A New Look at Job Demands, Resources, and Volunteers’ Intentions to Leave: The Role of Work–Home Interference and Burnout

Abstract

Volunteers’ intention to leave is a relevant issue for organizations. Thus, it is critical to advance knowledge on its determinants. This study proposes that burnout symptoms mediate the relationship of work–home interference with leaving intentions. In addition, we hypothesize that job resources, namely organizational appreciation and organizational task support, buffer the positive indirect relationship of work–home interference with volunteers’ leaving intentions through burnout symptoms. To this end, we rely on the job demands–resources theory, a theoretical framework first conceived for the paid work context that has been widely applied in volunteering settings. Consistent with our predictions, (moderated) mediation analyses on a sample of 220 Italian volunteers showed that only cynicism, and not emotional exhaustion, significantly mediated the positive relationship between work–home interference and leaving intentions and that organizational appreciation and task support weakened this indirect relationship. We discuss how these findings contribute to theory and practice for the volunteering sector.