Do Volunteers Volunteer to do More at Work? The Relationship Between Volunteering, Engagement, and OCBs

Many non-profit organizations rely on volunteers to further their mission, but volunteer rates linger at only 25% of the population. Increasing the volunteer rate can positively impact society in a myriad of ways, including benefits to for-profit organizations. One potential way to increase volunteerism rates is by aligning volunteering with work-related outcomes of interest to employers, since many volunteers are employed. Following recovery theory, we use responses to a survey of working adults to investigate whether volunteers are more engaged and engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) than those who do not volunteer. We found that the meaningfulness and type of volunteer activity relate to both employee engagement and OCBs at work. Implications of these findings as well as opportunities for both practice and future research are discussed.