Values work through creating a community pollinator garden in a regional Australian university

This qualitative study aims to gain deeper insights into values work within a community pollinator garden project at a regional Australian university. The social-symbolic work (SSW) perspective is used as a framework to investigate how the three dimensions – self work, organisation work and institutional context – are integrated into a grassroots initiative contributing to organisational citizenship behaviour and environmental sustainability. Interviews with university staff, students and community members inform the emerging themes around values motivating volunteers to purposefully co-create a community pollinator garden on a university campus. As the major findings, our university garden inspires people to connect with others within the class of ‘self work’; to create a shared place of belonging by participating in a gardening initiative within the class of ‘organisation work’; and to link academia with the broader community within the class of ‘institutional context’. Such relations are important, particularly in regional Australia, for both universities and communities to flourish. The findings can guide further discussions with organisational practitioners leading creative grassroots initiatives to enhance social organisational life.