Leisure As Volunteering an International Assessment

Volunteering as Leisure/ Leisure as Volunteering An International Assessment Edited by Robert A. Stebbins University of Calgary Margaret Graham Ca/edonian University CABI Publishing ..' CABI Publishing is a division of CAB International CAB! Publishing CAB! Publishing CAB International 875 Massachusetts Avenue Wallingford 7th Floor Oxfordshire OXl0 8DE Cambridge, MA 02139 UK USA Tel, +44 (0)1491 832111 Tel, +1 617 395 4056 Fax, +44 (0)1491 833508 Fax, +1 617 354 6875 E-mail, [email protected] E-mail,[email protected] Website, www.cabi-publishing.org «:>CAB International 2004. ADrights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically,by 'photocopying,recording or otherwise,without the prior permissionof the copyright oWners. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Llbrary, London, UK. Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Volunteeringas leisure/leisureas volunteering: an international ossessment I edited by Robert A. Stebbins and Margaret Graham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-85199-750-3 (alk. paper) 1. Voluntarism. 2. leisure. I. Stebbins, Robert A., 1938-- 11.Graham, Margaret, 1952- DI. Title. HN49.V64V64 2003 302'.14---dc22 2003016240 ISBN 0 85199 750 3 Typeset by ServisFllmsetting Ltd, Manchester Printed and bound in the UK by Cromwell Press, Trowbridge Contents vii Contributors xiii Preface xv Aclmowledgements 1 Introduction Robert A. Stebbins 1 Volunteering as Heritage / Volunteering in Heritage 13 Margaret Graham Part I Establishing Long-term Commitment: Event 31 Volunteering 2 Adopting Sustainable Ethics: Voluntary Practice Amongst 33 Event Organizers Graham Berridge 3 Paths to Volunteer Commitment: Lessons from the Sydney 49 Olympic Games B. Christine Green and Laurence Cha/Ip Part II Changing Volunteer lifestyles: Motivation and Satisfaction 69 4 Volunteer Satisfaction and Serious l...eisurein Rural Fire Departments: hnplications for Human Capital and Social Capital 71 Kenneth B. Perkins and John Benoit V vi Contents 5 Understanding American Parks and Recreation Volunteers Utilizing a Functionalist Perspective 87 Kenneth E. Sih>erberg 6 A Logistical Regression Model of the Decision of Volunteers to Enter a Sports Coach Education Programme 111 Brian E. Wilson Part Ill Politics of Volunteering and Active Citizenship: Policy Issues 135 7 Defining Field Characteristics of Museums and Art Museums: an Australian Perspective 13 7 Deborah Edwards 8 Volunteering in the Canadian Context: Identity, Civic Participation and the Politics of Participation in Serious Leisure 151 Susan M. Arai 9 Managing Volunteers in Different Settings: Membership and Programme Management 177 Lucas C.P.M. Meijs and Linda Bridges Karr Part IV Encouraging the Next Generation: Sustainability and Youth Volunteering 195 10 Pressures on Volunteers in the UK 197 Geoff Nichols 11 Examining Best Practice in Volunteer Tourism 209 Stephen Wearing 12 Fostering Human Resources in the Leisure Field: 'Serious Leisure' and the Potential Role of Volunteers. A Proposal for Developing Countries 225 Antonio Carlos Bramante 13 Epilogue 241 ·Index 247 Managing Volunteers in 1· 1 j Different Settings: Membership and Programme Management Lucas C.P.M. Meijs 1 and Linda Bridges Karr 1Business Society Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; 2Department of Sociology/JCS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Introduction I thinkthe discussionabout the 'Americanmodel' is not very clear.It is assumed that the USA has the largest non·profit sector in the world, but research has shown that the sector relatively speaking is stronger in The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium and Israel. And even if the percentage of volunteering in the population is higher in the US, the difference is not so big comparedwith some European countries. The rea1difference, I believe, is not in the scope of volunteeringor the sector, but in the way the work is organised. h is not primarily volunteering that is different- that's a resuh- it is the voJunteerorganisation that is different. In Europe we have a membership tradition, in the US a service deliveiy tradition. In the former everything starts with the members. They form an organisation, they decide what ii should do, and they do the job. In the·latter an organisationstarts with the taskand then recruitsvolunteers to do the work. The first model is strong on democracy,the secondon service deliveiy. If helping people is your major aim, the service deliveiy model is obviously much more efficient. From my European perspective, to combine the strengthof the two into one organisationseems to be the bestsolution. But is that possible> (Chrisler Leopold, Senior Officer, Volunteering, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Leopold, 2000)) This quote from Chrisler Leopold shows that there is no generic model that can be applied to all volunteering/volunteer management contexts. Volun teering, volunteers and the way they are organized and managed differ from context to context. This chapter delves further into the growing understand ing of the diversity of volunteering and volunteer management. The chapter focuses on the different settings in which volunteering takes place. These e 2004 CAB International.Volunteering as Leisure/Leisureas Volunteering: an InternationalAssessment (eds RA Stebbins and M. Graham) 177 178 L. C.P. M. Meijs and L. BridgesKarr different settings are linked to different management approaches: member ship and programme management. The first part of the chapter draws the differences between a membership and a programme approach lo manag ing volunteers (based upon Meijs and Hoogstad, 2001). In the second part these two approaches are linked lo different organizational and emotional settings in which people volunteer. The final part draws conclusions on the relation between organizational context and the way that volunteers should be managed. Two Different Management Approaches Meijs and Hoogstad (2001) observe that European (Dutch, in particular) vol unteer organizations take a fundamentally different approach to the manage ment of volunteers than do American volunteer organizations. In their typology, management systems most often focus either on the volunteers themselves (membership management) or on specific operational tasks (pro gramme management). In the former systein, common to European organ ' izations, tasks are created such that they fit the expectations of the volunteers existing within the group. Conversely, organizations adopting the more 'American' style of programme management begin by identifying the tasks to be done and then find volunteers to do them. The international literature on volunteer management is dominated by this programmatic approach, which canalso be typed as the workplace model (see e.g. Brudney, 1990; Wilson, 1990; Ellis, 1996). The membership model is less known, although some writers explain that this is also important (Smith, 2000). Membership management is capable of generating broad, multi faceted involvement of volunteers, leading perhaps to greater overall satis faction with the volunteer experience. By focusing first on the volunteers (who are treated as members and have a strong sense of belonging to the organization) and their goals, the membership-managed organization shapes itself to the needs and desires of its membership annex volunteers. Through careful attention to who is to be admitted to membership, ii guards against the introduction of members whose goals may be contrary to those of the existing membership. This leads lo a very 'our breed of volunteers' way of selecting volunteers and a difficulty in working with diversity. Because it is tailor-made to the specifications of the membership, ii would be difficult for a member lo find such a good fit with any other organiza tion. Because the costs of both entry and exit are high, the membership managed organization may cultivate considerable loyalty among its individual members. Entry costs are high because people need to develop trust with the organization (typically this is done by all kinds of social activ ities such as playing cards with existing volunteers). Ex.it costs are high because people lose long-time friendships when leaving. By these means a strong organizational culture is developed. Managing Volunteersin Different Settings 179 However, membership management does not always provide a stable basis for the continuity of an organization. While individual volunteers may indeed remain loyal to the organization for long periods of time, the organ ization itself risks stagnation, lack of growth and eventually extinction. One practical challenge of membership management is that it assumes the neces sity of a close connection between the board and the volunteers. While the extensive and prolonged involvement of board members in this system pro vides continuity to the organization, it makes ii very difficultto adapt to envi ronmental changes or even demographic shifts in the membership base. In many cases the board is more 'old fashioned' than the volunteers, while the volunteer is outdated compared to the diversity in the population and the needs that must be addressed. Because of this, the membership-managed organization may eventually face a slow and painful death! Consider the example of traditional women's emancipatory organizations, which are unable to change their organization to attract younger

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