Sustaining the Motivation to Volunteer in Organizations

Abstract

The chapter begins by considering the motivation to volunteer and how it has been addressed in current research. The second section addresses volunteering from within an organizational context, focusing particularly on characteristics of an organization's mission and the manner in which an organization seeks to coordinate the efforts of its volunteers. In particular, we consider the possible effects of these characteristics on the motivation of volunteers. We conclude by considering implications for volunteer organizations and outlining avenues for future research. Throughout the chapter, we illustrate our points with a qualitative comparison of processes in two volunteer organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)