sport management The experience of student volunteers in sport

Aim of paper and research questions In the United Kingdom a variety of programmes and initiatives have been established to create pathways into sport volunteering for young people. One of the problems is that these programmes are built on principles and practices drawn from the mainstream volunteer literature which is predominately based on adults. Unfortunately, research into younger volunteers is relatively underdeveloped. The focus of this study is to explore the experience of student volunteers and thereby provide the managers of sporting organisations and events a better understanding of their younger workers. Specifically the research will examine: 1. What are the motives, needs, and expectations of students that volunteer in sport? 2. What factors contribute to students’ initial satisfaction and the initial benefits of the experience? 3. What factors contribute to students’ long term involvement in volunteering in sport? Literature review Whilst the literature on involvement in the work environment is rather well developed (Steers, Mowday & Shapiro, 2004; & Ramiall, 2004), the understanding of the volunteer experience is rather superficial and the experience of young volunteers is even less understood. The literature is generally restricted to examinations of the motives people provide for initiating their involvement (see Horton Smith, 1994), however, a volunteer’s motives are unlikely to remain constant for the full term of his or her involvement (Caldwell & Andereck, 1994; Hibbert, Piacentini & Dajani, 2003). For example, motives and expectations are likely to change as volunteers become more involved in the decision-making processes of the organisation and as they rise in the organisation’s hierarchy; and the reasons that attract a person are unlikely to be identical to those reasons associated with their long-term retention. In their research into long term volunteering, Cuskelly and Harrington (1997) concluded that, “…existing conceptualisations of volunteering may not adequately capture the essence of what it is to be a volunteer nor the breath of the volunteer experience (p. 54)”. Research design and proposed data analysis The study will follow the experience of a group of students as they progress through the ‘volunteer life cycle’ (Beugen, 1985). Stage 1 is when the student forms an initial interest in volunteering. Stage 2 is when he or she has had their initial contact with the organisation and is deciding whether the organisation is the right ‘fit’. Stage 3 occurs at the completion of the first season or event and it is at this point that volunteers are contemplating their longer term commitment to the organisation. This paper will present the initial analysis of the first stage. In Stage 1 a series of semi-structured interviews (17 in total) were undertaken with student volunteers (Stages 2 & 3 will be follow-up interviews with these 17 students as they continue their [non-] involvement). Students were recruited during the orientation week of university