Changing levels of organizational commitment amongst sport volunteers: A serious leisure approach

Abstract

Taking a serious leisure approach, a sample of volunteer administrators in community sport organizations were surveyed about their level of organizational commitment and their reasons for initially volunteering and continuing to volunteer. The aim was to explore the dynamics of changing levels of commitment in relation to initially volunteering and continuing to volunteer. Based on their reasons for volunteering, the respondents were categorized as either marginal or career volunteers on two separate occasions. For many respondents, their reasons for volunteering changed from when they initially volunteered to the reasons they had for continuing. Levels of organizational commitment also changed over time and declined for both marginal and career volunteers, but the results suggested that career volunteers are more highly committed than their marginal counterparts. It was concluded that, from time to time, volunteers may re‐evaluate their reasons for volunteering and that as their reasons for volunteering change, so does their level of organizational commitment. Though less committed than career volunteers, marginal volunteers who continued to volunteer held a positive attitude toward their community sport organization.