANALYSES OF OUTCOMES AND PERCEIVED BENEFITS

Abstract

Corporate responsibility has become more of an imperative than a luxury item for companies, and corporate volunteerism is an effective way of fulfilling this imperative. Albeit extensive research has been done on volunteerism, research gaps that need to be addressed still exist. Research on corporate volunteerism has mostly focused on the point of view of employers although it is vital to also consider the preferences and opinions of employees. This study partially fills this gap by exploring possible differences in the perceived benefits between physical and skill-based volunteering from the perspective of employees. In addition, this study reduces the dearth of volunteerism research in the Asian context by examining whether regular volunteerism by employees in Singapore leads to increased employee engagement, life satisfaction and presence of meaning in life. Findings from this study indicate that employees perceive skill-based volunteering to have stronger employee engagement, job satisfaction and job-related skills enhancing effects as compared to physical volunteering. The results also show that employees who are regular volunteers have a significantly higher level of employee engagement, life satisfaction and presence of meaning in life than employees who are not. Finally, this study provides evidence that regular volunteers involved in primarily skill-based volunteering have higher levels of employee engagement as compared to those involved in primarily physical volunteering. Such findings provide crucial insights to corporations and non-profit organizations especially those based in Singapore.