Volunteer Management: Responding to the Uniqueness of Volunteers

Volunteer management (VM) has been strongly influenced by classical human resource management (HRM). There is a growing body of volunteer literature, however, that argues that volunteers differ from paid staff and that VM should therefore respond to the uniqueness of volunteers. In this study, we apply principal component analysis to reveal a few overarching principles of management responses to the uniqueness of volunteers. Furthermore, we use sequential regression analysis to examine the capacity of these principles to complement classical HRM in relation to the desired VM outcome. Our findings suggest that principles such as balance of interest, strategic commitment toward volunteers, role clarity, team spirit, and respect complement classical HRM effectively by focusing on volunteers as a unique stakeholder group. In addition, job characteristics and the resources available for VM significantly contribute to the effectiveness of VM.