"מהנדסים התנדבות": התנדבות של עובדי חברות עסקיות בארגונים חברתיים

Corporate volunteering refers to corporate employees volunteering in the community on behalf of their workplace, as part of a corporate social responsibility strategy. These voluntary activities usually take place in non-profit organizations (NPOs) that provide services to vulnerable populations,such as people with disabilities and health problems, and children and youth at risk. Similar to emerging global trends, corporate volunteering is a rapidly growing phenomenon in Israel, and yet it has received little scholarly attention. The aim of the present study is to examine the meaning of corporate volunteering from the perspectives of the main stakeholders involved: corporate executives and volunteers; NPO leaders, employees and service users.The research draws on three qualitative case studies. The first is a community garden (2015-2016), which involved real-estate company employees volunteering in a mental health rehabilitation NPO. The second case study is a transportation service (2006-2018), in which insurance company employees volunteered in a medical aid NPO, transporting people with chronic illness to hospital treatments. The third case study is a farm(2014-present), in which employees from an irrigation technology company volunteered to provide at-risk youths with an opportunity to work in agriculture.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 joint events. Finally, we analyzed a variety of relevant documents, including meeting minutes, emails, letters, and social media posts. The data collectedwere analyzed qualitatively in two stages: within-case followed by a cross-case analysis.The findings provide a glimpse into the “backstage” of corporate volunteering, indicating that business executives perceive it as a meaningful activity that contributes to community welfare and company reputation.Nevertheless, our results also indicate that volunteering took place mostly on a sporadic base – once a month or once a quarter – with significant turnover of volunteering employees. The business companies struggled with substantial difficulties in recruiting and retaining volunteers, in some cases leading them to actually force employees to "volunteer" in these activities.For these reasons, corporate volunteering did not achieve a meaningful encounter between corporate employees and NPO service users, but was limited to the concrete activities carried out, with limited social interaction.Thus, the findings demonstrate a significant gap between the positive perception of corporate volunteering in the literature and the reality on the ground, in which volunteering offers only limited benefits.