The Relationship Between Leadership Behaviors and Volunteer Commitment: The Role of Volunteer Satisfaction

Abstract

Despite the relative scarcity of studies on the impact of leadership styles on satisfaction and commitment of volunteers within non-profit organizations, this relationship plays a crucial role in fostering sustained volunteerism and volunteers' well-being. A questionnaire was administered to more than 200 volunteers involved in delivering social services in non-profit organizations from Central and Northern Italy. The questionnaire contained the Volunteer Satisfaction Index, the sub-scale on Affective Commitment of the Organizational Commitment Scale, and two sub-scales of the Key Leadership Behaviors, namely: Helping people to grow and lead, and Enabling learning and innovation. Socio-demographic data were collected as well. Findings revealed that leaders' actions oriented toward the enablement of learning and innovation have an effect on volunteers' affective commitment, through the full mediation of volunteer satisfaction. Leaders' actions oriented toward the growth and empowerment of volunteers, instead, did not show significant relationships with volunteer satisfaction and affective commitment.

Volunteer leadership: A silent factor in student volunteer retention

“…Good leadership is expressed as being efficient, having regular and effective communication which includes feedback, being organised, providing adequate training (Cady et al, 2018; Studer & von Schnurbein, 2013), demonstrating passionate and dedicated engagement with student volunteers, along with being supportive and enabling volunteer growth. The impact of leadership on volunteer retention is a hot topic of late (Benevene et al, 2020; Cho et al, 2020; Metin & Coskun, 2016). However, student volunteer leadership is unexplored.…”

“…Leadership significantly impacts the process of volunteers experiencing fulfilled or unfulfilled expectations, which may have a direct effect on sustained participation and retention (Goslin, 2006). Good leadership is expressed as being volunteer retention is a hot topic of late (Benevene et al, 2020;Cho et al, 2020;Metin & Coskun, 2016). However, student volunteer leadership is unexplored.…”

“…Importantly, we highlight ineffective volunteer leadership as a contributing factor to low student volunteer retention rates. Leadership has previously been mentioned as a contributing factor to volunteer retention in the context of event, community, and nonprofit organisations (Adedokun & Kayode, 2019; Benevene et al, 2020; Cho et al, 2020; Metin & Coskun, 2016). We direct attention to student volunteer leadership and its impact on student volunteer retention that remains unexplored in the literature.…”

Kesan Kepimpinan Kebaktian Terhadap Tingkah Laku Kewarganegaraan Organisasi: Komitmen Organisasi sebagai Pengantara

“…Gaya kepimpinan yang meliputi ciri-ciri pemerkasaan kakitangan, rendah diri, mendahulukan kakitangan dan kejujuran merupakan ciri-ciri utama kepimpinan kebaktian (Van Dierendonck 2011;Sendajaya et al 2019). Gaya kepimpinan ini adalah bersesuaian dengan ciri-ciri organisasi bukan keuntungan kerana sukarelawan tidak sama dengan pekerja yang menerima upah kerana motivasi mereka untuk melibatkan diri dan melaksanakan tugasan adalah berbeza (Benevene et al 2021;Tavanti & Tait 2021).…”

Leaders Inspiring the Next Generation of Citizen Scientists – An Analysis of the Predictors of Leadership in Birding

“…Future studies should address other roles of leaders as well as characteristics of successful leaderships. Other roles important in outdoor recreation leaders also include motivating the participants, encouraging them, empower volunteers and enable learning rather than distracting people from this activity (Ford and Blanchard, 1993;Benevone et al, 2020). A special focus may lie on transformational leadership, which concerns leaders who are highly inspiring and motivating for followers, helping them to meet higher performance targets (Almas et al, 2020).…”