Abstract
A new approach to volunteer motivation research is developed. Instead of asking what motivates the volunteer (accepting any conceptual category), we ask to what extent volunteering rewards the individual with each benefit taken from a complete set of possible benefits. As a “complete set of benefits” we use the 16 human functioning modes formulated within the systemic quality of life model (SQOL). Data collected from a large representative sample substantiate the conceptual basis of the approach proposed. Empirical results (by Faceted SSA, a multidimensional scaling technique) support the volunteer-motivation structural hypothesis and highlight the more salient volunteering motivations. Social groups (including volunteers vs. non-volunteers) are compared with respect to their volunteering motivation assessments. The proposed approach sheds new light on theoretical issues, such as the roles of altruism versus egoism in volunteering, and suggests new ways for studying the questions of volunteer recruitment and retention.
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Notes
Another way to resolve this contradiction is to conclude that voluntarism is not always as voluntary as it thought to be. Even when not compelled by law, an individual may feel compelled to do ‘volunteer work’ by external circumstances such as social pressure or religious commandments. Although the theory advanced in this paper has a bearing on this line of argument, the question of compelled volunteering—touching on the meaning of free choice—requires a separate treatment.
In this as well as other respects the general Faceted Action System Theory differs from the AGIL scheme proposed by Parsons (e.g., 1953) in his seminal works on the social systems. For a fuller discussion of Parsons’ approach in the context of Faceted Action System Theory, see Shye (1985a, pp. 99 ff).
Effective functioning, in turn, is defined by Faceted Action System Theory, in terms of two kinds of agreement between event modalities: similarity (for the expressive and conservative functioning modes) and complementarity (for the adaptive and integrative functioning modes).
In contrast with other multivariate statistical procedures (including factor analysis), Faceted SSA acknowledges the Continuity Principle (Shye and Elizur 1994) which recognizes that observed variables are but a sample from an infinite continuum of possible variables that make up the investigated space. Hence FSSA is not concerned with cluster patterns (which may merely reflect the particular sample of variables selected for observation), but rather with patterns of partitioning of the investigated space.
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Benny Gidron, head of ICTR, for his continued encouragement and Alon Lazar, a fellow at ICTR, for his invaluable assistance in the course of writing this paper. Data used in this study were collected in the framework of the Hopkins Project conducted at The Israeli Center for Third Sector Research.
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Shye, S. The Motivation to Volunteer: A Systemic Quality of Life Theory. Soc Indic Res 98, 183–200 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9545-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9545-3