Employee Volunteering. A Form of Participating in Corporate Social Responsibility or a New Type of Labour Exploitation?

Abstract

The research results do not show an unequivocal answer to the question put forward in the paper. The idea of employee volunteering undoubtedly includes employees participating in corporate social responsibility. However, that might generate the threat of employee exploitation. The aim of the questions and doubts concerning the problem stated in the paper topic is not to diminish the importance of business volunteering but rather to show its strong and weak points and the reasons for the reluctance towards employee volunteering in Poland.

The relationship between employee volunteering and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is first identified to determine the employee volunteering potential. Although they are separate institutions, volunteering is more and more often becoming a part of CSR. It turned out that motives and reasons for employees’ voluntary engagement might be diverse in nature and selfless motives merge with mercenary ones. There are also diverse benefits employees gain because of acting in such a way. The greatest opportunity for the employee seems to be the possibility of experiencing participation (along with other co‑workers) in the social responsibility of their company. There are many different factors that result in the relatively weak popularity of employee volunteering in Poland. Because of a company’s engagement in volunteering actions, “soft” pressure may be exerted on employees that aims at indicating their voluntary character. Moreover, excessive formalization or bureaucracy may destroy the spontaneity of actions. It is also difficult to reconcile the business’s commercial logic with the selflessness that constitutes the idea of volunteering. The advantages gained by a company thanks to volunteering seem to result in a temptation to abuse employees and treat them instrumentally. However, the most important reason why employees are reluctant to volunteer is the competitive character of the relationship between volunteering and family life. The great significance of family values in Poland means that, if values happen to conflict, family values take priority to other ones. In these circumstances, the increase in employee volunteering is hardly to be expected unless the tension of choosing between family life and volunteering is reduced. It is also worth mentioning that the business world should be interested in strengthening the family, as it is one of the few institutions (along with the religion, school and societies) that generate “moral reserves”, essential for the market’s existence.