Predicting the Behavioral Dependability of Sport Event Volunteers

Abstract

The dependability of volunteers in completing work assignments can impact upon the financial and operational success of major sport events and presents a significant challenge for event organizers. Despite the short-term nature of many events and the apparently manageable level of commitment, volunteers sometimes exhibit less than satisfactory levels of compliance to assigned tasks. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examined the behavioral dependability of operational-level volunteers at major sport events. A preevent and postevent survey protocol was used to gather data from volunteers (n = 391) at five events. The study measured the attitudes and beliefs of event volunteers and their self-reported level of behavioral dependability. Using multiple regression analysis, the study found that a number of attitudinal beliefs about volunteering, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control predicted behavioral dependability. It was concluded that the TPB was a useful theoretical framework for conceptualizing and predicting the behavior of major event volunteers but the generalizability of these findings was limited because the significant predictors of dependability were not consistent across all of the events studied.

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

“…Strigas and Jackson (2003) called for event volunteering motivational research to encompass different sport and recreation settings, different countries and cultures, and different types and scales of sporting events. There are a small number of studies that take a comparative or cross-case approach, comparing volunteering at different sporting events (Cuskelly, Auld, Harrington, & Coleman, 2004;Kemp, 2002), cultural festivals (Smith & Lockstone, 2009), or across a mix of event types (e.g., Monga, 2006). Treuren's (2014) study added to the multievent literature in surveying volunteers across five events.…”

“…These studies include comparing the motivations of event volunteers with their sociodemographic profiles (Kemp, 2002;Pauline & Pauline, 2009), the roles they undertake (Saleh & Wood, 1998), whether someone is a first time or repeat volunteer (Coyne & Coyne, 2001;Wollebaek, Skirstad, & Hanstad, 2014), and the training they receive (Costa, Chalip, Green, & Simes, 2006). Given the dependence of events on volunteers, a number of studies have also sought to identify whether volunteer motivation can predict volunteer retention (Coyne & Coyne, 2001;Cuskelly et al, 2004;MacLean & Hamm, 2007). Extending this work, surprisingly only recently have researchers (Alexander et al, 2015;Treuren, 2014) sought to cluster event volunteers into heterogeneous volunteer groupings, akin to events sampled in the current research include three hosted in Western Australia and one hosted in New Zealand.…”

Exploring Motivations of 2014 Sochi Paralympic Winter Games Volunteers

“…Volunteers are essential for the sport industry as they enable event managers to maximize economic efficiency by minimizing staff costs, and contribute innovative ideas in their area of expertise (Cnaan & Goldberg-Glen, 1991;Cuskelly, Auld, Harrington, & Coleman, 2004;Shin & Kleiner, 2003). Prior research has indicated the value of volunteers, noting the critical role they play in the success of sportrelated organizations and sporting events (Cuskelly, 1998;Green & Chalip, 1998;Shilbury & Moore, 2006).…”

The public face of event volunteering at the 2006 Commonwealth Games: The media perspective

“…The literature on volunteering is relatively thin with regard to time-bound mega events, sporting and cultural, notwithstanding the contribution of, for example, Kemp (2002), Ralston et al (2003), Cuskelly et al (2004) and Green and Chalip (2004). What is evident is that without the volunteer contribution, most mega events would find it difficult to operate in either logistical/organisational or financial terms (Green and Chalip, 2004).…”