Expectation-based types of volunteers in Swiss sports clubs

Abstract

Volunteer research in sports clubs has paid hardly any attention to the individual expectations even though matching conditions to the specific volunteer's expectations represents a major management challenge. This article presents a person-oriented approach to the expectation profiles of volunteers that delivers the basis for identifying different volunteer segments. The approach assumes explicitly that volunteers in sports clubs develop specific expectations regarding their working conditions. These expectations were determined in a sample of 441 members of 45 selected sports clubs. Proximately, a cluster analysis revealed that volunteers vary in their expectations regarding voluntary work. Four different types of volunteers could be identified: (1) recognition seekers, (2) material incentive seekers, (3) participation and communication seekers, and (4) support seekers. These “expectation-based volunteer types” could also be characterized in socioeconomic, membership-related, and volunteer-work-related terms. These types could serve as a basis for designing specific voluntary work conditions in sports clubs.

Keywords:

• volunteers
• sports clubs
• person-oriented approach
• expectation-based volunteer types
• cluster analysis

Notes

1. This analysis strategy offers the following advantages: (1) The subjective anticipatory attitude can be compared and interpreted across different respondents independent of expectation level. (2) It recognizes the importance of not just entering one form of expectation standardized for the entire group in the analyses. An individual expectation feature, should, for example, not be overrated if it happens to be above average compared to the reference group but rather meaningless in relation to the individual manifestations of the other features. (3) General response tendencies can be evened out (e.g. a different response behavior in extreme categories).

2. Items for the factor Emotional and social commitment (M = 4.08, SD = 0.64, α = .85): “I feel good in our club.” “I feel committed to my club.” “I enjoy attending our club events.” “I feel proud that I can tell other people that I belong to the club.” “I discuss club affairs with other members.”

3. Items for the factor Collective interest (M = 3.27, SD = 1.01, α = .65): “I put the interests of my club above my private interests.” “I participate in making the decisions at my club.” “I am happy to help when things need doing in my club.”