Introduction (Draft)
Motivation is one of the most researched aspects of volunteerism. A lot of studies conclude that volunteer motivation is complex and individual. Many events rely on volunteer workforce, especially mega-sporting events and festivals. These events require a significant number of volunteers for organizing and delivering service. Therefore, it is essential to increase volunteers’ participation.
The aim of the research is to understand whether volunteering is a source of a cheap labour, or is viewed as taking away paid jobs, in terms of current economic crisis. The world economy is on everyone’s mind. It is what affects people as private individuals and within community sectors. With the economic climate affecting charities and businesses up and down the country, many will be working under pressure with reduced workforces.
Tourism has been heavily affected by the financial crisis. According to the World Tourism Organization, UNWTO, the number of travel movements fell by further 8 percent between January and April 2009 alone compared to the same period in the previous year (UNTWO 2009a). Tourist numbers are continuing to drop in the world. Consumers paralyzed by fear of the crisis are persistently staying at home (Trends and Issues in Global Tourism 2010, Roland Conrady).
In the midst of the worst economic crisis in living memory, the UK event industry is suffering. The Daily Telegraph, reported that corporate Christmas parties were down 15 percent in 2009 over the year prior (which in itself was pretty dismal), and that those that "must" take place are "rightfully" no-frills affairs (Will Broome, The State of the U.K. Special Events Industry, Special Events, January 1, 2010).
Many of the UK’s events face an uncertain future. A looming recession, surging unemployment and lack of investors are likely to push many smaller and medium scale events out of business. Estimates suggest the UK festival industry was worth about £900m in 2008. But during the summer 18 events – from the Isle of Skye Festival to the Portsmouth and Southsea Festival -were cancelled in the weeks and months before they were due to take place. Reasons given by organizers varied from tickets not selling; to funding getting more difficult as the credit crunch began to bite (Economy sounds warning for festivals, www.eventindustrynews.co.uk, Monday, November 17, 2008).
The economic crisis has already forced the cancellation of two Scottish music festivals. The Connect festival, which was to take place at Inverary Castle in Argyll, and the Outsider Festival near Aviemore were cancelled in February and May respectively (T In The Park shrugs off credit crunch, Monday, July 13, 2009, www.eventindustrynews.co.uk). A British music festival has been scrapped after falling victim to the global economic crisis. The Heavenly Planet Festival in Reading, England was due to take place in July (09) but bosses have been left with no choice but to cancel the event because of cash-flow worries (www.eventindustrynews.co.uk).
When financial crisis strikes, organizations must be strategic and creative in stretching their budgets and feeling the gaps, in order to engage more volunteers. When budgets are cut volunteers can be a vital resource. In order to engage more volunteers it is essential to find out what motivates them to volunteer, especially in terms of economic crisis. Volunteering could increase, decrease, or change in some way as the financial situation becomes more tuff.
As more and more people find themselves out of work, so the number of people taking an interest in volunteer work soars, new research shows. Some of the UK's largest volunteering organizations, including CSV and YouthNet, have reported seeing the number of applicants rocket. Among them are new graduates, laid-off workers in their 30s and 40s, as well as older people losing out on jobs to younger people in an increasingly competitive market. Nearly 90% of volunteer centers in England - a kind of job centre for volunteers - saw an increase in inquiries over the six months to March, according to a survey by the Institute of Volunteering Research. It also found of those centers polled, about three-quarters reported volunteers wanting the experience of volunteering to help them find a job. YouthNet says applications have doubled in just one year to about 40,000 in February 2009 and CSV says full-time volunteers offering between four and 12 months are up 55% (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8008428.stm ).
Figures released today by Volunteering England show a further rise in volunteering enquiries in 2009. The research shows that over the past six months, 86% of Volunteer Centers have seen an increase in volunteering enquiries, which represents a further increase on data collected in March this year. Many of these enquiries are being successfully placed into volunteer roles with 72% of Centers placing more volunteers than they were six months ago. Volunteer Centers across the network have been proactive in confronting increased unemployment. Their work and projects on employability have increased by 70% over the last six months. 63% of Volunteer Centers now carry out work specifically on volunteering and employability (http://www.volunteering.org.uk/News).
Historically, it was young people looking for experience in medicine, nursing or probation work. Now it is people in their 30s and 40s, recently made redundant often from manufacturing, looking to develop new skills or keeping their CVs up-to-date. "But for many, the number one reason is to occupy their time, keep active and keep a routine going" (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8008428.stm ).
Consequently, nowadays volunteers might have more specific and unique motives because of the nature of current financial situation.
It is necessary to understand volunteer’s motivation in order to understand their satisfaction, as it could have a dramatic effect on the decision on continuing to volunteer, as well as on the effectiveness of the volunteer during the event. By identifying the motives that drive people to volunteer event managers will be able to make effective recruiting decisions and maximize volunteer involvement to event organizations. Better understanding of volunteer motivations will help to develop an appropriate method for their management. The research objectives are to identify the motives and reasons that drive volunteers to work for Festivals and Special Events, to collect relevant data, to validate and apply an appropriate model, and to identify subgroup differences, using a sample of volunteers.
Limited knowledge of current trends in volunteerism or ignorance of the real needs and motives of volunteers could be catastrophic for the expansion of volunteer human resources and the execution of a special event (D. Strigas and Newton Jackson, 2003). Therefore it is important to gain a better understanding of the motives of short-term volunteers in order to design the marketing tools for future recruitment.
Event volunteers have complex motivations, the same way as volunteers in other settings. However, the episodic nature of event volunteering makes their motivations different from other forms. Cnaan and Goldberg-Geln (1991) reviewed volunteer motivation literature and created a questionnaire with 28 items. Their findings indicated that volunteer motivations were determined by a combination of altruistic and egoistic motives. Farrell, Johnston, and Twynam (1998) developed a specific scale for measuring event volunteer called Special Event Volunteer Motivation Scale (SEVMS). The scale includes 28 items that represent four motivational factors: Purposive, Solidary, External Traditions, and Commitments (Bang et al., 2009). The result of using this model in different types of event showed that the most important motive to volunteer was ‘to help make the event a success’. Twynam et al. (2002-2003) confirmed the structure of the SEVMS. A growing body of research exists on volunteer motivation, satisfaction, and commitment. Those studies include works done by: Green and Chalip (1998, 2004), Elstad (1997, 2003), Saleh and Wood (1998), Coyne and Coyne (2001), Strigas and Newton Jackson (2003).The majority of research has been made on motivation of sport events volunteers (Farrell et al., 1998, Johnston et al, 2000, Bang and Chelladurai, 2003, Ralston et al., 2004, Giannoulakis et al., 2008), mainly on Olympics (Reeser et al., 2005, Tsigilis, 2006, Bang et al., 2009), but those findings are not necessarily applicable to other types of event.
One of the reasons to volunteer could be an intention to help the sport-related event. Another reason is positive emotions and feelings towards a specific sport. However, limited research has been performed on motivation and satisfaction factors of volunteers participating in festivals and special events, which are a growing sector of leisure industry. Saleh and Wood’s study (1998) on volunteer motives in multicultural festival events found that special events-related motives, such as a pride in one’s culture and a desire to maintain links with one’s culture and a desire to maintain links with one’s ethnocultural group, were important while some conventional motives were significant to the volunteers (Bang et al., 2009).
Event volunteer satisfaction is influenced by expectations prior to the event as well as actual experiences during the event which includes the administration and management attributes that influence how effective the event itself is organized (Ralston et al., 2004). People volunteer for different reasons, but they will only continue to volunteer if they enjoy what they are getting from the experience (Ralston et al., 2005). Elstad (1996, cited in Deery, Jago, & Shaw, 1997, p. 20, quoted in Monga, 2006: 51), highlighted that the satisfying factors for the majority of volunteers at the XI Olympic Winter Games were “personal networking, [the] celebratory atmosphere and having fun.”
The unique characteristics of festivals and special events differentiate the motivation to volunteer for special events and festivals from other forms of volunteering (Monga, 2006). The atmosphere of festivals and special events could make the events very attractive and therefore it could be one of the reasons to volunteer for it. Monga (2006) studied volunteers in five different special events and found that motives were similar across all events, and that volunteers do not act due to any one particular motive but due to multiple reasons. The research presents a five-dimensional model to better understand the motivations of special event volunteers as measured by a 26-item scale developed on the basis of literature on special events and motivation to volunteer (MTV). Recognizing the unique characteristics of special events and available literature on special event volunteering, a five-dimensional framework to highlight the main features of motivation to volunteer in special events was developed. Two additional explanatory dimensions—affiliatory and egoistic motivations—were added to the prevailing three-dimensional model constituting altruistic/normative/purposive, material/utilitarian, and solidary/affective/social motivations (Monga, 2006).
Based on the research of Monga (2006), which was shown to be a valid and reliable scale to measure volunteers’ motives, a volunteer survey of one special event and two festivals in London is developed, with the inclusion of one more factor, named unemployment. The survey will be emailed, or place in the website of each event as a feedback. Volunteers will be asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with the items on a scale of 1 to 5.
During the research it will be explored what motives drive people to volunteer for festivals and special events, comparing with the results of the research of Monga in 2006, as the situation at the labour-market had changed In particular, the research is focused on how motives differentiate in the events of 2006 and 2009, and on subgroup differences, which are segmented by gender, age, and employment status. The examination of demographic differences in motivation of festival and special events volunteers will help to recruit and manage volunteers more effectively, as well as to design effective strategies required in order to promote community volunteerism. (Fletcher & Major, 2004, quoted in Bang et al., 2009).
The study includes a sample of volunteers from two festivals and two special events that takes place in London. This city is selected for accessibility reason. The study includes a convenience sample of approximately 150 individuals that will be selected from volunteers who will offer their services in 4 different events: two festivals and two special events. The cooperation with event managers could be necessary in order to provide email database of volunteers or to put feedback questionnaires in the websites.
Quantitative data collection is chosen as a technique for this study. Self-administered internet-mediated questionnaires are used and administered electronically using the Internet. The reason of using internet questionnaires, and in particular those administered in conjunction with email, is that they offer greater control because most users read and respond to their own mail at their personal computer (Witmer et al., 1999, quoted in Saunders et al., 2007). Respondents to self-administered questionnaires are relatively unlikely to answer to please researcher or because they believe certain responses are more socially desirable (Dillman, 2000, quoted in Saunders et al., 2007). The questions of the survey are adapted from Monga (2006) study. This allows comparing the findings with previous study. In the survey are used closed questions, namely 5-point numeric rating scale that will give the possibility to reflect the feeling of the respondents. The reliability is examined through calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each of the dimensions (Monga, 2006). The data is prepared and analyzed using SPSS or PASW (Predictive Analytics Software) Data Entry. This enables the non-open text data set to be automatically coded for data analysis at the point of data entry (Monga, 2006).
Demographic information, such as gender, age, and employment status, is collected to examine potential subgroup differences, using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). It allows to test the effects of gender and employment status of the participations on motivational factors. Findings will provide a better understanding of subgroup differences in motivation of volunteering.
The present study includes Literature Review, which describes the research methodologies, and approaches that others have used, Research Methodology, which provides a detailed description of the research undertaken to fulfill the research objectives, Empirical Findings & Analysis, where the data processing and analysis will be performed, and Conclusion / Recommendations, which will include a summary of the research and the key findings, recommendations and implications, limitations of the research, and reflection on the research process.
