Volunteer management: Understanding volunteer motivation and recognizing critical tactics for managing the volunteer workforce

The volunteer workforce is a critical asset within many different types of organizations. Volunteers provide much more than menial labor; they perform many tasks and hold positions of leadership at all levels of organizations. For the purposes of this dissertation, a volunteer is defined as an individual who offers his or her time and talents for the benefit of an individual, group, or organization without the expectation of financial compensation. Many organizations that depend on volunteers do not have adequate strategies for acquiring, developing, and maintaining a volunteer workforce. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the unique dynamics associated with managing a volunteer workforce and to identify best practices and effective strategies for enhancing or improving its performance. The research question was used to investigate strategies essential for the management of a volunteer workforce, recognizing that each volunteer has unique motivation(s) for his or her voluntary activities. It was posited that volunteers have different motivations than the paid workforce. Examining the motivations underpinning volunteering was therefore essential for determining how to positively influence the job performance of the volunteer workforce. This dissertation could be used to provide managers with insights into essential strategies for effectively managing a volunteer workforce. Data from the study acknowledges that different organizations with different voluntary activities must engage in unique strategies. However, the study concluded with distinct strategies essential to volunteer management no matter the organization or the volunteer activity. The essential strategies for volunteer management are: (a) acquiring, (b) developing, and (c) maintaining this workforce. These three strategies are equally important; each strategy affects the others.Running head: VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 1 Volunteer Management: Understanding Volunteer Motivation and Recognizing Critical Tactics for Managing the Volunteer Workforce Michael D. White A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of University of Maryland University College in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Management Dr. Eric Dent Dr. Deborah Wharff February 17, 2016 VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 2 Abstract The volunteer workforce is a critical asset within many different types of organizations. Volunteers provide much more than menial labor; they perform many tasks and hold positions of leadership at all levels of organizations. For the purposes of this dissertation, a volunteer is defined as an individual who offers his or her time and talents for the benefit of an individual, group, or organization without the expectation of financial compensation. Many organizations that depend on volunteers do not have adequate strategies for acquiring, developing, and maintaining a volunteer workforce. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the unique dynamics associated with managing a volunteer workforce and to identify best practices and effective strategies for enhancing or improving its performance. The research question was used to investigate strategies essential for the management of a volunteer workforce, recognizing that each volunteer has unique motivation(s) for his or her voluntary activities. It was posited that volunteers have different motivations than the paid workforce. Examining the motivations underpinning volunteering was therefore essential for determining how to positively influence the job performance of the volunteer workforce. This dissertation could be used to provide managers with insights into essential strategies for effectively managing a volunteer workforce. Data from the study acknowledges that different organizations with different voluntary activities must engage in unique strategies. However, the study concluded with distinct strategies essential to volunteer management no matter the organization or the volunteer activity. The essential strategies for volunteer management are: (a) acquiring, (b) developing, and (c) maintaining this workforce. These three strategies are equally important; each strategy affects the others. Keywords: volunteer management, volunteer motivation, volunteer workforce VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 3 Acknowledgements What an amazing journey! First, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for His guidance into and throughout this journey. “Your life is a journey that you must travel with a deep consciousness to God” (1 Peter 1:18, The Message). I would not have begun or completed this journey without God’s divine direction, grace, and mercy. Great thanks, love, and appreciation also go to my parents, Gary and Reta White, for their continued love, encouragement, guidance, and demonstration of how to walk this life with a deep consciousness of God. True, unwavering support came from my beautiful and loving wife, Marquita White, who was with me every step of the journey. I would have given up on this journey without her love and encouragement. This journey was covered with prayer by my parents, wife, in-laws (Benny and Gloria Hart), and the congregation of Abundant Life Community Church, where I serve as pastor. My daughters, Samantha and Chelsea, who are my biggest fans, both also completed their academic journeys during this time. I am exceptionally proud of them and the Godly women they have become; I appreciate their love and support. I could not have completed this journey without the support of my family and friends. This academic journey would not have been possible without the great support of the faculty and staff of the doctoral program at UMUC—thank you! Each step I took was educational and enlightening into a different way of thinking. I cannot express my thanks and appreciation enough to my dissertation advisors, Dr. Eric Dent and Dr. Deborah Wharff. Without their advice, guidance, patience, and support, I would not have completed the dissertation process. Lastly, I wish to express my gratitude to the great support system that I found through this journey: my doctoral cohort. Each one provided a different aspect of collegial encouragement that made this experience possible. My fellow Doctors, thank you! VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 4 Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................3 List of Tables .......................................................................................................................8 List of Figures ......................................................................................................................9 Chapter 1: Introduction to Volunteer Management ...........................................................10 Theoretical and Analytic Framework for Volunteerism ............................................12 Background ................................................................................................................14 Problem and Purpose Statement ................................................................................16 Importance to Management .......................................................................................19 Organizational benefits. .....................................................................................20 Organizational risks. ..........................................................................................22 Research Question .....................................................................................................23 Propositions ................................................................................................................23 Summary ....................................................................................................................24 Dissertation Organization ..........................................................................................24 Chapter 2: Systematic Literature Review ..........................................................................26 Organization ...............................................................................................................26 Empirical Foundation for Volunteerism ....................................................................26 Literature challenges. .........................................................................................28 Defining a Volunteer ..................................................................................................29 Theoretical Lens .........................................................................................................32 VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 5 Theory of human motivation. .............................................................................33 Motivation-Hygiene Theory. .............................................................................36 Organizational Citizenship Behavior. ................................................................38 Social Exchange Theory. ...................................................................................40 Characteristics and Attributes of Volunteerism .........................................................41 Motivation. .........................................................................................................44 Understanding motives. ..............................................................................45 Motive identification. .................................................................................48 Categories of motives. ................................................................................51 Availability. ........................................................................................................59 Factors to Consider when Managing a Volunteer Workforce ...................................63 Practice and Strategies for Volunteer Management ...................................................68 Managerial implications. ....................................................................................68 Strategy Identification. .......................................................................................73 Volunteer management strategies from previously introduced literature. .........80 Literature Review Summary ......................................................................................82 Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................84 Restatement of the Problem .......................................................................................85 Diversity of the Literature ..........................................................................................86 Conceptual Framework ..............................................................................................87 Foundational theories. ........................................................................................88 Contextual outline. .............................................................................................90 Conceptual framework introduced. ....................................................................91 VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 6 Summary ....................................................................................................................93 Chapter 4: Methodology ....................................................................................................94 Evidence-Based Research (EBR)...............................................................................95 Evidence-Based Research and Volunteer Management ............................................97 Volunteer management discovery. .....................................................................97 Subject Matter Experts ...............................................................................................99 Feedback and Edits from SME Reviews .................................................................101 Summary ..................................................................................................................103 Chapter 5: Analysis and Discussion ................................................................................104 Purpose of Study Revisited ......................................................................................104 Exploration of the Research Question .....................................................................106 Presentation of the Findings .....................................................................................106 First finding—motivation. ...............................................................................107 Internal motivation. ..................................................................................109 External motivation. .................................................................................109 Motivation summation. ............................................................................110 Second finding—volunteers are a different type of workforce. .......................111 Volunteers are a different type of workforce summation. .......................114 Third finding—effective strategies for volunteer management. ......................115 Acquire. ....................................................................................................117 Develop. ...................................................................................................120 Maintain. ..................................................................................................124 Effective strategies for volunteer management summation. ....................127 VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 7 Summary of Chapter 5 .............................................................................................128 Chapter 6: Conclusion, Implications, and Recommendations for Future Study ..............130 Overall Conclusions .................................................................................................130 Implications for Management ..................................................................................132 Implications of Trends .............................................................................................135 Technology and virtual interaction. .................................................................136 Globalization. ...................................................................................................136 Sociocultural shift. ...........................................................................................136 Legislation. .......................................................................................................137 Limitations and Areas for Further Research ............................................................138 Summary ..................................................................................................................139 References ........................................................................................................................141 Appendix A: Dissertation Definitions .............................................................................152 Appendix B: Subject Matter Expert Evaluation & Feedback Forms ...............................154 Feedback from Graham Cuskelly ............................................................................154 Feedback from Bryan Cutshall ................................................................................157 Feedback from Nancy Macduff ...............................................................................159 VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 8 List of Tables Table 1. Volunteer Definition Dimensions .......................................................................31 Table 2. Correlation Matrix of Volunteer Management. ..................................................73 Table 3. Diversity of Literature ........................................................................................87 Table 4. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Participating in This Study ............................100 VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 9 List of Figures Figure 1. Geographic locations of studies on volunteerism. ............................................29 Figure 2. Maslow’s model of human needs ......................................................................34 Figure 3. The four W’s of volunteering............................................................................43 Figure 4. Yeung’s (2004) octagon model of volunteer motivation. .................................54 Figure 5. Foundational theories. .......................................................................................89 Figure 6. Theory, stakeholders, and limitations. ..............................................................91 Figure 7. Volunteer management conceptual framework. ...............................................92 Figure 8. Central figure of the conceptual framework. ..................................................105 Running head: VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 10 Chapter 1: Introduction to Volunteer Management More and more organizations are utilizing volunteers to accomplish their missions. “Without volunteer participation the services that are offered by many profit and nonprofit organizations would be unavailable or provided at higher costs to consumers and taxpayers” (Fisher & Ackerman, 1998, p. 262). If a person walks into nearly any hospital, a volunteer will greet the person. When people attend many national and international sporting events, volunteers are encountered. Within most nonprofits, volunteers are doing much of the work. While enjoying one of the county fairs across America, volunteers can be found throughout the event. It would be difficult to find a church across the globe that could survive without the dedication of its volunteers. Looking into most organizations, someone can be found working extra time or performing an extra job without additional compensation; he or she is volunteering time to serve that organization. Success for many organizations rests with the efforts of their volunteers and their voluntary work. Therefore, volunteers need to internalize the organization’s mission and believe in it (Drucker, 1998). Volunteer participation has expanded beyond the traditional understanding of volunteerism (Choudhury, 2010). Volunteerism continues to increase within organizations that operate in both the nonprofit and profit sectors; volunteers are more than a resource for free labor; they fulfill many vital roles of leadership within the organization(s) they serve (Warner, Newland, & Green, 2011). High quality volunteers are an important and indispensable human resource that can reduce the cost of a project and increase its quality (Wang & Wu, 2014). Managing the volunteer workforce has become increasingly challenging for organizational executives and leaders, as the volunteer workforce offers many unique challenges that differ from the paid workforce (Cuskelly, Taylor, Hoye, & Darcy, 2006). Effective management is VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 11 vital for the success of an organization that relies on volunteerism. Managers need their volunteer workforce to maintain high levels of performance and be productive members of the organization; therefore, organizational success depends on each stakeholder, volunteer, volunteer manager, and the organization itself being actively involved in the volunteer workforce strategy. Competition for the volunteer’s time is a significant theme in the current dissertation. A growing number of organizations require the use of volunteers to accomplish their missions. Studies have acknowledged that volunteerism is declining, resulting in a limited number of volunteers with the necessary skills available to serve (Beirne & Lambin, 2013; Cuskelly et al., 2006; Rodell, 2013). With more organizational leaders needing volunteers and fewer volunteers available or willing to work, organizational leaders are in competition for the volunteer’s service. Cuskelly et al. (2006) indicated a significant relationship between management practices and volunteers choosing an organization to serve. The relationship is used to enhance the link between volunteer satisfaction, volunteer motives, and the way managers utilize volunteers. The relationship grows stronger as the satisfaction of the voluntary experience correlates to the continued commitment of the volunteer to serve a particular organization (Clary et al., 1998; Degli Antoni, 2009; Jensen & McKeage, 2015; Pauline & Pauline, 2009). The establishment of effective volunteer management strategies can be the competitive edge that an organization needs to acquire and maintain the volunteer workforce essential to accomplishing its missions. The current chapter begins with a theoretical and analytical framework for the study of managing volunteers. After the problem and purpose statement are presented, the challenges of managing the volunteer workforce are established, followed by an introduction of the need for the identification of the best practices to determine the most productive strategies for managing this workforce. This chapter shows the importance of the current dissertation to the field of VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 12 management, including the benefits and risks associated with utilizing the volunteer workforce. Additionally, the research questions and propositions are discussed to provide a framework for the systematic review of the literature found in Chapter 2. The current dissertation is used to explore the diverse and varied definitio