Measuring Motivation to Volunteer in Human Services

Abstract

In this study, 258 volunteers in human services and 104 nonvolunteers were asked to rank in importance 28 motives for volunteering that had been identified in a thorough literature review. According to the literature, most researchers assume that motivation to volunteer (MMV) is a two-or three-dimensional phenomenon, but very few studies have carried out an empirical analysis of the internal dimensionality of MTV. The present findings indicate that when all 28 motives were subjected to various types of factor analysis, most items were grouped together on one factor. In other words, a unidimensional scale was obtained.

Are All My Volunteers Here to Help Out? Clustering Event Volunteers by Their Motivations

“…This is contrary to Cnaan and Goldberg-Glen's (1991) original testing on volunteers from human service agencies (including nursing homes and aged-care programs), which yielded a unidimensional scale. This incongruity may explain why Farrell et al (1998) subsequently interpreted their four-factor solution in part relative to Caldwell and Andereck's (1994) three-factor model (Purposive, Solidary, and Material) of volunteer motivation.…”

“…As such, it appears reasonable that the SEVMS, much tested in relation to a variety of special and sports event settings and based on Cnaan and Goldberg-Glen's (1991) generic volunteer motivation scale, may make a worthwhile contribution in this respect.…”

“…Volunteer motivation in general is a long held topic of interest that has attracted substantial research attention and seminal contributions (e.g., Caldwell & Andereck, 1994;Clary et al, 1998;Cnaan & Goldberg-Glen, 1991;Omoto & Snyder, 1995;Penner & Finkelstein, 1998). Event volunteering represents a form of episodic volunteering, a more recent pattern of volunteering, moving away from the traditional model of ongoing and sustained involvements.…”

“…She found that the volunteers' motivations were similar across all five events, which suggests that it is the episodic nature of event volunteering that is a key factor in attracting volunteers. Strigas and Jackson's (2003) study, which like the SEVMS used elements of Cnaan and Goldberg-Glen's (1991) scale, together with Clary et al's (1998) VFI, found five motivational factors associated with volunteering at a marathon event. The authors note similarities in their "Egoistic" (need for social interaction and self-actualization) and "External" (volunteering for family or other external reasons) factors compared to the SEVMS's counterpart "Solidary" and "External Traditions" dimensions.…”

Validation of the Beliefs Against Volunteering Scale among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

“…Cnaan and Goldberg-Glen (1991) proposed that people volunteer because of a combination of various motives, suggesting a unitary motive approach. This study also proposes that people do not volunteer due to a combination of negative beliefs about volunteerism.…”