RESEARCH REPORT (HRPYC81) Project 4809 Assignment 42

The aim of this study was to explore what motivates people to do volunteer work. Three volunteers from different occupational and cultural background were selected to ensure that the participants were as individually different as possible. These participants were then interviewed individually where they were asked a list of questions relating to their experience as volunteers. The interviews were transcribed verbatim an analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed complex motives underlying volunteering in different organization. Most of the volunteers reported having more than one motive for enrolling as volunteers. Of the 11 categories of motivations identified, those relating to altruistic concern for others and community, employment or career benefits and a desire by the unemployed to avoid idleness were the most frequently mentioned. Volunteers also saw volunteering as an opportunity to learn caring skills or to put their own skills to good use.A few of the volunteers were heeding a religious call. Four themes were discovered as motivations for volunteer work: The nature of organization, Protective, understanding, Career and Age The result supports the initial study; findings show that there are many reasons that motivate people to do volunteer work. Literature Review Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial gain “to benefit another person, group or organization. Volunteerism is also renowned for skills development and is often intended to promote goodwill and improve human quality of life. The motivation of people to volunteer has long fascinated those researching and working alongside volunteers. Understanding the motivational drives of those who volunteer has long been a recurring theme preoccupying much of literature on volunteering. According to research by Esmond and Dunlop (2004),what actually motivates a person to volunteer can be of great assistance to the organization. Every year millions of people around the world give of their time and energy to make difference through volunteering (Esmond,2004).Volunteerism involves much more than working without pay; it involves people making choices to do things to help society in ways that go beyond their basic obligations. People begin and continue volunteering for many reasons, although there is a great individual-to-individual variability, it is important for social workers to understand and take into consideration as many of the reasons as possible in their strategies to recruit and retain committed volunteers. Defining Motivation and Volunteerism Motivation is defined as the process that initiates guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviours,plainly put motivation is what causes us to act (Cherry,2015).Nevid (2013) describes our motives as the “whys” of behaviour and explain what we do.Furthermore,motivation cannot be observed; we can only infer that a motive exists based on the behaviour that is displayed. In tutorial 103 for HRPYC81(2013,p.5) a “… “a volunteer is someone who contributes time helping others with no expectation of pay or other material benefit to herself”. (Wilson & Musick,1999,p 141).According to the tutorial letter 103 for HRPYC 81 (2013,P.5) “Volunteerism may be defined as contributing one’s time or talents for charitable,educational,social,political or other worthwhile purposes, usually one’s community, freely and without regard for compensation” (US Encyclopedia).First since by definition the aim of these activities cannot be a direct financial reward, it is necessary to consider what motivates people to volunteer.Second,because individuals may support associations by using different types of contributions, researchers have to understand why such individuals choose to do volunteer work rather than to give money. It was in 1970’s that first saw the emergence of research with increasing number of studies examining volunteerism and motivation. According to Widjaja (2010), the desire to help appears to be an essential aspect of the human nature and one type of helping behavior is volunteerism. According to Wilson’s theory (cited in Van Emmerik,2005),helping behavior can be defined as activities entailing more commitment that spontaneous assistance in which time is given freely to benefit another person, group, organization or cause. Clotfelter (1985, p.155) considers that volunteering may have a consumption of aspects to the extent that it offers contacts with others, and interesting experiences. In the same vein, Schiff (1990,p.46) acknowledges that volunteers may “enjoy the interaction with other volunteers or with clients served by the charity.Unfortunately,these authors do not further deve