Volunteers: The Organizational Behavior of Unpaid Workers

Jone L. Pearce

University of  California, Irvine

We know very little about how and why individuals volunteer to work in organizations, and we know even less about how their efforts are organized and directed once they are at work.  Some organizations using volunteers waste the human resources they have; others manage to work effectively and provide valuable services.  Yet there has been little attempt to understand the organizational behavior of volunteers and make better use of their talents.

Volunteers is the first comprehensive book on the organizational behavior of volunteer workers.  It explores why people volunteer for organizational work, drawing upon original research and the existing scholarly work in this field.  A  central theme of the book is the uncertainty volunteers have of their own roles in their organizations, with all the potential frustration this can illicit.

However, much of the existing advice to volunteers or those employing them can be misleading and unhelpful.  In her study, Jone L. Pearce looks at successful and unsuccessful organizations in such areas as the arts, social services and health care.  She discusses the implications of volunteer workers for general theories of organizational behavior, and also outlines the practical effects of an understanding of volunteer workers for all organizations employing them.  Volunteers will be valuable both to scholars interested in management and organizations, and to those working with volunteers in their organizations who want a clearer understanding of how volunteers can successfully organize themselves to achieve their organizational goals.

Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Part I: the Context of Volunteer Organizational Behavior

1. Volunteers at Work

2. The Structural Uncertainty of Volunteers' Settings

3. Volunteers' Jobs

Part II: Why Volunteer?

4. Volunteer Motivation

5. Volunteers' Attitudes: An Exploration of Their Commitment

Part II: Member Reliability and Independence

6. The Organizational Control of Volunteers

7. The Management of Interpersonal Influence

Part IV: Toward Inclusive Organizational Studies

8. Implications for Theories of Organizational Behavior

9. Implications for Volunteer Management and Research

Appendix: Study Methods

References

Name Index

Subject Index

ISBN 0-415-09427          first published in 1993

Routledge  London and New York.