Volunteers are among the most important assets of an arts organization. As trends in volunteerism are based on societal changes, the number of episodic volunteers, that is, volunteers who prefer a flexible and sporadic volunteer schedule, has increased. The research question driving this study concerned the motivating factors that lead episodic volunteers to initiate and continue their contribution of time and effort to arts organizations. In order to address this question a number of variables were measured, including volunteers' demographic characteristics, functional motivation for volunteering, and functional outcomes from volunteering. Using the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) developed by Clary et al. (1998), data from 137 respondents were collected through an online survey managed through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (www.MTurk.com) and SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 version and several statistical techniques, including descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation. Relationships between functional volunteer motivations were examined, as well as between outcomes, satisfaction, and long-term intentions. Based on functional motivation and outcomes, predictions about continued volunteering were made. Among the six motivation functions, the understanding, enhancement, and values functions were the most popular reasons for volunteering, and frequent outcomes among the participants within almost every variable group. In addition, these three functions were significantly related to volunteer satisfaction levels as well as long-term intentions. However, the other three social, career, and protective functions also occurred within some variable groups. The participants' satisfaction level was the greatest predictor of the will to keep volunteering in arts organizations. These findings have practical applications for arts organizations in helping to manage or recruit volunteers. On a heuristic level, this study serves as a starting point for more research on volunteerism in arts organizations. A detailed discussion of the findings, as well as conclusions, implications, and recommendations for future research are included. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2012. / September 13, 2012. / Arts Organizations, continue to volunteer, Episodic Volunteer, Functional
Motivation, Motivate, VFI / Includes bibliographical references. / Pat Villeneuve, Professor Directing Dissertation; Valerie Shute, University Representative; Tom Anderson, Committee Member; Dave Gussak, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183848 |
| Contributors | O, Ji Hyun (authoraut), Villeneuve, Pat (professor directing dissertation), Shute, Valerie (university representative), Anderson, Tom (committee member), Gussak, Dave (committee member), Department of Art Education (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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