Giving Time, Time After Time: Work Design and Sustained Employee Participation in Corporate Volunteering

Corporate volunteering programs are important channels for expressing care and compassion, but little research has examined when and why employees sustain involvement. Integrating work design and volunteering theories, I introduce a model that explains how depleted task, social, and knowledge characteristics of jobs trigger compensatory motives during initial volunteering episodes. When these motives are fulfilled by volunteering projects, employees repeat participation, internalizing volunteer identities—contingent on pressure, matching incentives, recognition, managerial support, and targeted causes.