| Corporate philanthropy is, by definition, performed for the primary objective of societal benefit. Annual productivity losses due to non-engaged or actively disengaged employees present a substantial problem in the American workplace. Many organizations implement philanthropic programs with a secondary objective of increasing employee engagement. The problem addressed by this study was that little knowledge existed on the relationship between corporate philanthropy and employee engagement. As a result, organizations have made decisions regarding corporate philanthropy without understanding how employee engagement might be affected.;Because prior research on corporate philanthropy and employee engagement was largely quantitative, and a search for existing theory found none, this study employed classic grounded theory methodology. For this study, the researcher interviewed 22 volunteer participants to gain detailed insight into how their employers' philanthropy affected their engagement at work. Analysis of the data indicated that the factor which accounted for the greatest variation in employee engagement as a result of an organization's philanthropy is an employee's association with the act of giving. Six factors were identified which contribute to the effect corporate philanthropy has on employee engagement: identification with the organization, personal proximity, moral values, engagement factors, philanthropic format, and temporality.;The theory of association with acts of corporate philanthropy explains that the degree to which an employee identifies with acts of corporate philanthropy determines the impact those acts have on engagement at work. If an employee identifies with his or her employer, then the employee is impacted by the employer's philanthropic actions as if the employee had performed the philanthropy. A practical application of this theory is that organizations wishing to positively impact employee engagement as a secondary effect of corporate philanthropy should seek philanthropic activities with which employees are most likely to self-identify. |
