The effects of sport organization’s volunteer management : exploring the Mehrabian-Russell model

With the complexity of staging a sport event, large numbers of sport volunteers are needed to deliver services and help meet the organization’s objectives. Understanding the motivation and satisfaction of volunteers allow organizations to build an effective volunteer management structure which will influence the behavioural intentions of sport volunteers. This paper explores the Mehrabian-Russell Model by applying it to the sport event context. Using the online questionnaire platform, data were collected from 307 sport volunteers (Male - 51.9%, Female - 48.1%) across several sport events. The study identifies the volunteer management factors that impact motivation and satisfaction and followed by testing the relationship between satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Each construct has several questions which were measured with 5-point Likert Scales anchored by “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. SPSS version 24.0 was used for data screening and AMOS 25.0 was used to perform Structural Equation Modeling to measure the relationship among constructs. Findings include that there is a positive relationship between volunteer management and motivation (t=3.376, p <.001), but volunteer management has no direct impact on satisfaction (t=1.135, p =.256). Satisfaction is indirectly influenced by volunteer management through motivation (t=2.464, p=.014). Also, the study shows that volunteers who are satisfied are most probably going to remain in the same organization, donate financially to the organization, recommend the volunteer experience to their family and friends, and participate in sports for fun and to keep healthy (t=5.483, p <.001). Outcomes of the study help ensure the sustainability of the sport organization.Bachelor of Science (Sport Science and Management