Civilian volunteers in United Nations hot spots: what makes them intend to apply for yet another mission?

Abstract

This study focused on United Nations (UN) civilian volunteers serving in “hot spots”, and tested a model to predict their intentions to apply for a new UN assignment. These individuals have characteristics of both assigned expatriates and self-initiated expatriates. In-Role Behaviours (IRB) and Organizational Citizenship Behaviours towards the Local Population (OCB-Locals) were related to sense of personal accomplishment, that in turn was related to intentions to apply for another UN assignment. Sense of personal accomplishment played a mediating role. Both the personality trait of agreeableness and the attitudinal factor of commitment towards the local population were predictive of IRB, but only agreeableness was predictive of OCB-Locals. Moderation effects were identified, but the direction of most of them was unexpected. For example, it was low openness to experience that strengthened the link between sense of personal accomplishment and intentions to re-apply. The study’s implications for expatriation research and for practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• Expatriates
• non-profit
• volunteers
• job performance
• personality traits
• behavioural intentions
• personal accomplishment
• inter-governmental organization

Acknowledgments

The third author acknowledges the support by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the “1st Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment” (Project Numbers: 2236 and 1799).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.