Understanding Organizational Commitment for Volunteers: Empirical and Managerial Implications

Abstract

Organizational research on volunteers has most often been concerned with profiling the characteristics of the "ideal volunteer" for various volunteer activities. While these studies lead to improvements in the organizational processes of volunteer re cruiting and training, they do not illuminate the psychological processes which underlie organizational commitment among volunteer workers. This research examines the personality, job characteristics, and attitudinal antecedents of organi zational commitment for volunteers. The findings indicated that job satisfaction, work autonomy, job involvement and feedback from the work itself were strong pre dictors of organizational commitment. These results are discussed relative to the management of volunteers.