Need to write an essay about volunteering? Community service is a truly hot topic! This argumentative essay about the importance of volunteerism contains everything necessary to inspire you!
It is so disappointing that many people within our societies do not know, understand or value the importance of services in the community by volunteering. Serving society is very important in helping to solve many problems, especially those that have been neglected by the government and other social programs.
Volunteering to serve the community is not only beneficial to the individuals involved, but it is necessary in creating better societies for all. For instance, community members may volunteer to clean up a town near them or feeder roads.
This way, all members benefit by living in a clean environment that is free from illnesses related to sanitation. By cleaning the compounds surrounding them, society members help promote the health of their young ones who are always playing, during which time they can eat anything on the ground which would have otherwise caused them serious infections.
Importance of Volunteering
Community work does not always revolve around environmental work, but it is equally important for the fortunate members of society to help those who are less fortunate. Community members may volunteer to offer gifts and other services to help the less fortunate ones.
For example, people may contribute goods such as clothes and food to help the street children who have no homes or take them to childrens homes from where they can be provided for. This way, the members of society will have helped others live a more and better comfortable life.
Especially young children will feel the love that they never got from their parents. This is essential in the growth and development of a child, and the assistance and love they receive from society will surely help them grow to be better adults in society (Landry 1).
Volunteer work in our societies basically involves sharing and friendship through which people can find out what others need so that they can work on assisting them in all ways possible. Through volunteer work, many peoples lives are changed, be it through words or material assistance.
For instance, a community may volunteer to help young people addicted to drugs where they organize meetings with them, and doctors or psychiatrists volunteer to talk to them about the effects of drugs as the community helps them avoid the vise by giving them jobs to keep them busy.
Being responsive to the needs of other people makes us realize and appreciate humanity and spiritual being, as well as feeling good for changing someones life. This can even help shy people gain self-esteem. Volunteering in society work helps in promoting and building our social obligations as human beings.
Through community volunteer work, people are able to respect each because they work together without any discrimination. Volunteerism can be thought of as a social capital where everyone is concerned for the well-being of others. It also helps create trust and confidence between society members and brings society together (McHenry 1).
Conclusion
A society where people volunteer and work together always faces fewer problems since all the members tend to get along well and support each when they are in need.
The security of society is also improved, especially through the rehabilitation of street children and drug addicts who are more likely to cause insecurity in society. By supporting each other, society members can live in harmony and be happier than those societies that do not work together.
Importance of Volunteering: FAQ
What Is Volunteer Work? Volunteering is unpaid work done by a person to benefit the community. In other words, volunteering means that someone is giving their time to help an individual, a group of people, or a non-profit organization.
Why Is Volunteerism Important? Volunteer work develops and improves the community. Besides, it is helpful for the one who deals with it. Volunteering can improve ones mental health, reduce stress, and give meaning to their life.
How Does Volunteerism Benefit the Community? Volunteering is related to the need for people to participate in their community and be important to others. Imbued with such values as reciprocity, solidarity, and mutual trust, it significantly improves the quality of life.
Works Cited
Landry, L. The importance of volunteering. 2002. Web.
Volunteerism, sometimes denoted as giving or helping, has characterized the universe for sometime now. Such volunteerism is greatly expressed in charitable donations by different individuals and organizations. Today, it is estimated that charitable donations account for almost $ 95 billion and individuals have come out as the biggest contributors (Kiplinger Washington Editors, 2008).
What normally happens is that individuals together with different organizations come together with the aim of supporting special causes such as helping the poor, paying medical bills for victims of different ailment, or even donating for victims of different disasters. Helping implies a form of gift to someone else; sharing a part of what is owned, and individuals even go extra lengths to offer their services as part of voluntarism process.
Voluntarism is seen as opportunity that people should embrace in order to change lives of other people as well as the lives of volunteers themselves. Among the American society, giving to the community has become an important aspect that majority of individuals embrace. Some high school have even taken initiatives of requiring the student to allocate some time in order to volunteer in community work and the success of this may determine whether the student is eligible to graduate or not (The Nemours Foundation, n.d).
Exploring the issue of voluntarism, many literatures have put much emphasis on the important benefits and help that receivers of such help accrue. Little has been written about the benefits or factors that drive individuals and organizations that give help or participate in voluntarism activities.
In real sense, individuals cannot just give any particular help without being directed or influenced by particular motivation. Therefore, how are such individuals motivated to give, what psychological, emotional and social benefit do they achieve as part of their role in contributing and lastly how best can voluntarism activities be regarded as duty that individuals have to fulfill?
The guiding thesis for this research paper will be based on the fact that individuals who participate in voluntarism activities are directed by particular and specific motivations and that voluntarism together with giving has to be regarded and viewed as a duty to be accomplished by individuals.
Statement of the Problem
Voluntarism is an aspect that is becoming important but little attention is being paid to it. The role of voluntarism in term of donations and giving is immense and continues to change the lives of many people in different parts of the world.
According to available charity statistics, as per the year 2009, it was revealed that about 65 per cent of USA households participate in activities of giving (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010). Another research carried out by Giving USA organization statistics shows that American individuals giving donations to charities reached $ 303.75 billion by the year 2009 (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010).
At the same time, statistics show that giving tendencies by corporate organizations in USA is on the rise whereby, in 2009, it stood at 5.5%, but since then, it has risen to the current level of 14.4 billion (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010). Contribution from foundations also continue to form part of charity donations although by 2009 such form of donations had dropped by almost 8.4 per cent to the current level of almost $ 42.9 billion (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010).
Analysis of the same statistics further reveal that the biggest source of charitable giving comes from individuals whereby, in the year 2009, it stood at $227.41, which constituted 75% of the overall accumulated form of giving (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010). Coming second after individuals are foundations that contribute about $ 38.44 billion accounting for 13% of the total giving (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010).
Third placed are the bequests accounting for about 8% and corporations come last contributing about 4% of the total giving (National Philanthropic Trust, 2010).
Giving therefore does not happen without motivation. The above large amount of donations given by individuals and corporation require an indecisive investigation to reveal the psychological factors that lead individuals to give. Such research undertaking is important especially with regard to increasing role of voluntarism and donation activities in the contemporary world.
Literature Review
Scarce literature exists as to why people show willingness to donate to charities or provide voluntarism services in their communities. Nevertheless, there are heightened attempts specifically in the field of social psychology to investigate reasons that motivate people to donate or give help to different charities (Buunk, Buunk and Vugt, 2007).
According to Sandra Sims, an online contributor in the journal of ‘Step by Step Fundraising’ observes that more people are being driven to donate and the major motivation is being guided by their own experience and values.
These two aspects constitute part of the many aspects of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which have been viewed by many psychologists as major reasons why majority of people in society are giving to charities (Sims, 2007). According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people give in order to fulfill aspects of love, belonging, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization (Sims, 2007).
At the same time, other literatures postulate that individuals are motivated to give by factors of: helping, altruism, cooperation, and pro-social behavior (Batson and Powell, 2003; and Van Vugt, et al., 2000 cited in Buunk, Buunk and Vugt, 2007); the second reason cited by the same authors why individuals give is that of social influence (Buunk, Buunk and Vugt, 2007).
The needs of hierarchy according to Maslow’s hierarchy are placed at better way of explaining why people donate or decide to give. Maslow placed the human needs in ascending order of importance as show: physiological needs constitute the basic needs that are vital to sustain human life and include things like food, water, warmth, shelter, and sleep.
Many poor people find it difficult to fulfill or have these physiological needs, a situation that motivates many people to donate, give, or volunteer their resources including time (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006).
Security or safety needs constitute another category of needs that largely ensure individuals are free of physical danger and of fear; for instance, such individuals may require property, food, shelter when it seems that the individuals on their own cannot provide for these safety needs charitable activities might be excellent avenues for such individuals to get solace (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006).
The desire to see individuals in society have adequate safety needs has constituted motivation aspects driving particular people to give, help, and donate in various charity organizations. Maslow further looks at the importance of affiliation or acceptance needs, an aspect that motivates individuals to participate in voluntarism activities as a way of making other people feels accepted in society and to feel that they belong and assume an important position in the wider society (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006).
Esteem needs constitute another group of needs and according to Maslow, “once people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others” (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006).
This particular kind of need produces such satisfactions as power, prestige, status, and self-confidence (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006). Thus, in giving, donating, or even volunteering, many people feel satisfaction within themselves with regard to achieving power, prestige, status, and even self-confidence (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006).
Lastly, Maslow looked at need for self-actualization and according to the author; this particular aspect is regarded as the highest need in the hierarchy of needs (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006).
The postulation of this need is that many individuals after achieving a lot in life finally develops desire to become what one is capable of becoming that is to maximize one’s potential and to accomplish something great (Koontz and Weihrich, 2006). When such feelings emanate the individuals find charitable organizations as the best avenues to realize this need. It becomes apparent to the individuals that donating and volunteering their time and energy help them to achieve this need.
Findings
Postulation in the literature tried to look at motivating factors that lead majority of people to donate or help. The literature review dwelt largely on the psychological aspects as postulated by Maslow.
Nevertheless, carrying out further research many people gave different reasons as to why volunteerism and giving to them is important. According to field findings by Rebecca Ruby and Katya Andresen published in their online article title, ‘The secret to Getting People Give’ the two researchers found out from different people why they perceived donating or voluntarism was essential.
The participants in the research expressed that giving was part of the initiative to help other people in the society (Ruby and Andresen, 2008). At the same time, some respondents noted that upon listening to stories of people in need they became obliged to donate and volunteer.
Another group of respondents noted that giving was a sign showing that an individual is not powerless in times of problems or disaster (Ruby and Andresen, 2008). To other respondents, they put it in precise words why helping was necessary and important; giving results in sense of closeness to the community or any particular group where also giving makes one feel that his or her efforts are changing the lives o someone.
Further, giving helps people receive tax deduction, as well as enabling people to establish permanent pictures in mind of how a person in need was helped. Other respondents were convinced that giving is part of life to some individuals from their childhood and it is through giving that individuals establish good images for themselves.
Through giving, individuals are presented with opportunity to establish long-lasting legacies while to others giving is part of religious duties to be fulfilled. Lastly, through giving and volunteering people are seen to be leaders and role models to be emulated by others in the society (Ruby and Andresen, 2008).
Another field research carried out by Sandra Sims and published online in her article titled ‘Why do People donate to Charitable Causes’ found out three major reasons that drive people to donate to charities.
The first reason has to do with personal experience where majority of givers adopt the activity of giving to others when they reflect on their own experiences as beneficiaries of charitable donations and help (Sims, 2007). Others, particularly in medical donations, give in order to honor their loved ones who in one way or the other died from the particular disease or problem donations are being done currently. Second reason why people give is that of making and witnessing change in the society.
In other words, when particular people participate in charity work their biggest desire is to see difference being realized in society (Sims, 2007). The ambitions of such donors come to coalesce around the desire to see long-term and lasting impact in the lives of less advantaged or those affected by particular disasters. The third reason as to why people donate and give as expressed by the author involves, “doing something active about a problem or take a stand on a particular issue” (Sims, 2007, p.1).
By giving, the individual is able to accumulate some form of social power that he or she I able to use in approaching certain social and complex problems in society (Sims, 2007). The fourth reason as to why people give has to do with motivation aspects. When some people give, they become largely attracted to the need realizing personal recognition and benefits (Sims, 2007).
Discussion
As seen from the earlier section as to what drives majority of people to give, one aspect becomes clear as to why many people find motivation in giving and that aspect has to with duty. Majority of activities of donating or volunteering is seen to be guided by the sense of duty and as Brooks and Wilson (2007) postulate, about 80% of interviewed people who gave donations or provided help in many organizations and charities confirmed that those who have more should give to those who have less.
The concept of duty is concisely expressed and promoted by Kant who holds that “humans are morally good not so far as they act from passion or self-interest but so far as they act on an impersonal principle valid for others as well as for themselves” (Kant and Paton, 1991, p.30).
According to Kant, duties are divided into duties towards self and duties towards others and further divided into perfect and imperfect duties (Kant and Paton, 1991). As a result of this classification, four major types of duties are proposed by Kant. Analyzing the four types of duties Kant is convinced that a perfect duty is one that admits of no exception in the interests of inclination.
With regard to duties upon self, Kant express that individuals’ various capacities have a natural function or purpose I life and it is a perfect duty upon individuals not to limit such purposes and at the same time it is positive duty for such individuals to further such purposes to others (Kant and Paton, 1991). At the same time, Kant notes that individuals have a duty towards other individuals and the perfect duty here involves that of not limiting the realization of possible systematic harmony of purposes among majority of people.
Giving and voluntarism should be seen as a way of providing support to the work that touches on the lives of many people and such activities or initiatives should be guided by sense of responsibility and duty in order to help people suffering and in need.
Giving as a duty can be justified basing argument from existence of three basic and pressing issues in society today: increasing human suffering and skyrocketing cases of poverty especially among disadvantaged families; the increasing vulnerability to diseases compounded by increasing rate of deaths resulting from such diseases; and lastly increasing gap between the rich and poor in society (Riddell, 2007). Majority of people today falls in the category of being chronically poor living on less than $2 dollars a day (Riddell, 2007).
As cases of poverty increase, vulnerability to diseases is becoming inevitable usually caused by a mix of insufficient food, poor water and sanitation, inadequate shelter or even health care and as fate would be majority of the affected succumb to poverty-related deaths (Riddell, 2007).
Therefore, the described above scenario in the contemporary modern world is gradually making the aspect of giving and voluntarism a necessity that people to embrace in order to save other. It is becoming a prerequisite to undertake and get involved in charity work in order to see a function world. In addition, it is from these pressing needs that giving and voluntarism is graduating into a duty that individuals should embrace positively.
Conclusion
Thesis statement for this research paper centered on the need of investigating the increasing nature of voluntarism and donation activities as a form of duty that humans have to fulfill. From the exploration and analysis of literature, profound evidence shows that today’s world is characterized by high numbers of poverty levels, many people especially in poor societies are dying from poverty-related disease and the gap between the rich and poor in many societies is widening.
As a way to address these issues, it was found that voluntarism and giving should be embraced and perceived as duty that individuals are obliged to fulfill in the society. Kant’s concept of duty was further explored and it became evident that human have a duty towards others of ensuring they experience similar happiness and joy as themselves.
References
Brooks, A. C. and Wilson, J. Q. (2007). Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism — America’s Charity Divide–Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters. NY: Basic Books.
Buunk, A. P., Buunk, B. and Vugt, M. V. (20007). Applying social psychology: from problems to solutions. NY: SAGE.
Kant, I. and Paton, H. J. (1991). Moral law: groundwork of the metaphysic of morals. NY: Routledge.
Kiplinger Washington Editors. (2008). Kiplinger Personal Finance, Vol. 62, No. 3. Washington: Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc.
Koontz, H. and Weihrich, H. (2006). Essentials of Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
National Philanthropic Trust. (2010). Philanthropy Statistics: Charitable Giving. Web.
Riddell, R. (2007). Does foreign aid really work? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ruby, R. and Andresen, K. (2008). The Secret to Getting People to Give: 14 Reasons Why People Donate. MD: Learning Center Network for Good. Web.
Sims, S. (2007). Why Do People Donate to Charitable Causes? CA: Step by Step Fundraising Inc. Web.
Need to write an essay about volunteering? Community service is a truly hot topic! This argumentative essay about the importance of volunteerism contains everything necessary to inspire you!
It is so disappointing that many people within our societies do not know, understand or value the importance of services in the community by volunteering. Serving society is very important in helping to solve many problems, especially those that have been neglected by the government and other social programs.
Volunteering to serve the community is not only beneficial to the individuals involved, but it is necessary in creating better societies for all. For instance, community members may volunteer to clean up a town near them or feeder roads.
This way, all members benefit by living in a clean environment that is free from illnesses related to sanitation. By cleaning the compounds surrounding them, society members help promote the health of their young ones who are always playing, during which time they can eat anything on the ground which would have otherwise caused them serious infections.
Importance of Volunteering
Community work does not always revolve around environmental work, but it is equally important for the fortunate members of society to help those who are less fortunate. Community members may volunteer to offer gifts and other services to help the less fortunate ones.
For example, people may contribute goods such as clothes and food to help the street children who have no homes or take them to children’s homes from where they can be provided for. This way, the members of society will have helped others live a more and better comfortable life.
Especially young children will feel the love that they never got from their parents. This is essential in the growth and development of a child, and the assistance and love they receive from society will surely help them grow to be better adults in society (Landry 1).
Volunteer work in our societies basically involves sharing and friendship through which people can find out what others need so that they can work on assisting them in all ways possible. Through volunteer work, many people’s lives are changed, be it through words or material assistance.
For instance, a community may volunteer to help young people addicted to drugs where they organize meetings with them, and doctors or psychiatrists volunteer to talk to them about the effects of drugs as the community helps them avoid the vise by giving them jobs to keep them busy.
Being responsive to the needs of other people makes us realize and appreciate humanity and spiritual being, as well as feeling good for changing someone’s life. This can even help shy people gain self-esteem. Volunteering in society work helps in promoting and building our social obligations as human beings.
Through community volunteer work, people are able to respect each because they work together without any discrimination. Volunteerism can be thought of as a social capital where everyone is concerned for the well-being of others. It also helps create trust and confidence between society members and brings society together (McHenry 1).
Conclusion
A society where people volunteer and work together always faces fewer problems since all the members tend to get along well and support each when they are in need.
The security of society is also improved, especially through the rehabilitation of street children and drug addicts who are more likely to cause insecurity in society. By supporting each other, society members can live in harmony and be happier than those societies that do not work together.
Importance of Volunteering: FAQ
What Is Volunteer Work? Volunteering is unpaid work done by a person to benefit the community. In other words, volunteering means that someone is giving their time to help an individual, a group of people, or a non-profit organization.
Why Is Volunteerism Important? Volunteer work develops and improves the community. Besides, it is helpful for the one who deals with it. Volunteering can improve one’s mental health, reduce stress, and give meaning to their life.
How Does Volunteerism Benefit the Community? Volunteering is related to the need for people to participate in their community and be important to others. Imbued with such values as reciprocity, solidarity, and mutual trust, it significantly improves the quality of life.
Works Cited
Landry, L. “The importance of volunteering.” 2002. Web.
In the modern world, along with the development of society, new problems that need to be addressed arise. At the same time, it is essential to understand that modern problems require modern solutions as well. One such solution is volunteering, designed to improve society, help develop it from within, and bring moral values to the masses. Volunteers are people who, of their own free will and without compensation, devote their time and energy to help those in need.
Nevertheless, there is a view that volunteering is the exploitation of free labor of workers and a waste of time since such delivery is not paid. Those who hold this view are usually convinced that there are professionals who should do some work for money in any field. Others should be engaged either in training or in their professional activities. Another argument is that it takes up a lot of a person’s time that could be spent on more valuable activities. This point of view is not correct, and it is necessary to analyze why.
The question about why people are interested in volunteer work has its answer. It is necessary to analyze five main reasons why volunteering is a tangible and popular way of work, even though it is often free. First, it is connected with interest as volunteering helps realize new emotions’ needs, desire to learn something new, and excitement. Second, it is the inculcation of values and moral norms to society. For many people, the incentive to volunteer is the desire to do good deeds and to bring benefit and joy to people in need. Third, socialization which provides communication and company and doing volunteer work for most teens become a source of new acquaintances and friends. People find like-minded people in their desire to help pro bono. Such communities greatly help students feel the importance of their actions, their voice, and encourage them to be more active and responsible. Fourth, external incentives are the motivators for receiving all sorts of stimuli, certificates, benefits, and other bonuses.
However, this does not mean that such people are not driven by good intentions and do their work without a soul. Finally, volunteering helps with development and professional interest; as such, work permits navigating the world of work and learning many social and communication skills. In addition, for many people, volunteering is a way to apply and develop their talents.
In Canada, the institution of volunteerism is well-developed and has a firm basis. By examining the statistics on the percentage of society engaged in volunteerism, it appears that it is 47% as of 2010 (Statistics Canada, 2015). In addition, this figure is constantly growing, since by comparing this percentage with, for example, in 2004, it is evident that the number of volunteers in the country increased by 2%, or, put another way, by almost 2 million people (Statistics Canada, 2015). In addition, from the analytical data, it is clear that this is practical, not nominal work, because the number of total hours worked by volunteers – 2068 million, which is a solemn figure.
In conclusion, volunteering is not the free use of young people or exploitation of their labor. One of the principles of volunteering is that it is voluntary and that the workers receive benefits, not in wages, but other equivalents. In addition, statistics show that society is valuable and necessary for volunteer help in many different areas, so the number of volunteers is growing every year. In some countries, about half of the entire population is engaged in volunteering activities.
Reference
Statistics Canada. (2015). Table 1. Volunteer rate and volunteer hours, population aged 15 and over, 2004, 2007 and 2010. Web.
This paper presents three approaches to answering the research question posed earlier in the course: does corporate support for volunteerism and other philanthropic activities bring about benefits for the company in point of employee satisfaction and retention? Such a question involves social science research into the value of promoting a social good (Coryn, 2009) that does not necessarily impact corporate revenue.
For a quantitative approach, the proposed core is a 3 X 2 factorial design because the independent variable (IV) is operationalized as three types of corporate environments (within the same industry) and there are two ways to define the dependent variable (DV).
Cell
Class of Corporate Support for Volunteerism
Job Satisfaction (Survey Base)
Turnover (Length of Retrospective research)
I
None
200
10 years
II
Token: personal support by CEO
200
10 years
III
Active: employees get paid time off for community service and other volunteer projects
200
10 years
The impact of mediating variables will be minimized by selecting one industry, financial services, and three firms of approximately the same size in point of staffing and assets. This way, we respond to the imperative Creswell (2009) holds of bolstering cause-effect relationships by controlling intervening variables in quasi-experimental designs.
This design is self-contained because cell 1 effectively represents the baseline against which, it is hypothesized, the token and active volunteerism styles will respectively reveal modest and substantial effects on the twin DVs. The DV’s are linked, given that job satisfaction has at least a mediated effect on absenteeism and turnover (Goldberg and Waldman, 2000).
The proposed sub-sample size of 200 is a prudent compromise between precision and the cost of enlarging the samples. For common proportions that might be estimated (a range of, say, 25% to 70% since the values of p excluded correspond to [1-p] in the given range) and a Z value for commonly accepted 95% confidence level of estimates, a base of 200 yields a margin of error of ±6.9%.
For comparability, desk research on retention measures employee turnover and absenteeism shall be extended at least as long as the financial institution has engaged in either token or active volunteerism support.
This design boasts the regular benefits of quantitative studies in employing large samples, systematic sampling procedures that meet criteria for probability tests of significance and reducing bias. Given the reliability of rigorously applied quantitative methods, the findings can be compared over time (Cozby, 2009).
In practical terms, the advantage of a quantitative approach lies in predictive value. The investigation of cause-and-effect can be projected with a reasonable degree of confidence to the universe of financial services institutions around the nation and replicated in other industrial settings. Thus, a CEO or Board of Directors can be satisfied that there is an endogenous benefit to practicing corporate social responsibility via volunteer or community-service channels.
The returns on corporate social responsibility cover a wide range, the most fundamental being an enhanced corporate image. The envisioned research problem can therefore also be addressed with a series of qualitative depth interviews. While depth interview procedures are straightforward, a satisfactory research design (below) acknowledges that many stakeholders comprise the target publics of corporate image.
Stakeholder Class
Sub-sample size
Managers
12
Volunteer-employees
10
Non-volunteer employees
10
Beneficiary organizations and SME’s
10
Community opinion leaders
10
General public
20
Depositors and loan clients
20
Commencing primary data-gathering with qualitative depth interviews gains the advantages of:
Empathy between interviewer and subjects, particularly strong in face-to-face depth interviews.
Cues or insights into in-depth motivations and feelings which may explain the results generated by the quantitative phase.
Flexibility in question sequence and wording depending on initial answers of respondents.
Probing to generate a comprehensive range of volunteerism issues.
The third and fourth advantages above are particularly important in fulfilling the promise of qualitative research for scrutinizing the attitudes, opinions, sources of employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction concerning volunteerism, trust, self-fulfillment (Starnes, 2007; Peterson, 2004), management perspectives, and interests of the seven stakeholders generally. Ultimately, the benefit is for the researcher to explore how deeply each stakeholder type is involved in matters of volunteerism and community service, discover new ideas for inclusion in follow-up quantitative surveys, and provide insight into why quantitative data turn out as they do (Zikmund, 2003).
True, other qualitative techniques are possible. However, focus groups are not viable for this research purpose because we cannot discount the biasing effects of social pressure to conform to a community service ideal (Cozby, 2009).
It should be clear by now that the proposed research question is best addressed with both the quantitative and qualitative designs to achieve both insight and predictive value. Hence, the research project entails mixed methods. To this “double-barreled” approach, we add a case study from the repertoire of mixed methods.
Augmenting the methodology with the case study as an exploratory step provides the benefit of open-mindedness to gathering valuable lessons and insights. One obtains leads about innovative approaches and unexpected benefits from the experiences of other philanthropic businessmen and volunteer organizers. In terms of the research process, the other significant benefit of case studies is the pursuit of leads for follow-up in future research (Zikmund, 2003). Operationally, this stage will involve a search in a journal and technical paper databases for volunteerism case studies, especially those revolving on financial-service institutions.
Trochim and Donnelly (2008) also justify mixed methods involving case studies and the qualitative-quantitative mix when one has advanced beyond naturalistic inquiry but the situation does not permit experimental testing. A review of the literature provides substantial support for the hypothesis that businesses do benefit from volunteerism support in point of employee satisfaction and, quite possibly, employee retention (Goldberg and Waldman, 2000; Starnes, 2007). However, the current recession has put pressure on the sustainability of financial institutions themselves and the evolution of community needs may mean that corporate social responsibility is sought in new avenues. Hence, this research proposal can be expected to uncover how much flexibility businesses retain and what social needs they respond to that provide tangible organizational benefits.
References
Coryn, C. L. S. (2009). What is social science research and why would we want to evaluate it? In C. L. S. Coryn, Evaluating social science research: A handbook for researchers, instructors, and students (pp. 1-14). New York, NY: Guilford.
Cozby, P. C. (2009). Methods in behavioral research (10th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill Higher Education.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Goldberg, C. B. & Waldman, D. A. (2000). Modeling employee absenteeism: Testing alternative measures and mediated effects based on job satisfaction. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 665-76.
Peterson, D. K. (2004). Benefits of participation in corporate volunteer programs: Employees’ perceptions. Personnel Review, 33 (6): 615 – 627.
Starnes, B. J. (2007). Trust, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and the volunteer’s psychological contract. The International Journal of Volunteer Administration, XXIV (5).
Trochim, W., & Donnelly, J. (2008). The research methods knowledge base (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage.
Zikmund, W. (2003). Business research methods (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Thomson/South-Western.
The proposed dissertation suggests that employers who support volunteerism are able to increase job satisfaction in their companies. This is seen in the form of proactive employers who form volunteer programs that are in sync with the mission statement of the company. The recently conducted survey revealed that 68% of the respondents wished to enter into voluntary programs that helped to retain valued employees and 58% of the respondents believed that employee volunteering led to greater productivity. (Wallenius, 2003)
The volunteer interests manifested by employees largely influence the choice of volunteer groups to gain support from employers. The organizations which view voluntarism as a part of the corporate culture often benefit greatly from it. At this, connectivity is seen as one of the main aspects of volunteerism. In terms of voluntarism, connectivity serves as a bridge connecting volunteers and those individuals who need their help.
Research design is extremely important when constructing a study. According to Morris 2003, before carrying out research, “researchers should consider the goals of their study to determine the appropriate methodology, and should consider the costs and benefits of using student subjects vs. other consumers in conducting their research.” (p.49) Moreover, planning research, should take into account three basic methodologies of research which include internal validity, external validity, and construct validity. (Leong & Austin, 2005)
Internal validity is usually applied in cause and effect studies. Cozby 2009 posits that “to achieve internal validity, the researcher must design and conduct the experiment so that only the independent variable can be the cause of the results.” (p.149) Internal validity can be used when carrying out a cause-and-effect study exploring the issue of voluntarism; in this case, the cause-and-effect relationships between practicing voluntarism and the resulting job satisfaction among the employees can be considered. Such a study can be based on the assumption that the rates of job withdrawal among voluntary workers are, as a rule, smaller and their rates of job satisfaction are higher. This is connected with the fact that voluntary workers are more committed to their jobs and have concrete goals to attain.
As far as external validity is concerned, its primary focus is on generalizations. As explained by Trochim & Donnely 2008, “external validity is the degree to which the conclusions in your study would hold for another person in other places and at other times.” (p.34) In addition to this, Schram 2005 offers an idea that external validity “is relatively more important for experiments searching for empirical regularities than for theory-testing experiments.” (p.225) There is no place for external validity in the case with the study which is going to be presented in this dissertation. For example, consider that Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase all participated in the survey questioning employee satisfaction. Consider again the results of the study indicated that employee satisfaction was increased because of corporate volunteer support. External validity infers that a study can be picked up and applied to any other situation, for instance to the work of Boeing or ABC Trucking, leading to approximately the same results. This cannot be true in the case of voluntarism and employee satisfaction, because the results are individual for every company.
Construct validity is one of the most central concepts in psychology. Most of the scholars keep to the idea that it is more important than any other of the measurement validity labels. Researchers generally establish the construct validity of a measure by correlating it with a number of other measures and “arguing from the pattern of correlations that the measure is associated with these variables in theoretically predictable ways.” (Westen & Rosenthal, 2003, p.608) Construct validity is significant for the research which is expected to be done in this dissertation. This study will show a correlation between employee satisfaction with their employment and an employer’s willingness to support an employee’s belief through a formal volunteer program. It could be further reiterated that satisfaction levels of employees are positively correlated with employers’ willingness to fund a program such as the one in question.
Validity allows seeing the accuracy of research. The abovementioned three methodologies provide different perspectives on research as such. While internal validity requires a cause and effect relationship, external and construct validity do not. External validity requires duplication of similar situations outside a study. Other methodologies do not have this requirement. Construct validity tests patterns whereas, again, the other methodologies do not.
The external validity threat points out why generalizations can be incorrect. For example, an external validity threat surrounding the correlation between employee satisfaction and an organization that supports volunteer programs could easily arise. Threats could include organizational types, employee personalities, reward program, and other factors that influence employee satisfaction. A threat to construct validity is the reliability of a test. For example, a poorly written survey or an inadequate number of participates would constitute a threat. It would be remiss to forget to mention measurement reliability. Measurement reliability measures something consistently. If this is not done, then another potential threat arises. The researcher is expected to bear all this information in mind before carrying out the research.
Reference List
Cozby, P. (2009). Methods in Behavioral Research. New York: Higher Education.
Leong, F. T.L., & Austin, J. T. (2005). The psychology research handbook: a guide for graduate students and research assistance, 2nd edition. SAGE.
Morwitz, V. (2003). An incomplete picture. Marketing Research, 15(2), 49.
Schram, A. (2005). Artificiality: The tension between internal and external validity in economic experiments. The Journal of Economic Methodology, 12(2), 225.
Trochim, W. & Donnelly, J. (2008). The Research Methods Knowledge Base. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Wallenius, S. (2003). Get up, get out, and volunteer!: A simple book that will change your life. London: IUniverse.
Westen, D. & Rosenthal, R. (2003). Quantifying construct validity: Two simple measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(3), 608.