Volunteer decisions (not) to leave: Reasons to quit versus functional motives to stay

an article by Jurgen Willems, Gert Huybrechts, Marc Jegers, Tim Vantilborgh, Jemima Bidee and Roland Pepermans (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium) published in Human Relations Volume 65 Number 7 (July 2012)

Abstract

In this article we test whether reasons to quit volunteering can be structured as the commonly used six functional motives to volunteer of Clary et al. (1998).

We conjecture that owing to volunteer involvement in an organization, additional contextual factors influence the choice to stop volunteering for that organization. Based on a literature review and a qualitative exploratory analysis, we present items respectively measuring motives to volunteer among active volunteers and reasons to quit among former volunteers in the context of the Scouts and Guides Organization in Flanders (Belgium).

We test content-wise symmetry based on expert-rater agreement, while structural symmetry is tested based on factor analyses. Results show that no symmetry can be found.

However, additional contextual factors clearly determine the decision to leave an organization. We theorize on how these individual, interpersonal and organizational factors are continuously traded off by volunteers during their involvement in a particular organization.

Hazel’s comment:
Advisers are frequently urged to get their clients doing voluntary work as a prelude to paid-for work. This is, however, the first time I recall reading a study about the reasons why people leave voluntary work.
Interesting.

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