Comparison of Volunteer Motivations in Different Youth Sport Organizations

Abstract

Volunteers are a crucial component of the work force in the sport industry, particularly in youth sports. Understanding the factors that cause and sustain sport volunteerism would assist sport organizations in recruiting and retaining volunteers. The purpose of the current study was to compare motivation among volunteers at different youth sport organizations/events. Research participants (n=1,099) were four groups of volunteers working at international, national, local and special-needs youth sport organizations/events, who responded to the Modified Volunteer Functions Inventory for Sports (MVFIS) with six factors: Values, Understanding, Social, Career, Enhancement and Protective. A factorial (2x4) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that the mean vector MVFIS factor scores were significantly different among the various organization types and between genders. Follow-up analyses revealed that volunteers working at the international and special-needs sport events displayed higher motivations in all six factor areas than volunteers at the national and local organizations. Female volunteers were higher in Values and Understanding factors.