Hindering the Help: Politics and Engagement in Volunteer Service Organizations

Over the past few years, volunteerism in the U.S. has declined from an estimated 50% of U.S. adults collectively logging volunteer hours equivalent to five million fulltime jobs (Meier and Stutzer, 2008) to a recent low of only 25% of Americans engaged in volunteer work (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). The driving force behind many charitable groups is the blood, sweat, and tears of a sizeable volunteer base. For example, the American Red Cross has approximately 400,000 U.S. volunteers comprising 94% of its humanitarian workforce (American Red Cross, 2014) and saw donations of 5.7 million units of blood during the 2013 fiscal year (American Red Cross, 2013). In that same fiscal year, Habitat For Humanity depended upon 309,687 volunteer worker-hours to complete approximately 12,673 home construction projects for economically disadvantaged persons in Africa and the Middle East alone (Habitat for Humanity International, 2013). Twenty-five thousand Make-a-Wish volunteers across America each spent an average of 12 hours granting 14,000 wishes last year (Make-A-Wish[R] Foundation of America, 2014). The personal sacrifices of time, energy, and resources by these volunteers are a critical component in the success of the charitable or service organizations they choose to support. However, limited research has examined the job attitudes of volunteers, many of whom play distinct and important roles within organizations. An understanding of how some particular characteristics of both volunteers and organizations influence job attitudes that are critical to retaining reliable, productive volunteers is important. In two studies using data from independent samples collected from two different volunteer organizations an examination of the interactive effects of volunteers' work engagement and their perceptions of organizational politics on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions is conducted using an adaptation of Chacon et al.'s (2007) Volunteer Duration of Service Model. Volunteer work is much different from voluntary group membership and involves the giving of one's time and effort without the expectation of direct financial compensation (Thoits and Hewitt, 2001). The purpose of volunteer work is to better a community or a specific subset of a community which is in need (Wilson and Musick, 1997). Thus, volunteer work is a planned long-term form of social participation that promotes good citizenship and a sense of community, both of which facilitate social action for the common good (Omoto and Malsch, 2005; Penner, 2002; Snyder and Omoto, 2008). Even though volunteers earn no direct financial compensation for their time and effort, they often enjoy higher levels of life satisfaction (Meier and Stutzer, 2008), better self-esteem and physical health, an increased sense of control, as well as lower levels of depression (Thoits and Hewitt, 2001). Over time, many people report a change in their self-concept as they grow to see their role in life not only as that of an employee, spouse, or sibling, but also as that of a volunteer, which further perpetuates longevity in the volunteer role (Callero, 1985; Callero et al., 1987; Grube and Piliavin, 2000). This change in self-concept is an important outcome and can be examined under the lens of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979), which suggests that individuals think of themselves as psychologically linked to groups of which they are members. Being a full-fledged active volunteer member of an organization of which one is proud and in which one finds respect from other members fosters discretionary behaviors (Tyler and Blader, 2001) upon which volunteer service organizations are so heavily dependent. Managing volunteers is an ongoing struggle for organizations that are often faced with also managing paid employees. Despite volunteers being unpaid, their roles in these organizations are not unlike those of paid employees in that they perform activities that require effort, time, and responsible behavior inside the organization (Vecina et al. …