South Korea Samsung union declares ‘indefinite’ strike

By AFP
July 9, 2024


A union representing thousands of Samsung workers says it is extending a strike indefinitely - Copyright AFP/File Jung Yeon-je

A union representing tens of thousands of workers at Samsung Electronics in South Korea said Wednesday it would extend a three-day strike indefinitely in a bid to force management to negotiate.

“(We) declare a second indefinite general strike from July 10, after learning that the management has no willingness to talk,” the National Samsung Electronics Union said in a statement.

More than 5,000 members stopped working Monday for what was meant to be a three-day strike, part of a long-running battle over pay and benefits.

The move follows a one-day walkout in June, the first such collective action at the company, which went decades without unionisation.

The union has more than 30,000 members — more than a fifth of the company’s total workforce.

Samsung said Tuesday that there had been no disruption to production, the Yonhap news agency reported, although the union claimed that the strike was having a major impact.

“We have confirmed the clear disruption in production, and the management will regret this choice,” the union said in the statement announcing the indefinite strike.

“The longer the strike lasts, the more the management will suffer, and eventually, they will kneel and come to the negotiation table. We are confident of victory.”

The union blamed Samsung management for “obstructing” the strike, saying they did not appear willing to engage in dialogue.

It urged more workers to participate, including “those who are still hesitant”.

“Your determination is needed to advance our goals and victory. Let us unite our strength to protect our rights and create a better future.”

Samsung said it would provide comment later.



– Avoiding unions –



The union has been locked in negotiations with management since January, but the two sides have failed to narrow differences.

Workers have rejected the offer of a 5.1 percent pay hike, with the union having previously outlined demands including improvements to annual leave and transparent performance-based bonuses.

Samsung Electronics managed to avoid having its employees unionise for almost 50 years — sometimes adopting ferocious tactics, according to critics — while rising to become the world’s largest smartphone and semiconductor manufacturer.

Company founder Lee Byung-chul, who died in 1987, was adamantly opposed to unions, saying he would never allow them “until I have dirt over my eyes”.

The first labour union at Samsung Electronics was formed in the late 2010s.

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

It is the world’s largest memory chip maker and accounts for a significant chunk of global output of the high-end chips.

Samsung recently predicted a more than 15-fold increase in its on-year second-quarter operating profits, thanks to growing demand for generative AI.

Samsung says ‘no disruption’ to production despite strike

ByAFP
July 9, 2024

Members of the National Samsung Electronics Union stage a rally during their three-day general strike - Copyright AFP Jung Yeon-je

South Korean tech giant Samsung said Tuesday that production was not being disrupted despite a three-day general strike by thousands of workers.

More than 5,000 members of the National Samsung Electronic Union stopped working Monday, the organisation said, as part of a long-running battle over pay and benefits.

The union has more than 30,000 members — more than a fifth of the company’s total workforce.

“There has been no disruption to production,” local media quoted Samsung as saying.

Park Seol, a senior member of the union, told AFP Tuesday that production was being affected.

“But more importantly, the company should understand that we aren’t trying just to affect their production line, we want them to hear our voice and understand how desperate we are,” he said.

The union has been locked in negotiations with management since January, but the two sides have failed to narrow differences on benefits and a 5.1 percent pay raise offer from the firm was rejected.

In a regulatory filing last week, Samsung Electronics said that its April-June operating profits were expected to rise to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won a year earlier.

Sales, meanwhile, are expected to rise 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won, Samsung said.

Samsung Electronics is the world’s largest memory chip maker and accounts for a significant chunk of the global output of high-end chips.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/business/samsung-says-no-disruption-to-production-despite-strike/article#ixzz8fYFdbxfs


South Korea Samsung workers start strike: union chief*


By AFP
July 7, 2024

The Samsung strike follows a one-day walkout in June, the first such collective action at the company, which went decades without unionisation - Copyright AFP/File Jung Yeon-je

Workers at South Korean tech giant Samsung began a three day general strike Monday, the head of a union representing tens of thousands of employees told AFP, after talks with management broke down.

“The strike has started from today,” Son Woo-mok, head of the National Samsung Electronics Union, told AFP, adding that a major rally was scheduled later in the day.

The union, which has around 28,000 members, or more than a fifth of the company’s total workforce, announced the three day general strike last week, saying it was a last resort after talks broke down.

The move follows a one-day walkout in June, the first such collective action at the company, which went decades without unionisation.

Management at the firm, the world’s biggest producer of memory chips, has been locked in negotiations with the union over wages and benefits since January but the two sides have failed to narrow their differences.

“We are now at critical crossroads,” the union said in an appeal sent out to members last week, urging them to support the “critical” strike.

“This strike is the last card we can use,” the union said, saying that workers at the company needed to “act as one”.

“This strike is not just about improving working conditions, it is about taking back our rights that have been ignored so far,” it added.

Workers have rejected the offer of a 5.1 percent pay hike, with the union having previously outlined demands including improvements to annual leave and transparent performance-based bonuses.

Samsung declined a request for comment.



– Avoided unions –



Samsung Electronics avoided its employees unionising for almost 50 years — sometimes adopting ferocious tactics, according to critics — while rising to become the world’s largest smartphone and semiconductor manufacturer.

Company founder Lee Byung-chul, who died in 1987, was adamantly opposed to unions, saying he would never allow them “until I have dirt over my eyes”.

The first labour union at Samsung Electronics was formed in the late 2010s.

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

It is world’s largest memory chip maker, and accounts for a significant chunk of global output of the high-end chips.

Samsung recently predicted a 15-fold increase in its on-year second quarter operating profits, thanks to growing demand for generative AI.

Semiconductors are the lifeblood of the global economy, used in everything from kitchen appliances and mobile phones to cars and weapons.

And demand for the advanced chips that power AI systems has skyrocketed thanks to the success of ChatGPT and other generative AI products.

Semiconductors are South Korea’s leading export and hit $11.7 billion in March, their highest level in almost two years, accounting for a fifth of South Korea’s total exports, according to figures released by the trade ministry.


* CHIEF NOT BOSS, A RIGHT WING DESIGNATION IMPYING CRIME BOSS

TELEPORTATION COMMUNICATIONS

New method could yield fast, cross-country quantum network

PME researchers outlined a new method to build a quantum network that spans the country by using vacuum beam guides, in which qubits can travel thousands of miles inside small vacuum-sealed tubes.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

 

IMAGE: 

TO MAKE A QUANTUM NETWORK A REALITY, RESEARCHERS IN JIANG GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRITZKER SCHOOL OF MOLECULAR ENGINEERING HAVE PROPOSED BUILDING LONG QUANTUM CHANNELS USING VACUUM-SEALED TUBES WITH AN ARRAY OF SPACED-OUT LENSES.

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CREDIT: IMAGE COURTESY OF JIANG GROUP

Quantum computers offer powerful ways to improve cybersecurity, communications, and data processing, among other fields. To realize these full benefits, however, multiple quantum computers need to be connected to build quantum networks or a quantum internet. Scientists have struggled to come up with practical methods of building such networks, which must transmit quantum information over long distances.

Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have proposed a new approach — building long quantum channels using vacuum sealed tubes with an array of spaced-out lenses. These vacuum beam guides, about 20 centimeters in diameter, would have ranges of thousands of kilometers and capacities of more than 10 trillion qubits per second, better than any existing quantum communication approach. Photons of light encoding quantum data would move through the vacuum tubes and remain focused thanks to the lenses.

“We believe this kind of network is feasible and has a lot of potential,” said Liang Jiang, professor of molecular engineering and senior author of the new work. “It could not only be used for secure communication, but also for building distributed quantum computing networks, distributed quantum sensing technologies, new kinds of telescopes, and synchronized clocks.”

Jiang collaborated with scientists at Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology on the new work, which is published in Physical Review Letters.

Sending qubits

While classical computers encode data in conventional bits — represented as a 0 or 1 — quantum computers rely on qubits, which can exhibit quantum phenomena. These phenomena include superposition — a kind of ambiguous combination of states — as well as entanglement, which allows two quantum particles to be correlated with each other even across vast distances.

These properties give quantum computers the ability to analyze new types of data and store and pass along information in new, secure ways. Connecting multiple quantum computers can them even more powerful, as their data processing abilities can be pooled. However, networks typically used to connect computers are not ideal because they cannot maintain the quantum properties of qubits.

“You can’t send a quantum state over a classical network,” explained Jiang. “You might send a piece of data classically, a quantum computer can process it, but the result is then sent back classically again.”

Some researchers have tested ways of using fiber-optic cables and satellites to transmit optical photons, which can act as qubits. Photons can travel a short distance through existing fiber-optic cables but generally lose their information quickly as photons are absorbed. Photons bounced to satellites and back to the ground in a new location are absorbed less because of the vacuum of space, but their transmission is limited by the atmosphere absorption and availability of the satellites.

“What we wanted to do was to combine the advantages of each of those previous approaches,” said PME graduate student Yuexun Huang, the first author of the new work. “In a vacuum, you can send a lot of information without attenuation. But being able to do that on the ground would be ideal.”

University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Prof. Liang Jiang reviews the proposed quantum network using vacuum beam guides, which would have ranges of thousands of kilometers and capacities of 10 trillion qubits per second, better than any existing quantum communication approach.

CREDIT

Photo by UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering / John Zich

Learning from LIGO

Scientists working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) the California Institute of Technology have built huge ground-based vacuum tubes to contain moving photons of light that can detect gravitational waves. Experiments at LIGO have shown that inside a nearly-molecule-free vacuum, photons can travel for thousands of kilometers.

Inspired by this technology, Jiang, Huang, and their colleagues began to sketch out how smaller vacuum tubes could be used to transport photons between quantum computers. In their new theoretical work, they showed that these tubes, if designed and arranged properly, could carry photons across the country. Moreover, they would only need medium vacuum (10^-4 atmosphere pressure), which is much easier to maintain than the ultra-high vacuum (10^-11 atmosphere pressure) required for LIGO.

“The main challenge is that as a photon moves through a vacuum, it spreads out a bit,” explained Jiang. “To overcome that, we propose putting lenses every few kilometers that can focus the beam over long distances without diffraction loss.”

In collaboration with researchers at Caltech, the group is planning tabletop experiments to test the practicality of the idea, and then plans to use larger vacuum tubes such as those at LIGO to work on how to align the lenses and stabilize the photon beams over long distances.

“To implement this technology on a larger scale certain poses some civil engineering challenges that we need to figure out as well,” said Jiang. “But the ultimate benefit is that we have large quantum networks that can communicate tens of terabytes of data per second.”

Citation: “Vacuum Beam Guide for Large Scale Quantum Networks,” Huang et al, Physical Review Letters, July 9, 2024. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.020801 

Funding: This work was supported by the Army Research Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, National Science Foundation, NTT Research, Packard Foundation, the Marshall and Arlene Bennett Family Research Program, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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JOURNAL

Physical Review Letters

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.020801 

ARTICLE TITLE

Vacuum Beam Guide for Large Scale Quantum Networks

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jul-2024

Improving 'health span' through slowing age-related cognitive decline

Researchers earn $2.3 million in grants from Hevolution Foundation

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: 

RESEARCHER SHANNNON CONLEY, PH.D., STUDIES AGE-RELATED COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE.

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CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

Two University of Oklahoma researchers have been awarded more than $2 million in grants from the Hevolution Foundation to further their studies on age-related cognitive impairment, with an emphasis on improving “health span,” or the number of years a person remains healthy.

While modern medicine can help extend a person’s life span, researchers are increasingly studying ways to increase their healthy years of life. Because the process of aging increases the risk for memory problems and dementia, researchers must understand why as a first step toward delaying cognitive issues until later in life. The Hevolution Foundation invests in science that aims to uncover the root causes of aging.

“As we have longer life spans, it’s really important to identify ways to simultaneously promote increased health spans. It’s challenging when you have loved ones who have severe illness or cognitive impairment, yet they are not dying; they are physically able to keep living. We want to help people stay healthier longer,” said Hevolution grant recipient Shannon Conley, Ph.D., an assistant professor of cell biology in the OU College of Medicine. She is leading the work of the grant with Anna Csiszar, Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery in the OU College of Medicine.

Blood Vessel Function

In their project, they seek to better understand how two types of cells in blood vessels work together for brain health but become dysfunctional as a person ages. Endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels, and smooth muscle cells, which are on the outside of the vessels, collaborate to help the brain respond to everyday stimuli, like sound or taste. During aging, they can undergo a process called cellular senescence, a kind of limbo when the cells aren’t dead but neither are they functioning normally and proliferating.

As a result, the cells can no longer perform their usual tasks, which then causes the blood vessels to have trouble contracting and relaxing normally. That vascular dysfunction sets the stage for cognitive impairment and eventually dementia. The researchers want to understand how cellular senescence leads to blood vessel dysfunction.

“We believe the link is something called de-differentiation: The endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells essentially lose their identity during senescence and become generic cells that don’t function well,” Conley said. “Understanding these mechanisms that lead to age-related defects in blood vessel function is really important for making progress toward a treatment or cure for dementia. You wouldn’t necessarily think that the blood vessels are the place to look, but there is so much evidence that blood vessel dysfunction is one of the earliest changes in the brains of people who develop dementia.

“When we think about dementia, we think about damage to the neurons in your brain,” she added. “But if the blood vessels in the brain are not functioning well, then the neurons don’t have enough energy or oxygen and eventually will degenerate. In addition, the blood vessels are very important for clearing waste materials, so if the blood vessels aren’t working properly, then you have an accumulation of abnormal material that will contribute to neuronal dysfunction.”

Metabolic Factors and Aging

The second grant recipient, Sreemathi Logan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biochemistry and physiology in the OU College of Medicine, seeks to understand the metabolic factors, including obesity, that influence cognition during aging. A central question of her research is why some people’s brains seem to be resilient, while others are susceptible to cognitive problems and diseases like Alzheimer’s. For her studies, she separates aging mice into two groups – those with “intact” cognition and those with impaired cognition.

“Because we separate mice into different subgroups of varying cognitive function, we can better try to understand what specific cells are doing in the brain that contribute to healthy brain aging vs. impaired cognition,” she said. “My previous research has shown that mice mirror the differential cognitive abilities that humans exhibit and thus are a good model to investigate the incidence and progression of dementia with age.”

The group of cognitively impaired, older mice experience dysfunction of their mitochondria, which are responsible for providing energy to the brain. Loss of mitochondrial function can lead to persistent inflammation that is driven by cellular senescence, a hallmark of aging. Even though senescent cells have stopped dividing, they remain active, spewing out harmful substances that cause inflammation, further impairing cognition.

With this grant, Logan is studying the brain-adipose axis: how excess fat in the body, especially around the belly, affects cognition during aging. In particular, she is testing whether a ketogenic diet – high fat and reduced carbohydrates – can target cellular senescence. Existing research suggests that reducing carbohydrates, even in a high-fat diet, helps the body use fat more efficiently. Theoretically, that would lower the inflammatory factors of senescence and reduce the negative effects of fat on the brain.

Logan’s grant also allows her to investigate whether senolytics – drugs that target senescent cells – can positively affect cognition by regulating fat metabolism, the process of breaking down fat in the diet so it can be used for energy.

“Cognitive health is an important part of health span,” Logan said. “By understanding the biological underpinnings of why some mice perform better than others, we hope to eventually translate our findings to humans with varying cognitive abilities and design individualized treatments to improve cognitive function in older adults.”

Felipe Sierra, Ph.D., chief science officer for Hevolution, said the foundation is proud to support the advancement of research in the biology of aging.

“The research pursued by Drs. Conley and Logan is at the cutting edge in the field of age-related cognitive decline,” Sierra said. “The competive process for these awards highlights the achievements of these grantees and the University of Oklahoma. We are particularly gratified to support new investigators at the difficult stage of establishing their credentials in the field, and we look forward to the achievements of these two outstanding researchers.”

###

About the project

Shannon Conley, Ph.D., received the Hevolution Foundation – Geroscience Research Opportunities award, for a total of $2 million over five years. Sreemathi Logan, Ph.D., was awarded the Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Award in Aging Biology and Geroscience, for a total of $375,000 over three years.

 

UQ research reveals exercise brain boost can last for years

High-intensity interval exercise improves brain function in older adults for up to 5 years

UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

 

VIDEO: 

EMERITUS PROFESSOR PERRY BARTLETT DISCUSSES WHAT THE STUDY TELLS US ABOUT EXERCISE AND BRAIN FUNCTION

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CREDIT: THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

A longitudinal study by University of Queensland researchers has found high-intensity interval exercise improves brain function in older adults for up to 5 years.

Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Daniel Blackmore from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute led the study in which volunteers did physical exercise and had brain scans. 

Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Daniel Blackmore have shown high intensity exercise boosts cognition in healthy older adults and the improvement was retained for up to 5 years. 

Emeritus Professor Bartlett said it is the first controlled study of its kind to show exercise can boost cognition in healthy older adults not just delay cognitive decline.

“Six months of high-intensity interval training is enough to flick the switch,” Emeritus Professor Bartlett said.

“In earlier pre-clinical work , we discovered exercise can activate stem cells and increase the production of neurons in the hippocampus, improving cognition.

“In this study, a large cohort of healthy 65 – 85-year-old volunteers joined a six-month exercise program, did biomarker and cognition testing and had high-resolution brain scans.

“We followed up with them 5 years after the program and incredibly they still had improved cognition, even if they hadn’t kept up with the exercises.”

Ageing is one of the biggest risks for dementia, a condition that affects almost half a million Australians.

“If we can change the trajectory of ageing and keep people cognitively healthier for longer with a simple intervention like exercise, we can potentially save our community from the enormous personal, economic and social costs associated with dementia,” Emeritus Professor Bartlett said. 

Emeritus Professor Bartlett and Dr Blackmore worked in collaboration with Honorary Professor Stephan Riek and The School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at UQ.

During the study, the researchers assessed the impact of three exercise intensities: 
•    Low – predominantly motor function, balance and stretching
•    Medium – brisk walking on a treadmill
•    High – four cycles running on a treadmill at near maximum exertion

Dr Blackmore said only the high-intensity interval exercise led to cognitive improvement that was retained for up to 5 years.

"On high-resolution MRI scans of that group, we saw structural and connectivity changes in the hippocampus, the area responsible for learning and memory,” Dr Blackmore said.

“We also found blood biomarkers that changed in correlation to improvements in cognition.

“Biomarkers can be useful in predicting the effectiveness of the exercise a person is doing.”

With 1 in 3 people aged 85 years likely to develop dementia, Dr Blackmore said the impact of the research was far-reaching.  

“Our finding can inform exercise guidelines for older people and further research could assess different types of exercise that could be incorporated into aged care,” he said.

"We are now looking at the genetic factors that may regulate a person’s response to exercise to see if we can establish who will and who will not respond to this intervention.

“The use of biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for exercise also needs further research.”

The research was published in Aging and Disease.

It receives ongoing support from the Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation.

 Exercise and cognition [VIDEO] |

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JOURNAL

Aging and Disease

DOI

10.14336/AD.2024.0642 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Long-Term Improvement in Hippocampal-Dependent Learning Ability in Healthy, Aged Individuals Following High Intensity Interval Training

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Jul-2024

 

From empowering women to being empowered by women: A gendered social innovation framework for tourism-led development initiatives

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ESCUELA SUPERIOR POLITECNICA DEL LITORAL

 

IMAGE: 

WORKSHOPS DELIVERED 

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CREDIT: PÉCOT ET AL.

Gendered Social Innovation: Social Change and Female Entrepreneurship in Tourism 

Gendered social innovation is a crucial process that intertwines social change with female entrepreneurship, empowerment, and the evolution of work among women in the tourism industry. 

Questioning Common Perceptions 

Why question the usual perceptions about the role and status of women entrepreneurs in a globalized and capitalist industry? Where does power, creativity, and innovation truly reside in tourism development? 

Often, discussions about gender equality in tourism revolve around a vision that confines women to the role of service providers, perpetuating stereotypes of vulnerability and lack of agency. 

The work of Mathias Pécot, Carla Ricaurte-Quijano, Catheryn Khoo, Marisol Alonso Vazquez, Domenica Barahona-Canales, Elaine Chiao Ling Yang, and Rosalie Tan challenges these notions and introduces more inclusive narratives. 

The Importance of Shifting Focus 

Alliances seeking gender equality in tourism have emerged as platforms to empower women. However, the design of gender-focused projects and training faces challenges related to meaning, practice, and power dynamics. 

The authors conducted 33 interviews and organized 5 digital marketing training workshops with female entrepreneurs in Ecuador and Mexico. These dialogues offer valuable insights. 

Navigating Turbulent Waters 

This research sheds light on the individual and relational empowerment that often occurs beyond planned interventions, confronting structural challenges. 

Individual Empowerment: Female entrepreneurs in Ecuador and Mexico describe transformative trajectories that include venturing into international business, obtaining a professional degree, or innovating with new materials and technologies. These testimonies reveal independence, awareness of their situation, and confidence in their abilities. 

Relational Empowerment: Beyond internal change, relational empowerment arises from interactions with family members, community leaders, colleagues, and intermediaries involved in tourism development. It is based on values such as trust, moral support, time management, and decision-making control. 

Structural Limitations: Entrepreneurs face sexism, domestic violence, social expectations, and limited access to resources. Punitive policies restrict their participation in the tourism economy, especially in informal work, highlighting multidimensional challenges that exceed individual capacities. 

From Empowerment to Gendered Social Innovation 

Gender social innovation is a disruptive process that recognizes female entrepreneurship in tourism as an alternative type of business, promotes gender-focused partnerships that organize and nurture others against structural limitations. Additionally, women's networks and cooperatives offer spaces to incubate broader social changes. As Professor Catheryn Khoo emphasizes, "this research changes the way we think about women's roles in the tourism industry. It's not just about providing goods and services; it's about recognizing and supporting women as innovative contributors who can shape and lead in diverse tourism contexts. 

Workshops Involving 111 Women Tourism Entrepreneurs from Ecuador and Mexico

 

The workshops maintained a hands-on, collaborative

CREDIT   Pécot et al. 

JOURNAL

Tourism Management

DOI

10.1016/j.tourman.2024.104883 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

From empowering women to being empowered by women: A gendered social innovation framework for tourism-led development initiatives.

 

The new paradigm in volunteering -- and how organizations can adapt to "neither-growing-nor-fading" brand relationships

News from the Journal of Marketing

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Researchers from Emlyon Business School and HEC Montreal published a new Journal of Marketing study that examines the new breed of volunteers who often show a weaker sense of affiliation with organizations and how best to engage them for mutual benefit.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Managing Brand Relationship Plurality: Insights from the Nonprofit Sector” and is authored by Verena Gruber and Jonathan Deschênes.

Volunteers stand as vital pillars in the operation and survival of nonprofit organizations. Across the globe, over 850 million volunteers give their time to support a variety of causes, according to a 2021 report by United Nations Volunteers.

Traditionally, volunteers were thought to be motivated by the altruistic act of giving, and many chose nonprofits based on a strong sociocultural fit and personal convictions. However, volunteers now interact differently with brands in the nonprofit sector. Individuals devote fewer hours to their causes and want flexible schedules. They seek opportunities for personal growth and pick activities with potential work-related benefits. These new volunteers often show a weaker sense of affiliation with organizations.

This raises an important question: How can organizations effectively cultivate relationships with volunteers whose interests and motivations are shifting?

A new Journal of Marketing study finds that entertaining more distant relationships can mutually benefit nonprofit organizations and volunteers. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of the Red Cross in Vienna, Austria, this research demonstrates that organizations can effectively manage both traditional and new types of volunteers by adopting tailored relationship management practices.

Relationship Growth for Traditional Volunteers

Nonprofit brands continue to need the vision, commitment, and initiative of traditional, growth-oriented volunteers who provide the backbone of organizational activities. To allow these relationships to thrive, managers should focus on a solid material presence.

Nonprofits should establish a physical infrastructure so that volunteers can gather, socialize, and bond. Managers should provide training and competence-building activities to assist the intensification of the brand relationship. They should supply branded clothing to facilitate easy visual identification of members and communicate with members by leveraging high-quality content such as exclusive print magazines.

In addition, managers need to carefully create documentation that clearly presents the brand’s history and values as well as provide a comprehensive and clear description of what volunteering entails in terms of expectations and duties. Communicating a compelling narrative consistently throughout the volunteer’s journey is crucial to sustain the path of growth and intensification.

These brand relationship practices will enable volunteers to ascend, over time, to strategic roles within the organization, including mentoring and training of future generations of volunteers. These growth-oriented volunteers, when supported with the right managerial practices, progressively become practice champions and thus constitute valuable assets for the organization.

Activating New Volunteers

New volunteers seek flexibility and opportunity; they help out when they have time and when the task fits their agenda. Adopting a pragmatic approach to the relationship is crucial for nonprofit organizations. “This involves accepting a certain degree of distance to and from these volunteers, who may be less emotionally attached to the organization, and respecting their desire for intermittent engagement. What matters is not their unwavering loyalty but their existing skills,” Gruber explains.

Consequently, the managerial focus needs to shift to acquiring and activating volunteers as needed. Organizations should initially build a diverse pool of volunteers whom they can subsequently activate as needed. The key lies in utilizing systems to identify potential volunteers and communicate with those possessing desired characteristics for specific tasks. The integration of a mobile application could greatly facilitate this process.

Such practices will allow nonprofit organizations to deploy the right volunteers, in the right quantity, at the right time.

Lessons for Managers

Deschênes says that “our research offers insights for nonprofit managers grappling with the management of volunteer relationships. We show the value that lies in distant, non-escalating relationships when managed in symbiosis with classic growth-oriented relationships. Our results point to broader implications for brand relationship management, applicable to both nonprofit and for-profit entities.”

Traditional volunteering mirrors consumer–brand relationships in which individuals develop strong ties with brands and often integrate in brand communities. This type of relationship permeates marketing and consumer studies. The new volunteers resemble consumers who maintain a more distant and seemingly disinterested relationship with brands that they consume sporadically but regularly, without a desire to intensify the relationship. The researchers call this a “Neither Growing nor Fading” (NGNF) relationship. NGNF relationships arguably represent a significant proportion of the interactions that consumers typically have with brands, yet there is little research to date that has focused on them.

Here are some strategies for managers to acquire and activate NGNF members:

• Actively embrace the new volunteering logic and accept that volunteers become dormant between activations.

• Develop partnerships with broadcasters to reach large audiences and communicate the organization’s volunteering story and needs via social media to generate traffic on the organization’s platforms.

• Know volunteer needs by identifying volunteer profiles for each specific volunteer job. Identify key skillset information to include in the registration form, such as education and training.
• Develop some material element to identify volunteers during their activation (light jackets, baseball caps, etc.). These materials could be lent to volunteers for the duration of their activation.

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429241253193

About the Journal of Marketing 

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Shrihari (Hari) Sridhar (Joe Foster ’56 Chair in Business Leadership, Professor of Marketing at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA) 

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
https://www.ama.org

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JOURNAL

Journal of Marketing

DOI

10.1177/00222429241253193 

ARTICLE TITLE

Managing Brand Relationship Plurality: Insights from the Nonprofit Sector