Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1974. / Typewritten.

South Africais a country with many well documented inequalities. To reduce some of them there are many volunteers working in the country. What is it like to observe and work with people affected by all these inequalities? The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of how volunteers experience their work with children inCape Town. The questions I intend to answer in the study are: How do the volunteers experience their work when meeting kids in vulnerable situations and seeing the situation in the country they work in? Does the volunteer work create more cross- culture understanding and do the volunteers' views change during the course of their volunteer work? What goals and/or reasons do the volunteers have for volunteering?           The study was performed inCape Town,South Africa, and consists of nine semi-structured interviews with volunteers that, in different ways, work with children.                       Previous research about volunteers suggests that volunteer work can increase cross-culture understanding but there is also a risk that it might strengthen the stigmatisation. It is also suggested that volunteer tourism is a more sustainable way of travelling than other forms of tourism. The volunteers are driven by different reasons for volunteering they can have altruistic reasons or they can be driven by more self-developing reasons. The participants in this study had different reasons for volunteering like making a change, getting new experiences etcetera. Many of the volunteers described their first encounter with the South African culture as a bit of a shock due to the extreme poverty evident in the country. They also stated that meeting the children was simultaneously a positive and negative experience, as the poverty and social deprivation affecting the children was hard to observe, yet these are still kids and they play and are happy like any other kids in the world. Many of the participants also felt that they could contribute trough their work and that they had the chance to make a difference.                       The results have been analyzed through two articles on the subject of cross-culture understanding and reasons on volunteering.     A majority of the volunteers described an increased cross-culture understanding, but seemed unaware of the risk of stigmatisation. The volunteers have both more self-fulfilling reasons for volunteering and some more altruistic reasons.

Volunteer tourism (voluntourism) has been described as an alternative form of tourism to mass tourism. It has been suggested that understanding the motivations of voluntourists might lead to a better understanding of the socio-cultural dimension of voluntourism sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to identify the key motives of voluntourists and how these motives affect the socio-cultural sustainability of a society. Virtual ethnography, observation, and semi-structured interviews were employed in order to collect the research data from Eden Valley – a Canadian First Nation reserve, Global Citizen Network (GCN) – a voluntourism organiser, and voluntourists who took part in previous volunteering trips. The study found that authenticity, cultural concerns, the search for unique experience, helping the ‘other’, and self-healing are the key motives that drive travellers to participate in voluntourism projects. The data collected show that voluntourism has a greater positive socio-cultural impact on targeted communities than mass-tourism. / viii, 122 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Background: Today, the tourism sector is one of the economically fastest growing sectors in the world. Volunteer travel is a type of service that is gaining in popularity and a number of tour operators organize these trips. Few aid agencies engaged in volunteer activities and therefore the interest in volunteer travel is caught by tour operators. These tourists travel in small groups and interact with locals. Today fifty million children in Africa are orphaned and Africans struggling with the care of these children by founding orphanages. Research questions: What does volunteers contribute with during their stay at orpahanges? What view does volunteers and orphanages have on volunteer tourism? Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the positive and the negative effects that volunteer tourism contributes to orphanages. Method: The study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-and unstructured interviews, observations, and email interviews. The study is based on a constructionist approach and is conducted at three orphanages in northern Tanzania. Conclusions: Volunteer tourism contributes with both positive and negative effects on the orphanage. Exemples of negative effects include the emotions that arise in children and staff when volunteers go home, the independent situation that arises because of the fact that the orphanages live off donations, poor self-esteem that accurs when children see that volunteers have it better comparing to themselves, the volunteers self fulfillment leads to less involvement in the orphanage during their visit and also the volunteers lifestyles can create confusion for the children. Positively with volunteer tourism is such that volunteers contribute to increased communication, the visit will lead to happiness and increased activity, gifts and money that contribute to better living standards and also increased knowledge to the children and staff.

Thesis (D.Psych.)--Murdoch University, 2008. / Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-218)

Objective To identify characteristics of dietitians who serve as leaders in the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and their managers, and to compare them to registered dietitians not in volunteer leadership roles and their managers. Design A cross-sectional survey of volunteer leaders and those who have never volunteered as leaders in ADA. Subjects/setting The study sample included elected officers in ADA and executive board members of ADA state affiliates (volunteer leaders) (n=259) and their managers (n=115), as well as a sample of registered dietitians not in ADA leadership roles (control) (n=273) and their managers (n=221). Statistical analyses performed The variables examined include employment, personal, and professional demographics, as well as leadership characteristics and manager support. Professional Enrichment and Manager Support Scores were calculated by summing responses to pertinent questions. Descriptive statistics, General Linear Model, and Chi Square tests were used to examine relationships between variables of interest. Results A significantly greater number of volunteer leaders had advanced degrees, were employed as university/college faculty, and were over the age of 45 compared with the control group (Χ2, pConclusions Although there were significant demographic differences between volunteer leaders and the control group in areas of education, employment setting, and age, there are no indications that these differences make it inherently more difficult to volunteer. Having a family does not seem to negatively affect the ability of people to volunteer in ADA. Managers of volunteer leaders verbally or nonverbally show support for their employees to spend time volunteering. Volunteer leaders seem to have a desire to volunteer which cannot be explained by demographic differences from those who choose not to volunteer.

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Agencies such as the Peace Corps are by nature benevolent, which means they are devised for the expressed purpose of granting aid to other persons. In this case, the avowed purpose is aid for the underdeveloped nations of the world. However, politicians lodged in governmental authority are not humanistic solely for the sake of helping others; there are political aims to be gained. What these aims are and how they affect the operation of a youth corps for peace is a major concern of this thesis.

Third sector organisations (TSOs) have been operating in a turbulent environment of social, political and economic changes, presenting challenges to their continued activities. The volunteer workforce, as a key component of TSOs’ human resource, has long been considered crucial for the sector. Despite this acknowledgement, existing research suggests that TSOs have not effectively managed and supported their volunteer workforce in order to sustain development. There are claims for TSOs to place volunteer management (VM) onto a strategic level, and it is considered crucial for TSO managers, CEOs and volunteer coordinators (VCs) to achieve sustainable organisational development through the strategic planning and implementation of VM practices. However, existing research has focussed more on articulating volunteer motives; and little attention has been paid to considering the ways in which individual perspectives influence effective VM. This study addressed the gap by exploring key players’ (CEO, VC and volunteer) perceptions of the policies, practices and processes used to attract, engage and retain volunteers in small to medium Scottish TSOs. It aimed to provide insights into the importance of strategic VM in sustaining TSO performance and in understanding the crucial role of VCs, through unfolding the processes of making and fulfilling individual volunteer psychological contracts (VPCs). Three case studies were carried out within three Scottish TSOs; in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with participants occupying different roles, CEO (n=3), VC (n=5) and volunteers (n=16). Supplementary data were obtained through documentary study of VM policies and practices. Data collection was guided by a conceptual framework developed by embedding the Resource Based View (RBV) of HRM and HR devolution to the Line into the process of making and fulfilling the psychological contract. Results support the claim that TSOs would benefit from more strategic management of their volunteer workforce as a competitive resource. Examining VM through the lens of the VPC provided empirical evidence to confirm that it is crucial to engage and retain volunteers by shaping their expectations and motives within the TSO, and thus ensure more sustainable TSO performance. The results further support the salient role of VC as volunteer line manager, in attracting, engaging and retaining volunteers through effective VM implementation. In arriving at these results, this research has extended the theoretical debate on the importance of strategic HR management and the key role that line managers can play in achieving this beyond the more dominant private sector focus.