Question

A company is considering offering its employees the opportunity to do community service. Which of the following would you recommend they do, based on research in social psychology?

a. Make the community service mandatory.
b. Offer incentives for doing the community service such as extra vacation days.
c. Make sure that people feel that doing the community service is voluntary
d. Assign people to different community agencies.

Answer 1

It's recommended to encourage voluntary community service participation among employees, based on social psychology research, for increased personal and community benefits. Community psychologists' participatory approaches can further employee engagement and make them agents of change.

Step-by-step explanation:

When considering offering employees the opportunity to do community service, it is recommended based on research in social psychology to encourage voluntary participation rather than assigning people to different community agencies.

Research suggests that when individuals choose to engage in community service, they may benefit from increased satisfaction, a sense of personal growth, and better social integration. A community psychologist would focus on developing interventions and prevention strategies in partnership with the community, utilizing approaches like participatory action research (PAR) to engage community members actively in identifying and addressing community challenges.

Through these methods, employees can become agents of change and contribute to both personal development and community well-being. Incentivizing participation, as mentioned through examples like American Heart Association surveys, can also be a tool to increase employee engagement in community service.