Volunteer motivation and demographic influences at a professional tennis event

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine the demographic make‐up of volunteers and their motives for participating in a professional tennis event.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a cross‐sectional descriptive study to investigate the primary motivation of volunteers from a US Open Series professional tennis event. A MANOVA was also conducted to compare the volunteer motivation factors (purposive, egoistic, leisure, material, external) by demographic factors (gender and age).FindingsVolunteers' demographics closely resemble the tennis participation population and are similar to other tournament volunteers in the sport of golf. Volunteers were strongly motivated by material and purposive factors. Gender and age had no significant effect on the motivation to volunteer.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample being from a single event can limit the generalizations, but the work can serve as a framework for more extensive studies, including focusing on a women's event to examine the differences in motivation.Practical implicationsImplications of the results are provided in an effort to assist sport managers to design quality volunteer experiences that enhance the overall experience, supporting episodic volunteers' work ethic, and management of the event. There is clear evidence that volunteer satisfaction is higher when their motives are met. It is intended that this research will offer more support for event organizers based on the growing usage of volunteers and concerns in the sport industry.Originality/valueThis study is the only one that examines tennis volunteers in general as well as exploring the effect of the dependent variables of gender and age on motivation.

Exploring Motivations of 2014 Sochi Paralympic Winter Games Volunteers

“…This is of note due to literature that suggests involvement with a sport event for people with disabilities often relies on individuals with connections to disability, advocates for disability, and family and friends who consider themselves as giving back to the disability community (Engelberg et al, 2014;Khoo et al, 2011;Ryan & Cole, 2009). In fact, participants in this study had little or no knowledge of the Paralympic Games or sports within the Paralympic Games prior to volunteering, contradicting prior work citing love for and connectivity to a sport as a motivational factor (Coyne & Coyne, 2001;Love et al, 2011;Pauline & Pauline, 2009;Bang & Chelladurai, 2003;Wolleback et al, 2014). Thus, mega-event planners should recognize the desire of volunteers to travel and the insignificance of sport connectivity for such large-scale, global sport events.…”

“…Connectivity to the event, or love of the sport or event, has been found among volunteers who worked at marathons due to their association with running (Bang & Ross, 2009) golf (Coyne & Coyne, 2001;Love, Hardin, Koo, & Morse, 2011), tennis (Pauline & Pauline, 2009), soccer (Bang & Chelladurai, 2003), and snow skiing (Wollebaek et al, 2014). Volunteers working in a Paralympic setting also want to provide the best experience possible for the athletes (Kim, Zhang, & Connaughton, 2010).…”

“…Bang and Chelladurai's (2003) study added to prior work examining volunteer motivations with the emergence of Patriotism as a motive because it suggests that the 'motivational pattern of volunteers at large-scale sporting events is different from that of volunteers in other contexts' (Bang & Ross, 2009, p. 64). yet, the study did not account for one's love of sport as a motivational factor, and more recent work has included an individual's tie to a single sport as a reason for volunteering (Bang & Ross, 2009;Coyne & Coyne, 2001;Love, et al, 2011;Pauline & Pauline, 2009). Therefore, Bang and Ross (2009) Bang and Ross's (2009) study lies in its establishing Love of Sport as a motivational factor for volunteers as well as reclassifying Bang and Chelladurai's (2003) factor of Patriotism into a factor of Community Involvement.…”

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

“…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).…”

Development of Taiwan Undergraduates' Volunteer Service Motivation Scale

“…Hustinx, Van Rossem, Handy and Cnaan (2015) [2] pointed out that motivation to volunteer is one of the most frequently researched topics in the field of volunteering research, which can be conducted in different occasions, like sports event Han, Quarterman, Strigas, & Ha, 2013) [3] [4], professional tennis event (Pauline & Pauline, 2009) [5], professional golf event (Pauline, 2011) [6], festivals like food and wine festivals (Wu, Suh, & Zhao, 2011) [7], Music Festival (Bachman, Backman, & Norman, 2014) [8], not-for-profit organization like Phillips and Phillips (2010) [9]. In addition, volunteer service motivation is investigated extensively with other variables, such as organizational climate (Nencini, Romaioli, & Meneghini, 2015) [10], job satisfaction (Bang, 2015) [11], commitment (de Espanés, Villar, Urrutia, & Serrat, 2015) [12], sense of community (Kerwin, Warner, Walker, & Stevens, 2015) [13], life satisfaction (Pierce, Johnson, Felver, Wanless, & Judge, 2014 ;Veerasamy, Sambasivan, & Kumar, 2015) [14] [15], and the like, which can be seen clearly that volunteer service motivation is an issue worthy of our value.…”