Corporate Volunteerism, the Experience of a Positive Self-Concept, and Organizational Commitment: Evidence from Two Field Studies

We examine the relationship between employees' participation in corporate-sponsored volunteerism and their organizational commitment. In two different organizational settings the psychological functions served by participating in corporate-sponsored volunteer programs were shown to be differentially predictive of employees' organizational commitment. The more employees volunteered based on functions that enabled them to experience a positive self-concept, the higher was their organizational commitment. Organizational commitment bore little or no relationship, however, with how much employees took part in corporate volunteerism based on functions less related to experiencing a positive self-concept. Study 2 provided further evidence that the experience of a positive self-concept played a key role in accounting for the relationship between the psychological functions served by employees engaging in corporate volunteerism and their organizational commitment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as are limitations and suggestions for future research.