Corporate volunteering in the construction industry: motivations, costs and benefits

Abstract

Corporate volunteering is a growing global phenomenon. Despite the size and significance of the construction industry, there has been no research into corporate volunteering in this sector which presents special challenges around its highly transitionary, temporary, regulated and project-based culture. To address this gap in knowledge and to answer the need for more scholarship and sector-specific insights in this field, the motives, benefits and costs of corporate volunteering for construction businesses and the volunteers that work for them are explored. Through an in-depth single case study of one of the UK’s largest construction industry corporate volunteering programmes, it is shown that at an individual level, it is not always altruism that motives people to volunteer. Volunteers in construction are also motivated by other factors such as loyalty to their organization, profession and industry, relational/networking opportunities and the reinforcement of technical skills and personal satisfaction derived from helping others which is not normally afforded in work. At a business level the main benefits of volunteering are reputational advantage, recruitment and new skills and access to new knowledge and capabilities. Conceptually, the results indicate that systems theory, empowerment theory, life span theory and social exchange theory would be useful theoretical lenses to take research in this new area of corporate social responsibility forward. It is concluded that further research is needed into different types of volunteering programmes and whether individual benefits experienced by volunteers translate into commercial benefits for the organizations involved.

Keywords:

• Corporate social responsibility
• construction sector

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the staff of Construction Youth Trust for all the help they have given with this paper. We would particularly like to thank Deavon Sinclair, Schools & FE Coordinator, seconded to Network Rail and Thomas Glover, Schools & FE Manager. We would like to thank all the construction industry professionals who volunteered on Budding Brunels projects and filled in the questionnaire and Suanne Hardy at Network Rail who provided insight that assisted the research.