Abstract

With the recent challenges societies have had to face, including natural disasters and wars, non-profit organizations and the aid they provide, by the means of a mixed workforce: both local and expatriates, have become even more prevalent. However, they are facing a “talent war” as they are struggling to retain and attract new employees. Mega events, including COVID-19, have shed additional light on certain elements related to one’s well-being, mainly one’s work-life balance and work-meaningfulness, making them more valuable to employees, thus important to organizations wanting to limit turnover rates. These working experiences are seemingly still lacking understanding across the non-profit industry due to scarce research on the topic. This micro-levelled qualitative study will further explore the working experiences of non-profit employees, locals and expatriates, across a variety of non-profit organizations. 21 participants were recruited across 5 countries and their interviews were thematically analysed. Findings show that non-profit employees have an overall good sense of work meaningfulness. Work-life balance was found satisfactory by interviewees’ self-perceptions but was objectively more conflicting. Expatriates were found to have an overwhelming greater sense of work-meaningfulness compared to locally employed workforce which was seemingly associated with greater work-family conflicts. This research contributes not only to the current non-profit literature but also to practitioners, by bringing additional insights into the working experiences held across the non-profit industry as well as those that employees enjoy experiencing. Future research should focus on further establishing quantitatively this research’s findings.