Motivation Versus Program Effect on Length of Service

Abstract

The study investigates the comparative influences of the written contract (program effect) versus the slated reasons for volunteering (e.g., advocacy, give back to the community) on length of volunteer service for a group of 106 ombudsman volunteers. The literature suggests that motivations may vary between younger and older families, with younger females seeking to gain knowledge or to advocate; and, older females seeking to fulfill the more traditional objective of giving back to the community. Younger males, who customarily work full time, were expected to be motivated by the need to balance paid work with the satisfaction of gratuitous giving; while, older males were expected to be motivated by the need to fill the void in occupational fulfillment left by retirement. The study explores the contrasting motivations for the four typologies and compares the relative importance of these motivations wilh the importance of a written contract to length of volunteer service. The data used for this study were compiled from the in-house generated assessment questionnaire designed by the Ombudservice of Nassau County. All of the active volunteer files (representing the current population of 53 volunteers) and a random sample of 53 of the inactive volunteer files (volunteers who had left the service) were utilized. The chi square probability of the difference between expected and observed frequencies for length of service for the written contract signers versus non signers is less than five in one hundred, providing evidence of a relationship between lhe written contract and length of service. No relationship was found between age and gender cohort and type of motivation. The majority in each cohort reported advocacy as the motivation for volunteering. However, the frequencies of motivation responses for contract versus noncontract signers, while controlling for length of service, implies an association among these three variables. The non-contract signers who fulfilled the twelve month term of their verbal commitment tended to report advocacy as a motivation for volunteering at a higher rate of frequency than either the non-contract signers who dropped out prematurely, or the contract signers, regardless of length of service. This finding suggests that the endogenous motivation can be as important an influence as an external constraint on length of service. The findings of the study imply that program emphasis may be more of a factor in shaping internal motivations and/or attracting types of volunteers, and in retaining volunteers, than age or gender.