Volunteering as Linkage in the Three Sectors

Abstract

The public, the for-profit market, and the nonprofit sectors are often viewed as separate and somewhat competitive segments of society. Voluntary efforts are most commonly associated exclusively with the nonprofit sector. This paper argues that it is not useful to view the three sectors as inviolately separate, nor as competitive. Rather, the author suggests that the sectors are linked in a variety of ways. In particular, the activities of volunteers in all three sectors link them. These voluntary activities also help to reduce competition between the three sectors. Several distinct types of volunteer activities are discussed in support of this argument. First, the author examines the wide range of volunteer activities that occur outside the nonprofit sector. Volunteer activities occur in the public sector, related to cam paigns, policy planning, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. Volunteer activities also occur in the for-profit market sector, often in connection with paid work roles. Volunteer activity in connection with work may be an expansion of the work role, related to professional advancement, or a form of work. The latter sug gests a reformulation of volunteering as a variant of work activity, rather than something apart from paid work roles. Occurrence of volunteering in all three sectors questions the notion of clear conceptual separation between them. Individu als move freely between the three sectors, in both paid and unpaid roles. These individuals perceive commonalities of interest among the sectors. They bring under standing of one sector into the other two. They can propose solutions to conflicts between the sectors, because they are part of all the sectors. They carry information from one sector into the others. In all these ways, individuals moving between the three sectors of society, in both paid and unpaid roles, contribute to closer linkage of the sectors and reduced competition between them.