Volunteer job satisfaction and their intention to stay. A study of AIESEC in Germany - a nonprofit organization.

Similar to the profit sector where the flexible labor market allows employees to change jobs more frequently than ever, the nonprofit sector is facing volunteer turnover issues (Bang et al., 2012). Furthermore, contrary to paid employees, the volunteers may leave the organization at any time, as the nature of volunteering suggests that their intentions are rather altruistic and not determined by financial incentives or financial dependency. And even in nonprofit organizations a high volunteer turnover rate is quite costly and represents a significant loss for them - through the time, money and effort put in both marketing activities for recruiting, and in onboarding and training of the volunteers (Black, Stevens, 1989). Further negative effects of high volunteer rates can be observed on the performance of the volunteers that are "witnessing" their co-workers leaving as it causes disruption of the organization's processes, culture, and other constituents over time (Boulton, 2006). Because nonprofit organizations are fairly labor-intensive, the volunteers are seen as the backbone of it. Without their participation, the objectives of the nonprofit could not be met. With this being said, the importance of influencing the volunteers' intention to stay in an organization is obvious and is of great concern for the volunteer management. As per Carey et al. 1988, intention to stay is referred to as employees' willingness to stay with an organization and is significantly negatively correlated with turnover. Volunteer management practices can impact and explain different aspects of volunteers' behaviors. When joining the nonprofit, volunteers' needs and expectations vary from one another due to the differences in their background, interests, and skills. As a result, their motifs, levels of engagement, and intentions will differ accordingly. Therefore, it is a central task of the volunteer management to be aware of the factors that are linked to the volunteers' intention to stay and act accordingly (Cheung et al. 2006)