‘New volunteerism and reflexive volunteering: From ‘Altruism’
to Altruistic individualism at mega sports events’
Presentation Delivered at the Sports Volunteering Research
Network Meeting
Wednesday 17th April Northumbria University
Konstantinos Tomazos PhD and Sheila Luke BA (Hons)
Department of Management, University of Strathclyde Business School
Overview
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Volunteering and mega sports events
Traditional approach to volunteering
Volunteering and the current context
New Volunteerism
Altruism and Instrumentalism
Reflexive Volunteering
The Volunteer Assets Model (VAM)
Volunteers and Mega Sports Events
A Volunteer labour force is critical to mega sports events such as the Olympic or
Commonwealth games (Preuss, 2007: 207)
Without volunteers, such events would cease to exist (Goldblatt, 2002: 110)
The costs of running such events with paid labour would be prohibitive and, as
such events increase in size and number, their reliance on volunteers has grown
apace (Nichols and Ralston, 2010:169)
 2000 Olympic Games (Sydney): 70,000 volunteers
 2002 Commonwealth Games (Manchester): 10,500 volunteers
 2012 Olympic Games (London): 70,000 volunteers (required)
 2014 Commonwealth Games (Glasgow): 15,000 (required)
Traditional Approach to Volunteering
 Based around the collective and the community (Hustinx and
Lammertyn, 2003)
 Expression of belonging (Ralston et al, 2004)
 High availability (Meijs and Brudney, 2007)
 Long term involvement (Rehberg, 2005)
 Regularly scheduled engagement (Meijs and Brudney, 2007)
 Related to religious tradition of altruism (Rehberg, 2005)
Altruism: “a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing
another's welfare” (Batson and Shaw, 1991:108)
Volunteering in the Current Context
Volunteering is taking place amidst changing living conditions and
lifestyles (Hustinx et al, 2010).
Time
Constraints
Technological
developments
Changing
working
habits
Economic
downturn
Blurring of
sectors
Globalisation
Consumer
society
Volunteering
Changing
family unit
“New Volunteerism”
Challenge of recruiting and retaining volunteers in an era of a decline in
civic engagement (Putnam, 1993; Stolle and Hooghe, 2003).
• Reinventing the concept of volunteering as “revolving-door”, “drop-by”, or
“plug-in” volunteering (Dekker and Halman, 2003; Eliasoph, 1998).
• Self-driven and self-centred volunteering could provide a new impetus for
an alternative volunteer movement using an army of dedicated individuals
serving others while meeting their own needs and writing their own
narrative of self-actualization (Micheletti, 2003; Handy and Srinivasan,
2004).
Volunteer Motivation
Majority of volunteer studies have examined volunteers as a
homogeneous group, not taking into account the diversity and
proliferation of volunteer activities
 Imprecise
 Inconsistent
Three-dimension model
1. Material/ Utilitarian
2. Solidary/Affective/Social
3. Purposive/Normative/Altruistic
Volunteer Motivations and Mega Sport
Events
Volunteer motivations at mega sports events are distinct from other forms of
volunteering (Farrell et al, 1998; Johnston et al, 2000 )
Memories that
will last a
lifetime
To feel useful
Uniqueness of
the games
To support my
nation
To attend an
Olympic event
Feel good factor
To give
something back
(Ralston et al., 2004; Giannoulakis et al, 2008)
Prestige
The Nature of Altruism
It does not make sense, biologically to help others in a
competitive environment, because it does little to secure our
own survival
But…
Countless examples in the animal world counteract this
perspective (vervet monkeys, vampire bats etc.)
 Inclusive fitness (Hamilton, 1964)
 Reciprocal altruism (Trivers, 1971)
Highly egotistical ?
 Strings attached (Mayr, 1988)
 Seeking admiration and approval from fellow citizens
(Alexander, 1987)
Engaging in Altruistic Acts
 It is difficult to move agents who are genetically
programmed to be selfish to having concern for others.
 Humans are programmed with a primitive form of egoism
that is based on the care of a small number of prudential
values; survival, advancement over others, and gratification
(Griffin, 1997)
 We care for others only to the degree that the well-being of
these others affects our own (social egoism)
 The degree to which we might argue for or against altruism
or egoism is a function of the costs that we may incur in the
transaction
Emotional Basis of Altruism
 Batson (1990) argued that our capacity for altruistic
behaviour/caring towards others hinges on other human
traits that are intrinsically pro-social; shame, empathy and
guilt. These lead to an immediate pay-off for the altruist
(Gintis, 2002)
 Emotions keep us on track in preventing us from making
solely rational decisions in our own best interests based on
minimizing costs and maximizing benefits (Frank, 1988;
Khalil, 2004)
Combining Altruism and Instrumentalism
Enlightened Self Interest
People join together in groups to further the interests of the
group and by that serve their own interests
Is it to the advantage of a person to work for a benefit for all?
Reciprocity central in altruistic acts
Nothing wrong with wanting something in return when acting
for the benefit of a cause or others
Volunteers can be altruistic individualists
Reflexive Volunteering
Fundamentally entrenched in the active (re)design of individualised biographies
and lifestyles (Hustinx and Lammertyn 2003: 238).
• Reflexive volunteers invest a restricted amount of time, and perform a limited
set of activities (Hustinx et al, 2010).
• Scholars of volunteerism and participation document the assumed ‘passing’ of
the traditional volunteer, the emergence and rise of the episodic volunteer
(Cnnan and Handy, 2005; Handy, Brodeur and Cnaan, 2006; MacDuff, 2005), an
apparent loss of social capital (Putnam, 2000), the emergence of
postmodernism (Hustinx and Lammertyn, 2003), and problems of building
citizenship and community spirit (Meijs and Brudney, 2007).
 Have we been using the wrong model of volunteer work?
Need to focus on the organisation’s needs and how the potential volunteers’
assets (talents, capabilities, knowledge and expertise) could serve them best.
The Volunteer Assets Model
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Service: Offering high availability but low assets (The
traditional backbone of volunteer supply)
Star: Offering high availability that host organisations
wish to engage precisely to benefit from their assets
(high levels of professional training or
accomplishment, influence in their community,
association with important decision makers)
Sweat: Offering low availability and low assets. They
include younger volunteers and students engaged in
learning who may just be starting work in
organisations and lack experience. They could also be
highly professional experts who chose to perform
outside their chosen career field (i.e doctors
preparing meals etc)
Specialists: Offering low availability, but have high
assets that they may wish to contribute (highly trained
professionals spanning different fields). They may not
have the opportunity (availability) to contribute these
valuable skills on an on-going basis, but are attracted
to episodic volunteering.
(Devised from the work of Brudney and Meijs, 2009)
The VAM in Action…
• Volunteer administrators should be encouraged to find a ‘fit’ between a potential volunteer’s interests, needs
and motivations and what they as an organisation can offer to them. Getting the correct mix of expectations,
motivations and outcomes could really make a difference in terms of a recruitment drive.
• Looking at the model, any potential training could turn sweat and service volunteers into specialists, but also
the training could be perceived as an added bonus which may affect availability, especially amongst less
represented social groups for whom volunteering for 2014 could be the first form of formal training they may
have received
• Recruitment strategy should communicate to potential volunteers:
 The context of the work, the time considerations, possible out of pocket costs, the training they offer, the
qualifications and characteristics that would be ideal and the benefits to the volunteer.
 The tasks and the skills needed could make the most use of the ‘stars’ volunteers, so that certain vital skills do
not go wasted on the wrong task.
 Another important aspect is taking care of the costs of volunteering participation and communicating that to
the potential participants so that there is no imbalance between the costs and the rewards of the participation.
The potential cost could be a potential barrier that perhaps keeps people with low assets away from
volunteering for the Games and as such it should become perfectly clear to them that all costs would be
covered.
Making the Most out of Volunteers
 The “Volunteer- Fit” Model
RECRUITMENT/
SELECTION
Matching skills to tasks
Inclusivity
Volunteer’s Needs and
Expectations
TRAINING
Transferable Skills
Accredited Qualification
MANAGEMENT
Rotation
Upholding Enthusiasm
Identity Reinforcement
THE EVENT
Inspiration
Community
Ethos
Change
COMMUNICATION
Costs
Benefits
Organization’s Needs and
Expectations
Glasgow 2014 and the VAM…
A Legacy Organization….
Using the Manchester Event Volunteering (MEV) organization (Nichols and
Ralston, 2010: p178) as a role model, Glasgow should perhaps set up a
similar organization
 Marketing Recruitment drives
 Training- Develop a reliable and skilled workforce
 Accreditation from a training body/ Further education Future Employment
 Code of Good Practice Effective volunteer management/ Manual
 Use of Social Media/ Network Branding/ Making Volunteering Cool
Effectiveness/ One Voice If all bodies work under the same umbrella
organization, then the volunteer legacy agenda could be pushed more effectively
References
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BATSON, C. D. & SHAW, L. L. 1991. Evidence for altruism: Toward a pluralism of prosocial
motives. Psychological Inquiry, 2, 107-122.
FARRELL, J. M., JOHNSTON, M. E. & TWYNAM, D. G. 1998. Volunteer motivation, satisfaction,
and management at an elite sporting competition. Journal of Sport Management, 12, 288300.
GIANNOULAKIS, C., WANG, C.-H. & GRAY, D. 2008. Measuring Volunteer Motivation in MegaSporting Events. Event Management, 11, 191-200.
HUSTINX, L., CNAAN, R. A. & HANDY, F. 2010. Navigating Theories of Volunteering: A Hybrid
Map for a Complex Phenomenon. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 40, 410-434.
HUSTINX, L. & LAMMERTYN, F. 2003. Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering: A
Sociological Modernization Perspective. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and
Nonprofit Organizations, 14.
MEIJS, L. & BRUDNEY, J. L. 2007. Winning volunteer scenarios: The soul of a new machine.
International Journal of Volunteer Administration, 24, 68-79.
RALSTON, R., DOWNWARD, P. & LUMSDON, L. 2004. The Expectations of Volunteers Prior to
the XVII Commonwealth Games, 2002: A Qualitative Study. Event Management, 9, 13-26.
REHBERG, W. 2005. Altruistic Individualists: Motivations for International Volunteering
Among Young Adults in Switzerland. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and
Nonprofit Organizations, 16, 109-122.