Volunteers at cycling race events: Antecedents of commitment and intention to remain

The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of volunteer commitment and intention to remain, in the context of two annually held cycling race events, Nordsjørittet and Rogaland Grand Prix, in the Southwest coast of Norway. The aim is to identify the relationships between volunteer satisfaction, motivation, commitment, and intention to remain as a volunteer in the future. Moreover, the thesis seeks to determine the motivational factors of the volunteers, who participated in the events and to discover their levels of satisfaction with various aspects of volunteering. In order to measure these factors, a questionnaire was generated of which items were adapted from previous studies, and factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were utilized. Results indicated that the volunteers, who were motivated by the connection to the sport, were highly committed and intended to remain as volunteers in the future events, Furthermore, a higher level of education was related to volunteers’ intentions to remain. It was also found that volunteers’ age and their satisfaction with the nature of their work and appreciation from others were predictors of commitment. Understanding these aspects of volunteering, as well as the relations between them, can be beneficial for the management of volunteers in order to retain the experienced volunteers and to ensure the continuation of the event in the future (Allen & Shaw, 2009; Elstad, 2003; MacLean & Hamm, 2007)