New Employee Volunteer Program at Dot Foods

As reported in the Journal Courier, Dot Foods, one of the largest food redistributors in the United States, has inaugurated a new employee volunteer program at their Illinois branch. Employees can participate in the "Teaming with Local Charities" (TLC) program by volunteering at one of three local organizations: Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, or Brown County Schools. Employees then log their volunteer hours, and after a certain threshold, they receive paid time off or money that can be donated to charity. If things go well with the Illinois program, Dot expects to roll-out TLC to its other U.S. locations.

Unitarians Practice Social Action

In Lewes, Delaware, Unitarians practice social action through their Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware church's social justice committee. In an article that describes the work of the congregation (such as supporting the local Boys and Girls club), Michael D. Smith, the pastor, is quoted:

'Social justice is to ensure the concept in our founding documents -- equality and justice for all -- is put into action,' said the Rev. Michael D. Smith, pastor for the UUSD. 'A term that goes often with social justice is social action, and that is putting into practice your principles and your beliefs so you don't just sit around and talk about it; you actually go out and make changes.'

This might be my favorite definition yet of "social action." How have you been putting your beliefs into action lately--and how much of that is being done not through your church, but through (or at) your place of work?

Article

TMMK Participates in National Public Lands Day

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc (TMMK) company volunteers, alongside community members, recently participated in the 15th Annual National Public Land Days activities at the Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort, Kentucky.

During the event, volunteers helped construct the 230 foot boardwalk on the"Toyota HabiTrek Trail," helped with general trail clean-up and maintenance, and built two smaller trails.

In conjunction with the activities at Salato Wildlife Education Center, representatives from Take Pride in America, visited the site as part of the "Voluntour America" initiative.

Press Release

Walmart's Good Works Board

By posting this shot, I'm admitting that I was at the local Ithaca Walmart--why I was there I will not discuss!--but I managed to get a shot of their "Good Works" board. As I understand it, the manager of each Walmart store has a discretionary fund to use for community projects. This board praises the over $30,000 donated to the local community and displays thank you notes from local groups helped by Walmart donations--the usual suspects such as schools and 4H groups but also a pirate academy?

DB Schenker Food Drive

Pac Hwy Food Drive
Originally uploaded by Echo Communications

Another example of social action pulled from Flickr. This illustrates Canadian firm DB Schenker's food drive held earlier in the summer. Employees donated over 87,000 pounds of food--nearly 48.5 pounds per employee!

Donations were given to food banks across Canada.

Royal Cliff Beach Resort Donates Cash, Food to Fr. Ray Foundation

Royal Cliff Beach Resort Donates Cash, Food to Fr. Ray Foundation
Originally uploaded by royalmice

I searched flickr to see if I could find any photographs related to Corporate Social Responsibility. This one caught my eye, primarily because it is a photograph from Thailand. The caption describes how a local resort donated both rice and snacks to an orphanage as well as a home for street children and a school for the physically disabled.

Best Buy: Relay for Life

I spotted this memo in the local Best Buy. This is an example of the personal social action I discussed in my dissertation.

Avaaz, Voice

Avaaz.org is another website serving as a clearinghouse for social action awareness and action.

Is There Something I Can Do?

While this is on the "social action" not "work" side of this blog, I thought a new website worth mentioning. Singers Peter Buffet and Akon have created a website called Is There Something I Can Do? to encourage folks to get involved in positive change. They encourage visitors to blog about the activities they've pursued as well as link to sites that help people get involved in volunteering.

FAA Whistleblowers

Surely, protecting public safety is a form of social action. For FAA whistle-blowers, information they provide to outside agencies or the media can reduce accidents and save lives. Whistle-blowing, however, is not for the faint of heart. Most whistle-blowers, despite laws to the contrary, suffer at least some form of retaliation. Many lose their jobs, their careers, even their families. Whistle-blowers face health issues related to stress and anxiety. Their reputations often suffer. Fundamentally, the only payoff is knowing they've done the right thing.

Today, NPR broadcast a story on whistle-blowers at the FAA. A number of employees--32--have come forward with information this year, already twice the number as in 2007. They featured two FAA whistle-blowers, Peter Nesbitt and Anne Whiteman. Nesbitt blew the whistle on unsafe runway construction at the Memphis airport, while Whitman, ten years ago, revealed to the public problems with the air traffic control system at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. One of the issues she revealed was controllers allowing planes to fly too close together. Sadly, she said that knowing what she knows now, she may not have blown the whistle ten years ago.

The negative consequences endured by whistle-blowers are sobering and should concern us all. Serious and important reform often comes only when insiders reveal problems within organizations.

NPR.org Story

Performance Bicycle and the Environment

In Performance Bicycle's latest consumer catalog, the firm highlights their activities to help preserve the environment. They purchase renewable energy credits that 100% offset the electricity they use in the corporate office, distribution centers, and all stores (and they are the first national retailer to do so). They also use recycled paper for their catalogs and flyers, which they claim saves 4,600 tress, 1,610,000 gallons of water, and 7,725 gallons of oil each year. Finally, the provide a commuter incentive program. This program recognizes and rewards employees who take alternative transportation to work, including bicycling, walking/running, public transportation, or car pooling. In the last 12 months, employees reported using alternative transportation methods over 13,700 times.

Bike to Work Week

Last week, May 12-16, was National Bike to Work Week. As reported by blogger Fenris-Lorsrai, a number of companies offer incentives for employees to bike to work. Fenris-Lorsrai outlines the following programs:

• Google- Will donate $100 to the employees charity of choice for every 20 days they bike to work. Plus offers monthly bike repair classes and all their shuttles come with bike racks
• Vulcan Capital pays workers who commute by bike an extra $100 per month! They also pony up taxi fare for biking employees that were asked to stay after dark or in inclement weather.
• The Calvert Group offers employees $350 to buy themselves a bicycle. They also have a shower and changing facilities available.
• Discovery Communications gives employees $350 to buy a bike AND cover maintenance. They also pay for a car sharing service for days when employees need to travel farther than they can bike.
• New Belgium Brewing Company gives every employee a bike after a year of employment. They also have Prius loaner car for shared use at work.

The League of American Bicyclists offers a list of tips to encourage employers to incentivize bike riding.

Why does this count as social action? Admittedly, some bike for fun or exercise, but many bicyclists also note the benefits to the environment from replacing a car with a bicycle. See story here.

A World Without Honeybees

Haagen-Dazs ice cream has launched a new campaign to help honey bees. Appealing to our selfish instincts, they point out that bees are essential to many of the wonderful foods we eat, including ice cream. When people eat flavors like Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream, Haagen-Dazs is donating money to support honey bee and sustainable pollination research.

Of course, advertisements like the one I saw today are helping raise awareness of the honey bee crisis. They are also landscaping their headquarter with bee-friendly plants like jasmine and rosemary. In addition, they've created a "bee board" of experts and providing educational materials to schools.

Related to this blog and my dissertation, the company is giving employees flower seeds to plant bee-friendly gardens in their yards as well as sponsoring volunteer days where employees can help create bee-friendly gardens in their communities. They're also sending employees on public education speaking engagements--along with free ice cream samples.

Help the Honey Bees Website

Microfinancing

CNN.com has published an article on microfinancing, a form of loan in which as little as $25 can be invested to help entrepreneurs in impoverished countries.

Interested lenders can visit Kiva.org to find projects they would like to finance.

A blog entry from someone who gives to Kiva: http://missfire-simplegreen.blogspot.com/2008/04/green-saturday-microfinance.html.

Social Entrepreneurship

Of course, social entrepreneurship is a special form of social action at work. I will discuss this more in the future. Until then, check out the following links:

• Ashoka
• The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
• Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE)
• How to Change the World

What is social action anyway?

The best definition I've uncovered so far comes from Horvath (1999: 221):

Social action is participation in social issues to influence their outcome for the benefit of people and the community. Social action can, under favourable circumstances, produce actual empowerment, impact, or social change.

A legitimate question is: does social action at work differ from social action in one's home life, family life, or church life? Engaging in social issues at work is undeniably different--and perhaps risky when viewed as a type of disclosure. Multilevel theory implies that individuals clustered, whether by work group, function, or organization are apt to behave differently than individuals clustered in different ways.

REFERENCE
Horvath, P. (1999). The organization of social action. Canadian Psychology-Psychologie Canadienne, 40(3), 221-231.

Kingdom Assignment

Last winter, Lezli showed me an article about a church who gave seed money to congregants and asked them to use their talents to triple the money for the congregation. Even individuals who felt they had no intrinsic talent were challenged to find something to offer. Some members sold crafts and some sold services. One man provided rides on his motorcycle for a fee. (I wish I could find a link to the article, but I've been unsuccessful.) When we read the article, we were very struck by the sweetness of it and the self-discovery that accompanied the congregants' generosity.

In searching for the article, I came upon the website Kingdom Assignment. About this program, I am more cynical. Based on Matthew's Parable of Talents, Kingdom Assignments, a nonprofit organization, encourages congregations to implement their 90-day program which is structured around three pillars: Talent, Treasure, and Time.

On the homepage, I was interested to see a banner for On Assignment, "multiplying corporate generosity through empowered employees." Instead of using the three pillars to build money for a congregation, On Assignment aims to increase seed money provided by the organization (less a management fee) for the benefit of the organization's chosen charity or cause. Besides the philanthropic motive, On Assignment promises to reinforce company values, build morale, and improve teamwork.

This is a program I should love--it allows employees to engage in social action presumably in a very personal and self-directed manner. At the same time, this particular program makes me uncomfortable. It feels a little too mega-church.

SAW Blog

I am interested in how employees find meaning through engaging in social action in the workplace. This may come through sanctioned programs such as employee volunteer programs, matching dollars for donations to non-profit organizations, special company-wide volunteer days, and United Way campaigns. Some meaning creation may be derived from non-sanctioned activities such as posters on an office bulletin board, campaigning coworkers, or other activities.

This blog will be a clearinghouse on research and popular press news around this and related topics.