Factors Affecting Volunteer Long-Term Care Ombudsman Organizational Commitment and Burnout

Abstract

This article examines volunteer nursing home advocates' perceptions about their work and organizational experiences. Bivariate correlations and regression analysis support a model of volunteer organizational effectiveness incorporating selected job context variables. The most important results concern organizational commitment, job involvement, role conflict, role ambiguity, and burnout. An especially important finding was the relation between higher job involvement and lower role confusion, higher organizational commitment, and a higher sense of personal accomplishment. The researchers were surprised by exceedingly low burnout scores and by burnout's modest link to organizational commitment. Demographic findings were mixed with several hypothesized associations proving nonsignificant or inconsistent with previous research.

Factors Effecting Volunteer Ombudsman Effort and Service Duration: Comparing Active and Resigned Volunteers

“…This study confirms earlier research indicating that ombudsmen feel more role conflict than ambiguity (Nelson, Pratt, et al, 1995). Moreover, role conflict may be even harder to ameliorate because it depends on two resource-intensive factors.…”

“…This view is echoed in a government report citing job stress, strain, and frustration as causing more volunteer ombudsman turnover than anything except poor health (National Center for Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resources, National Association of State Units on Aging, 1989). Another study, however, found only modest evidence of psychological burnout among volunteer ombudsmen, reporting an important link between role exhaustion (a manifestation of burnout) and poor job clarity and lower job involvement, especially among younger volunteers (Nelson, Pratt, Carpenter, & Walter, 1995).…”

Committed to Whom? Unraveling How Relational Job Design Influences Volunteers’ Turnover Intentions and Time Spent Volunteering

“…A positive relationship between jobs that are designed so that incumbents perceive that they impact others and organizational commitment is also likely given that volunteers operate within the scope of their voluntary organization's mission (Nelson et al, 1995) and are able to observe firsthand the voluntary organization's activities. Additionally, it is the voluntary organization's infrastructure that provides volunteers with the opportunity to improve the welfare of beneficiaries in the first place.…”

Evaluation of the Impact of a Volunteer Ombudsman Program: The Rhode Island Experience

“…Since personal accomplishment and role ambiguity have been found to be important predictors of ombudsman organization effectiveness (cf. Nelson, Pratt, Carpenter & Walter, 1995), the findings suggest that the Rhode Island volunteers are both able to accomplish the goals of the program and to feel personally gratified about their ombudsman work.…”