Understanding the Management of Sports Events Volunteers Through Psychological Contract Theory

Abstract

This paper juxtaposes the expectations of event managers and sports event volunteers in a case study organisation. These are understood within the theoretical framework of the psychological contract. Results show the distinctive contribution volunteers can make to events but also the distinctive challenges they present to event managers. For event managers, volunteers bring: enthusiasm, a good relationship and empathy with the public, and they provide a cheaper labour force. But a major concern is ensuring their reliability. For volunteers, important expectations include: flexibility of engagement, the quality of personal relationships, recognition for their contribution, and a clear communication of what they are expected to do. The juxtaposition of event manager and volunteer perspectives illustrates the need for a different approach to managing volunteers in comparison to paid employees. This reflects both volunteers' expectations and the recognition that they have greater autonomy; not being tied to a contract by financial rewards or a related career progression. More generally the results illustrate the use of the theoretical framework provided by the psychological contract but that in using this it is valuable to compare the perspectives of managers and volunteers, using a qualitative approach to understand this social relationship.Résumé Cet article juxtapose aux attentes des organisateurs celles des volontaires d'événements sportifs dans une organisation d'études de cas. Ceci doit être compris dans le cadre théorique du contrat psychologique. Les résultats indiquent la contribution caractéristique que les bénévoles peuvent apporter aux événements mais aussi les défis caractéristiques qu'ils présentent aux organisateurs. Pour les organisateurs, les bénévoles apportent : de l'enthousiasme, une bonne relation et de l'empathie vis-à-vis du public ; ils offrent aussi une force de travail meilleur marché. Cependant, la principale préoccupation est d'assurer leur fiabilité. En ce qui concerne les bénévoles, les attentes les plus importantes comprennent : la souplesse de l'engagement, la qualité des relations personnelles, la reconnaissance de leur contribution et une communication claire de ce que l'on attend d'eux. La juxtaposition des perspectives des organisateurs et des bénévoles, illustre le besoin d'une approche différente pour gérer les bénévoles par opposition aux employés rému-nérés. Ceci reflète à la fois les attentes des volontaires et la reconnaissance qu'ils ont d'une plus grande autonomie qui n'est pas liée pas les obligations d'un contrat ou un avancement de carrière. Plus généralement, les résultats illustrent l'utilisation du cadre théorique fourni par le contrat d'ordre psychologique mais ceci en utilisant sa valeur pour comparer les perspectives des managers et volontaires, en utilisant une approche qualitative pour comprendre cette relation sociale.Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel stellt die Erwartungen von Veranstaltungsmanagern von Sportveranstaltungen denen von freiwilligen Helfern in einer ...

Effects of ideological and relational psychological contract breach and fulfilment on volunteers’ work effort

“…We broaden this literature by scrutinizing the effects of ideological PC breach and fulfilment on work effort in a sample of volunteers. This article thus adds to an emergent line of research on volunteers' PCs (Farmer & Fedor, 1999;Nichols, 2012;Nichols & Ojala, 2009;Ralston, Downward, & Lumsdon, 2004;Smith, 2004;Starnes, 2007;Taylor, Darcy, Hoye, & Cuskelly, 2006;Vantilborgh et al, 2011a;Vantilborgh et al, 2011b;Vantilborgh et al, 2012). Our study's contributions are threefold.…”

The management of volunteers – what can human resources do? A review and research agenda

“…Indeed, personal and public recognition of volunteering has been empirically linked to positive outcomes for the volunteer and nonprofit organization among older adult volunteers in human services organizations (Tang et al, 2009), top internet sites' contributors, but not lower-level contributors (Restivo & van de Rijt, 2014), and a range of non-profits in the art, environment, community, welfare, health, youth, emergency services, religion and other sectors (Stirling, Kilpatrick, & Orpin, 2011). In addition to the recognition of their contributions, research has also found that event volunteers in the UK are motivated by the quality of interpersonal relationships and clear communication of what is expected of them (Nichols & Ojala, 2009). …”

The Psychological Contract of Volunteer Youth Sport Coaches

“…A few studies have explored the psychological contract of volunteers within the sport setting specifically, however they tended to adopted employee-based frameworks that critics argue do not fully capture the nature and particular nuances of the volunteer work environment and volunteer-organization relationship (Nichols, 2012;Nichols & Ojala, 2009;Vantilborgh et al, 2012). Liao-Troth's (2001) adaption of Rousseau's (2000) PCI to the volunteer context is included in those criticisms as Rousseau's PCI was "designed from a management perspective" (Nichols & Ojala, 2009, p. 376), and is not inclusive of all of the general volunteer elements as uncovered by Smith (2004).…”

“…Kim et al's (2009) investigation of sport event volunteers' contract fulfillment was even further limited to the consideration of only relational elements. In a third sport volunteer study, Nichols and Ojala (2009) used the concept of psychological contract to describe and compare what were perceived to be key contributions of sport event managers and volunteers derived from "a general evaluation of the volunteer programme" (p. 378). The studies conducted to date on sport volunteers have relied on tools developed for the paid workforce from management perspective, have only considered one dimension of the psychological contract, or have only focused on general elements of the psychological contract, thus failing to uncover or consider the range of elements that may be specific to the sport volunteer context, and any particular role there.…”