Too Much of a Good Thing? The Emotional Challenges of Managing Affectively Committed Volunteers

Abstract

This article presents the emotional challenges of managing affectively committed volunteers and the associated impacts on the managerial task. Through a qualitative arts-based study at a U.K. nonprofit organization, the National Trust, dominant rhetoric positioning volunteering as positive is problematized. Paid managers find managing affectively committed volunteers emotionally demanding and are often reluctant to address what they perceive to be difficult volunteer behavior. This study conceptualizes the emotionally challenging behaviors of volunteers and the reluctance of their paid managers to address them, as a consequence of a variation in adherence to the organizational display and feeling rules that define their shared emotional arena. This is influenced by the existence or lack of an employment contract within the context of their affective commitment. Suggestions are made for further research and practice regarding the management of volunteers.