Tyrimo objektas - vadybiniai psichologiniai savanorystės fenomeno aspektai sporto sektoriuje. Probleminis (tiriamasis) klausimas: kaip organizuoti tinkamą savanorių atranką ir jų išlaikymą pagal vadybinius psichologinius ypatumus, kuriais remiasi savanorišką veiklą sporto sektoriuje pasirinkę asmenys? Tyrimo tikslas ― atskleisti savanorystės fenomeno sporto sektoriuje vadybinius psichologinius aspektus. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti ir įvertinti savanorių veiklos vadybinius ypatumus amžiaus, lyties, darbo patirties (užimtumo), savanoriavimo patirties aspektais. 2. Nustatyti ir išanalizuoti savanorių veiklos psichologinius ypatumus amžiaus, lyties, darbo patirties (užimtumo), savanoriavimo patirties aspektais. Išvados: 1. Savanorių veiklos vadybiniai ypatumai: 1.1. Daugiausiai Sporto savanorių sąjungos narių savanorišką veiklą atlieka krepšinio rungtynėse. Šis pasirinkimas statistiškai reikšmingai skiriasi savanoriavimo patirties aspektu (p < 0,05). Savanoriaujant kitose sporto šakose, amžiaus, lyties, užimtumo aspektai reikšmingos įtakos neturi. 1.2.Reikšmingai daugiau vyresnių savanorių teisėjauja arba vadovauja sporto rungtynėse/varžybose. Reikšmingai daugiau jaunesnių savanorių teikia praktinę pagalbą negu atlieka kitus darbus (p < 0,05). Lyties, užimtumo, savanoriavimo patirties aspektais atitinkamos savanoriškos veiklos pobūdžio atlikimo rezultatų skirtumas statistiškai nereikšmingas. 1.3. Savanoriškai veiklai sporto sektoriuje savanoriai, nepriklausomai nuo amžiaus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research object - management psychological aspects of the volunteering phenomenon in the sport sector. Problem (exploratory) issue: how to organize a proper selection and retention of the volunteers according to the management psychological peculiarities. Aim of the research - to reveal management psychological aspects of the volunteering phenomenon in the sport sector. Research tasks: 1. To set and evaluate volunteers’ activity management peculiarities according to the age, gender, work and volunteering experience aspects. 2. To set and analyze volunteers’ activity psychological peculiarities according to the age, gender, work and volunteering experience aspects. Conclusions: 1. Volunteers’ activity management peculiarities showed that: 1.1 Most of all volunteers provide their support in the basketball competitions. Selection of the basketball competitions statistically significantly differs from the other sport branches in respect to the experience of volunteering (till 6 months and over 6 months) (p<0.05). Volunteering activity performance due to the age, gender, occupation doesn’t have any significant impact in the particular fields. 1.2 Organizing volunteering activities and its performance the biggest attention was given to the practical assistance provision. Performance of the corresponding volunteers’ activity statistically differs according to the age aspect: much more senior volunteers are coaching in the sport competitions and much more young volunteers provide... [to full text]

The primary aim of this study is to investigate young people´s motives and expectations for participating in the action two “European Voluntary Service” (EVS) under the Youth In Action programme supported by the European Commission at the youth center Villa Elba in Finland. The study also aims to identify which competences the young people think they have developed through EVS. The study consists of one group interview and one focus group interview with ten EVS volunteers in total who accomplish short-term EVS and long term EVS during one month respectively nine months. The methodology is based upon a qualitative research approach and in order to reach a better understanding of the respondents’ motives for participating in EVS, the theories modernity, reflexive project of the self and the individualized society were chosen. The study is also based upon background information about EVS and earlier research. The results indicate that the EVS volunteers’ main motives for participating in EVS were: acquiring new skills, meet new people, and experience an adventure in another country. The most common competence developments turned out to be in the areas of language, social and initiative skills. Moreover, the study demonstrates that many young people in Europe face difficulties in getting into the labour market and becoming independent. The main reason is the economic recession which has severely affected the situation for young people in Europe and this is also confirmed by earlier research. Even though the respondents had positive opinions about their EVS project, criticism was raised towards the European Union´s ideas of creating a feeling of European Citizenship through programmes such as EVS.

This bachelor thesis is related to the phenomenon of student volunteering, in Sweden, the field of study and its own context. Our argumentation is based on the concept of “motivation” and focused on the students of universities in Sweden. In order to lead this research, we created a survey and sent it to the 14 Erasmus Student Networks (ESN) of Sweden in order to use their database and spread the survey. We wanted to answer our research question: What are the motivations behind student volunteering in a Swedish context? We obtained 123 answers related to items of interest for our study: the motivations to start volunteering, the abilities students improved, how often student volunteer and why they don’t volunteer, for example. Moreover, we proposed a typology of volunteers depending on their frequency of volunteering. Note that most of the answers came from the city of Växjö, which consist of one of the biggest limitations of the results. We answered 6 hypothesis but only 4 of them found a suitable answer. Our findings are as following: younger surveyees tend to volunteer more frequently than older ones. Regarding their origins (Swedish or international student), it is not confirmed that volunteers want to improve different abilities and have different motives to volunteer. Furthermore, it is confirmed that students volunteer following intrinsic motivations more than extrinsic ones. Finally, we pointed out that Swedish students who are not studying at their home town volunteer for organizations in order to meet new people and to make new friends.

This thesis deals with volunteering in the Czech Republic, focusing on the specifics of voluntary work in medical facilities. The theoretical part provides excursus into the back stage of voluntary work. The first chapter is designed to focus on prosocial behaviour, in particular on the phenomenon of altruism. Additional chapters focus on the topic of volunteering as a whole, including a short history of volunteering, typology of volunteering, typology of volunteers and areas where volunteers currently operate. The basic theme of this part, however, is the volunteer; the possibilities of her/his volunteer activities, motivation, psychological contributions and whole passage through the program from the applicant to the experienced individual. Empirical part deals with two points of view on volunteering. The first is the aspect of the individual - and the possibility of prediction of her/his staying in the program by filling the entry questionnaire, which has been developed in this work. The second viewpoint targets on volunteering in the health services as a system of work and on organizing the voluntary activities. The research is based on the method of evaluation of the volunteering program. Key words: volunteering, altruism, evaluation, choice of volunteers.

TITLE: Motivation of Volunteers to Work Clown for Health AUTHOR: Bc. Tereza Zlámalová DEPARTMENT: Psychology SUPERVISOR: PhDr. Dana Bittnerová, Csc. ABSTRACT This submitted thesis "Motivation of Volunteers to Work Clown for Health" is conceived as theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part of thesis tries to identify the main motives leading to the decision of people to become a volunteer working in the hospital environment and motives which make these volunteers stay with the work of medical clown. It explains basic concepts asociated with volunteerism, its historical context and its current status in Czech Republic. The thesis looks at motivation from psychological and sociological perspective. The theoretical part explains main concepts of medical clown and describes program Dr. Klaun and a Zdravotní klaun organisation. The aim of empirical part of the thesis is to answer the question of what kinds of motivation lead the Dr. Klaun volunteers to work as a medical clown. The research is based on qualitative analysis using the grounded theory. The main motives are personal benefit, a sense of belonging to the reference group and the opportunity to be a clown and have fun. In conclusion, author examines the use of this new acquired theory. KEYWORDS motivation, volunteer, motivation to volunteering,...

Thesis advisor: Christina Matz-Costa / Despite the fact that older workers (50+) are much overrepresented among the long-term unemployed and often suffer from multiple mental health problems, the social work literature has rarely tackled this issue. In my dissertation, guided by Jahoda’s Latent Deprivation Theory and the productive aging framework, I examined the positive coping strategies of unemployed older workers. I set out to understand whether engaging in formal volunteering in an organization would buffer the negative impact of unemployment on older workers’ mental health. I also fill out the gap in the literature regarding the mechanism of the positive effect of volunteering on mental health by examining two latent benefits from working as mediators: purpose in life and perceived social status. I used fixed effects modeling for the moderation analysis. I analyzed six waves (12 years) of longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). I used structural equation modeling and analyzed two waves of HRS for the mediation analysis. I used full information maximum likelihood method to handle missing values. I found that there was a significant moderation between engaging in formal volunteering and unemployment status on older workers’ depressive symptoms. Unemployed older workers who engaged in volunteering fared better than those unemployed workers who did not volunteer. Consistent with previous studies using the HRS, I also found that those unemployed older workers who volunteered over 200 hours/year did not benefit from volunteering compared to those volunteered under 100 hours/year. Mediation analysis results showed that perceived social status and purpose in life mediate the protective effect of volunteering. Both the moderation and mediation results varied by race and ethnicity. Results from this dissertation have important implications for future intervention development. For example, interventions targeting the unemployed older workers may incorporate formal volunteering as one element for participants to gain social contact, purpose in life, and enhance perceived social status. Interventions can also create an environment that mirrors an office to enhance these latent benefits (mediators) in order to improve mental health. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Dodson / Service learning has emerged as one of the most popular mechanisms to promote and teach students about civic, moral, and political responsibility in American colleges and universities. This dissertation offers a critical exploration of the potential and limitations that engagement in service activities, and service learning in particular, can offer. The research was designed to explore how individual long-term volunteers attach meaning to their service experience, as well as how these meanings are constructed. In other words, what is the process by which students come to make sense of the volunteer work in which they are engaged? Of particular interest are the potential connections between these constructed meanings and a sense of politics or a sense of social change strategies. To explore the ways in which volunteers attach meaning to their service experience, I conducted participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with a number of college students currently participating in a structured long-term service learning program; along with staff members of this program and of community partner organizations; and a group of comparison volunteers. This research provides an overview of the relationships, roles, responsibilities, benefits, challenges, and overall structure and design of a long-term service learning program. Participation in a structured service learning program shapes the ways in which students think about their service as it relates to a sense of politics and social change. However, the connection between service and political engagement is often complicated by a lack of political opportunities, a perceived lack of civic skills or political knowledge, and views of politics as divisive and ineffective. This dissertation also contributes to a greater understanding of the ways in which collective identity can develop among student service learners, and how this collective identity may impact their work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

This study explores the extent to which government policies for higher education impact upon the ways in which higher education institutions (HEIs) implement these and the students themselves experience their studies. The focus is accredited volunteering in higher education. A case study approach has been undertaken to scrutinise the impact of policy directives on several stakeholders within one post-1992 HEI, the University of Wrottesley (a pseudonym). The methodological approach is qualitative. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with senior university staff and Students Union personnel, and a detailed on-line survey was conducted with three cohorts of students undertaking the Volunteering in the Curriculum (ViC) programme. What emerges is the extent to which the dominant discourse of 'employability' is foregrounded in government policy directives, and the pressures thus placed on the university management of Wrottesley to respond effectively to first destination scores (DHLE). 'Employability' in this sense is understood as a graduate student obtaining employment, rather than a broader sense of good learning which embraces both learning (cognitive, theoretical and practical) and employability (Knight & Yorke, 2004). The findings expose the ways in which volunteering has been drawn into the dominant discourse of 'employability', yet what emerges from the student survey of their participation in the ViC programme is a broader, more nuanced learning experience which draws on both experiential and theoretical learning that encompasses academic studies, personal development, social action and graduate employment. The evidence validates the theoretical and pedagogic practice of ViC whereby students experience holistic learning. Universities such as Wrottesley are missing an opportunity in not embracing wider objectives of initiatives such as ViC which enable enhancement of graduate employability and also learning gain with the development of well rounded critical citizens and institutional permeability between community and the academy.

This diploma thesis elaborates on the topic of informal learning within volunteering activities with children and youth. It is based on the concept of lifelong learning and describes characteristics of informal learning and volunteer work. It pays attention to types of motivation for volunteering and shows the possibilities of informal learning within volunteering activities with children and youth. The empirical research uses the questionnaire to examine the forms of self-directed learning. In particular, it examines the areas in which the self-directed learning is most frequently carried out and the impact of the most frequently held function on choice of areas of self-directed learning. The research also focuses on the impact of reciprocal motivation on the proportion of self-directed learning realized within volunteering activities and on the perception of selected activities as the source of new incentives and information. The ending part of the thesis contains interpretation of results and recommendation for future research in the field.

This research explores the learning of volunteers who are being trained to perform service-providing roles within UK health and social care charities. Within these charities, volunteers often perform complex roles in dynamic environments, supporting service users and addressing challenging causes. This thesis argues that the charity and voluntary environment offers certain affordances, and also constraints, that provide opportunities for transformative learning experiences. The limited previous studies on the learning of volunteers have tended to concentrate on training evaluations or informal learning 'on the job', resulting in an unhelpful formal/informal dichotomised approach to learning. The research proposes that this approach has been unable to offer a detailed insight into the learning experienced by volunteers within the training process. In particular, this dichotomised view has been unable to account for both the learning of scientific concepts, such as the specific health conditions these charities are addressing, and everyday experiences of both volunteers and service users that are integral to the learning process. To address this gap, the thesis draws upon Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), which is an approach grounded in Hegelian dialectics. Specifically, the CHAT-informed theories of expansive learning (Engeström, 1987) and Transformative Activist Stance (TAS) (Stetsenko, 2008) are synthesised to examine how volunteers interact with and within the charity environment through practices of training. Through this perspective, learning is conceptualised as a form of individual and social transformation, which expands the possibilities for collective activity. Expansive learning and TAS have previously been drawn upon to provide insight into learning in the workplace and in projects of social change respectively. However, so far the theories have not been focused on learning within the charity and voluntary environment. A multiple case study of three health and social care charities based in North West England provides the empirical data for the research. Each charity addresses a complex health and social cause, including stroke, sexual violence and HIV, and relies on volunteers to help provide services. Multiple qualitative methods, including observations of training, charity staff interviews, along with interviews and focus groups with volunteers, allow a range of perspectives and positions to be taken into account in line with the epistemology of the study. Data are analysed through the process of abduction drawing upon a CHAT-informed theoretical framework. The thesis intends to contribute to knowledge in two main areas. Firstly, it aims to increase understanding of learning within volunteer training, including how learning in the charity environment can be supported, sustained and made meaningful to enable transformative experiences. Secondly, it aims to theoretically advance CHAT, and the charity and voluntary environment is presented as a fruitful setting for developing particular aspects of the theory, such as emotion and agency.