The motives of volunteers provide an important key to understanding an individual's decision to become involved in volunteering
(Kim, Zhang, & Connaughton, 2010). One challenge sporting event managers face is that community sport organizations in particular have
suffered from a lack of volunteers (Cuskelly, 2004). To date, scholars have focused their research efforts to study the motivation and
retention of volunteers for mega-sporting events. Previous researchers, however, suggested that individuals volunteering with mega
sporting events may demonstrate different motivations and behaviors compared to those volunteering in other settings such as community
sport. Therefore, attention should be given to assess whether the motives of those volunteering to work at community sporting events
differ from motives to volunteer at mega sporting events. In spite of the observed differences between community and mega sporting events,
there has been little effort to compare volunteer motivations for the different types of sporting events. Kim et al. (2010) started their
research based on the perspective that different motives may drive volunteers to work in different sport settings, an approach that is
similar to the proposed research. Even though Kim et al. (2010) studied volunteers working with community sport events, (e.g., youth
community sports), a majority of participants in their study were parents who had children participating in sport programs. While youth
sports are considered a facet of community sports, the proposed research focused on volunteers at community sporting events that were
primarily adult oriented other than youth sports oriented. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify the motives that are most and
least important to those who volunteer with community sporting events, and (b) assess whether the particular motives influence intention
to continue volunteering in the future. The results from this study provide community sport organizers with information as to why people
volunteer to work with community sporting events, and how to retain them. The results from this study may be used by administrators in
community sport organizations to develop policies to aid recruitment and retention of volunteers. To achieve the goals of proposed study,
participants who were currently involved in volunteering activities, or had volunteer experiences with community sporting events (e.g.,
community tennis tournaments, road races, and soccer leagues, etc.) were recruited. I collected data via both e-mail and face-to-face. To
analyze the data, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using Mplus was used to assess the hypothesized relationships between volunteer
motivation and intention to continue volunteering. I concluded from the results that Value was the most important motive for volunteering.
The remaining factors, in order of importance for volunteering were Social, Career, Enhancement, and Protective. In terms of intention to
continue volunteering in general, Protective and Career had significant and negative relationships, while Social and Enhancement had
significant and positive influences on overall intention to continue volunteering. Protective had a significant and negative relationship
on intention to continue volunteering relative to the influence by family or friends. Enhancement had a significant and positive influence
on intention to continue volunteering relative to the influence by family or friends. Social and Career did not have a significant
influence on intention to continue volunteering relative to the influence by family or friends. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2016. / April 11, 2016. / Community Sport, Motivation, Retention, Sport, Volunteer / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey James, Professor Directing Thesis; Joshua Newman, Committee Member; Amy Chan Hyung Kim,
Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_360396 |
| Contributors | Lee, Myungwoo (authoraut), James, Jeffrey D. (Jeffrey Dalton) (professor directing thesis), Newman, Joshua I. (committee member), Kim, Amy Chan Hyung (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Sport Management (degree granting department) |
| 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 (111 pages), 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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