‘Fit for Purpose’: The Role of Program Design and Perceptions in Corporate Volunteering

Corporate volunteering programs, an integral part of many organisations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, are often touted as a ‘win-win-win’ for employee volunteers and the corporate and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations that provide and involve the volunteers. Also referred to as ‘employer-sponsored volunteering,’ corporate volunteering allows employed individual to be supported by their workplace to contribute towards an external not-for-profit group or organisation. Despite their popularity, recent research indicates that the benefits of corporate volunteering programs can be overstated or unrealised and only a small number of studies have investigated how we can design programs that result in their alleged benefits for all three stakeholders. This thesis adopts a mixed method research design to develop and test explanations of how corporate volunteering programs might deliver on their promise. Drawing on findings from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with volunteers and representatives from volunteer-providing and volunteer-involving organisations, the qualitative research explores the benefits and challenges of corporate volunteering from the perspective of all three stakeholders and demonstrates how program design and stakeholder perceptions influence program effectiveness. The quantitative research, consisting of multi-source, time-lagged surveys, draws on existing theoretical perspectives to develop a testable model examining the influence of design and perceptions on career progression for the employee volunteer, staff retention for the volunteer-providing organisation and the creation of ‘cause champions’ for the volunteer-involving organisation. The research shows that individual and organisational motives for engaging in corporate volunteering, and the perception of these motives among other stakeholders in the corporate volunteering partnership, are key factors influencing how stakeholders respond to corporate volunteering programs, and thus their ultimate success. These perceptions about the purpose that corporate volunteering serves, for the self, and others, seems partly influenced by the way that programs are designed. The research thus also illustrates the interdependent role played by ‘temporal’, ‘developmental’ and ‘relational’ dimensions of programs in determining program outcomes for all three stakeholders. It finds that sustained, skills-based and socially engaged programs are best placed to deliver on their ‘win-win-win’ promise

Mouse hepatitis virus neurovirulence: evidence of a linkage between S glycoprotein expression and immunopathology.

Differences in disease outcome between the highly neurovirulent MHV-JHM and mildly neurovirulent MHV-A59 have been attributed to variations within the spike (S) glycoprotein. Previously, we found that MHV-JHM neurovirulence was marked by diminished expression of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) mRNA and a reduced presence of CD8 T cells in the CNS concomitant with heightened macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1 transcript levels and greater macrophage infiltration relative to MHV-A59 infection. Here, the ability of the S and non-spike genes to regulate these immune responses was evaluated using chimeric viruses. Chimeric viruses WTR13 and S4R22 were made on MHV-A59 variant backgrounds and, respectively, contained the S gene of MHV-A59 and MHV-JHM. Unexpectedly, genes other than S appeared to modulate events critical to viral replication and survival. Unlike unresolving MHV-JHM infections, the clearance of WTR13 and S4R22 infections coincided with strong IFN-gamma transcription and an increase in the number of CD8 T cells infiltrating into the CNS. However, despite the absence of detectable viral titers, approximately 40% of S4R22-infected mice succumbed within 3 weeks, indicating that the enhanced mortality following S4R22 infection was not associated with high viral titers. Instead, similar to the MHV-JHM infection, reduced survival following S4R22 infection was observed in the presence of elevated MIP-1alpha and MIP-1beta mRNA accumulation and enhanced macrophage numbers within infected brains. These observations suggest that the S protein of MHV-JHM influences neurovirulence through the induction of MIP-1alpha- and MIP-1beta-driven macrophage immunopathology

Creating modern traditions in Balinese performing arts

This journal has been published at different time periods under the following titles: Explorations: A Graduate Student Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Explorations in Southeast Asian Studies, and The Journal of the Southeast Asian Studies Association.The Student Activities Program Fee Boar

Développement des couches limites associées ci l'interface d'une bulle sphérique de gaz

On calcule dans ce travail les champs de vitesse de part et d'autre de l'interface d'une bulle sphérique de gaz mise brusquement en mouvement avec une vitesse constante dans un liquide. Les résultats obtenus sont acceptables dans le cadre des hypothèses imposées : à des nombres de Reynolds Re suffisamment grands et pas tout près du point d'arrêt en aval, puisque la zone de décollement de la couche limite est considérée comme négligeable.Askovic Radomir. Développement des couches limites associées ci l'interface d'une bulle sphérique de gaz. In: Bulletin de la Classe des sciences, tome 11, n°7-12, 2000. pp. 367-375

Sur une méthode approchée de traiter la couche limite laminaire magnétohydrodynamique en régime non stationnaire

The unsteady laminar magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer on a body in non-uniform motion in the presence of some given magnetic field is discussed. An universalisation of the unsteady magneto-hydrodynamic boundary layer equations is first made in the sense that neither equations nor boundary conditions depend on particular problem conditions. The universality is achieved by transfering sets of parameters which express the influence of time and external conditions, as well as of the given magnetic induction, characteristic for each particular problem, into the independent variables. Subsequently, the solution of the obtained universal equation is found in the form of series expansions in mentioned parameters.Askovic Radomir. Sur une méthode approchée de traiter la couche limite laminaire magnétohydrodynamique en régime non stationnaire. In: Bulletin de la Classe des sciences, tome 60, 1974. pp. 1261-1273