Where do I belong? Volunteer attachment in a complex organization

To understand volunteer retention and recruitment in complex organizations, this paper focuses on volunteers' attachment to a multipurpose and multi-branch organization. Using the Red Cross in Flanders (Belgium), a service organization with multiple locations offering a variety of programs, we investigate whether volunteers' attachment is primarily directed toward the organization as a whole, or whether volunteers are more prone to develop localized attachment to the program or branch in which they participate. Our findings suggest that managers recruiting volunteers to large complex organizations should be cautious in using the overarching organizational mission to attract volunteers. Rather, attention should be put on specific programs and activities using volunteers. It is only through longer-term service that volunteers appreciate the organization's mission and principles and find their allegiance to the organization as a whole

The 'black box' problem in the study of participation

Research on citizen participation has been guided by two core issues: first, the observation of a widening repertory of modes of participation, and second, the argument that participation is not an undifferentiated phenomenon, but must be conceived as an inherently multidimensional reality. In this article, we argue that conventional participation research has focused too one-sidedly on quantitatively expanding the range of types of activities, while the complex dimensionality is not reflected in the measures used. We formulate a methodological critique by using the metaphor of the 'black box', which refers to the implicit and unquestioned assumption that distinct types of activities and associations represent homogeneous and consistent realities that do not warrant further analytical decomposition. Surveys of participation allocate individuals to different 'participation boxes' by means of a binary logic, leaving a void of what is actually happening inside the boxes. To conclude, we reflect upon the fundamental dilemmas the black box of participation raises for theory and research, and offer conceptual and methodological keys to unlock the participation box

I quit, therefore I am?: volunteer turnover and the politics of self-actualization

This study considers the thesis that volunteering is gaining a fundamentally new quality as a result of broader social and cultural transformations. Whereas existing research has focused on the changing nature of volunteering, this study deals with the decision to quit volunteering and examines whether it may be considered part of the "politics of self-actualization," that is, the more active and individualized monitoring of life. Former styles of volunteering and reasons for quitting were examined in a group of 99 ex-volunteers of the Red Cross in Flanders, Belgium, and volunteering habits were compared with a sample of 652 volunteers. Ex-volunteers did not systematically differ from the sample of volunteers with regard to their social background profile, volunteering behavior, and strength of organizational attachment. Furthermore, the decision to quit more likely reflected the routine nature of everyday practices than an autonomous and self-conscious life design

Weakening organizational ties? A classification of styles of volunteering in the Flemish red cross

This article presents an initial empirical assessment of a new analytical framework of styles of volunteering (SOV). The framework suggests that volunteering can be categorized in terms of a multidimensional set of cultural and structural indicators that cohere in systematic and varying ways. With data drawn from a survey of 652 Flemish Red Cross volunteers, a multivariate analysis reveals five different SOV categories of volunteers: episodic contributors, established administrators, reliable coworkers, service-oriented core volunteers, and critical key figures. The research findings indicate that the volunteer reality is far more complex than suggested by conventional approaches to the study of volunteering

The organizational behavior of volunteers revisited? Explaining differences in styles of volunteering in the red cross in Flanders

This chapter explores the thesis that as a result of recent modernization and individualization processes, the collective organization of volunteering is interchanged with individually tailored styles of involvement. Based on a survey of Red Cross volunteers in Flanders (Belgium), an innovative multidimensional classification of styles of volunteering is constructed. The findings show that Red Cross volunteering primarily should be un-derstood as organizational behaviour, which nevertheless is induced by a volunteer-specific biographical match. In addition, more peripheral styles of volunteering cohere with indicators of individualization, while core styles are rooted in a more stable and collectively oriented biographical frame of reference

Volunteering

In recent decades, there has been a burgeoning interest in the study of volunteering, and the number of publications devoted to volunteering has grown exponentially. In this chapter, we examine emerging theories and new directions in volunteering research. First, we discuss multi-level perspectives that try to understand volunteering in complex interaction with the organizational and institutional context. Next, we present process-oriented approaches that focus on the experience of volunteering, as it changes through different stages of organizational socialization, and as a consequence of broader societal and sector-wide transformations. Finally, in the light of these sector changes, new methods of social accounting have emerged that expand traditional financial statements of nonprofits to account for volunteer labor. This review Demonstrates that, as research on volunteering further expands, it tends to grow in its diversity of questions and viewpoints, and to reflect the complex and dynamic nature of volunteering more precisely