Motivation

This edition of Research to Practice looks again at research into volunteering by older people. Globally it seems we are witnessing an increased desire to get older people involved in voluntary and community organizations. This may be for a number of reasons − from recognition of the intrinsic worth of involvement in democratic societies to recognition of health benefits gained from participation and the goal of balancing work and care in aging populations. The result, however, is that older people’s involvement is a popular area for study.

Anticipating the huge number of Baby Boomers entering retirement in the next two decades, RSVP of North Central Iowa leaders decided to focus their attention on how to engage that cohort in volunteer service.  Attracting even a small percentage of the area’s approximately 22,000 Baby Boomers into volunteerism could yield enormous dividends for the citizens in the region. In this feature story for e-Volunteerism, RSVP Director Elaine Hanson and consultant Elizabeth Weinstein reveal how the organization responded to the “call to action” – a move that resulted in series of activities and research projects aimed at capturing the hearts and talents of potential Baby Boomer volunteers.

Yad Sarah is an Israeli nationwide network of volunteers aiding needy, disabled and elderly people. The organization relies on volunteers and provides many essential services which are not covered by the government, such as lending medical equipment, day rehabilitation centers, transportation for the disabled and geriatric dental services.  Through Yad Sarah, professional dentists in Jerusalem volunteer to serve the underprivileged elderly, an act of volunteering that expresses social solidarity and willingness to contribute.

Avraham Zini and Harold D. Sgan-Cohen, two leading dental experts in Jerusalem, decided to explore ways to improve the satisfaction among volunteer dentists – for the benefit of the health care providers and the community recipients. Towards this goal, they surveyed 67 dentists currently volunteering on a regular basis at the Yad Sarah geriatric dental clinic in Jerusalem.  In this feature story, e-Volunteerism presents the results of Zini and Sgan-Cohen’s research, outlining the main reasons that lead Israeli dentists to volunteer. Their article reviews the aspects of dental volunteering efforts that fulfilled expectations, and which areas proved less than satisfactory. This important research provides a unique look inside a volunteer experience that is rarely made available to the public.  

In this Keyboard Roundtable, we’re casting a wide net to explore a number of volunteerism issues from the diverse perspectives of people involved in volunteering.  “From Whose Perspective?” will include a discussion of such important issues as:

• Employer-supported volunteering: Is it volunteering if people are paid to volunteer with time off from work? From whose perspective?
• Pro bono service: Is this volunteering?  From whose perspective?
• Do we draw the line on rewards/incentives in volunteering? From whose perspective?

We’ll engage a few corporate and community sector volunteer managers, a public sector volunteer manager and a volunteer to help us gain multiple perspectives in this next Keyboard Roundtable.

The term ‘engagement’ has gained appeal in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors to explain and understand relationship management with paid and voluntary staff. Yet little to no research has been done that focuses specifically on a volunteer’s engagement and how that might differ from a paid employee’s. This feature story will deconstruct the concept of engagement and suggest variables which need to be acknowledged in studying this concept and how it applies to volunteers. Looking to the future, we’ll also explore how to move forward to increase engagement capacity within the volunteer management profession.

Surveys in different countries show that people often choose to volunteer in the sport and recreation field.  During 2006, Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) commissioned research to look at how to motivate and recruit more volunteers, and successive SPARC studies show how important volunteers are to sport in New Zealand. This edition of Research to Practice considers how this detailed research can be applied across all volunteer-involving organisations.

In 1971, behavioral scientists and innovative trainers Eva Schindler-Rainman and Ronald Lippett published The Volunteer Community: Creative Use of Human Resources. Though the book is now out of print, many of its concepts continue to resonate.  In this Voices from the Past, e-Volunteerism is pleased to publish an excerpt of Chapter Four, in which the authors present a force field analysis of volunteer motivation. The analysis helps explain what pushes people towards a “yes” to volunteering, and what pushes them towards a “no.”  The authors do the same analysis on another equally important volunteering decision: whether to continue as a volunteer, or to drop out.

As the populations of most developed countries show an increasing
proportion of older people, debates have started about how an aging
population will be cared for.  For volunteering, this often means how
volunteers will be engaged to help care for the elderly.  But this assumption ignores two vital facts: one, that volunteering can help keep older people healthy; and two, that older people are active and a potential  source of more volunteers.

This report focuses on research designed to better understand volunteering among older people. It looks at the conditions under which older people become volunteers, their capacity to remain volunteers as they age, and the constraints that may cause them to restrict their volunteering. The report draws out implications for volunteer-involving organisations and policy makers.

This collaborative research project by Susan Baines, Mabel Lie, and Jane Wheelock was produced in 2006 as a collaborative research project by Age Concern Newcastle and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

What does a canned meat product called SPAM™ have to do with volunteer recruitment?  In this article, the authors explore the answer to this question by reviewing the key steps in volunteer recruitment, a process that helps remind an organization that it needs not only a clear purpose but people to rally around that purpose.  All it takes is a little S.P.A.M. − Skill development, Product knowledge, Audience understanding and Motivation.

Leaders are people who inspire others to follow.  They do this largely through their communication.  That influence partly comes from what leaders talk about, such as a vision of the future, organizational values, and other topics which have been well-described in many books and articles on the subject.  But the influence also comes from the way leaders phrase things.

Rick Lynch has based this article on some of his recent research into what kinds of communication inspire commitment and what kinds inspire resistance.  He identifies seven skills which will make you a more influential leader if you master them.