Events
The motivation and management of event volunteers can be different to those who volunteer regularly in sport.
Volunteers make a significant contribution to international, national, and local events. Many events, would not be possible without a large volunteer workforce. 5, 6
The motivation, and management, of episodic volunteers (i.e., only volunteer for specific event/s) can be different to those who routinely, or regularly volunteer in sport (e.g., someone who volunteers each week or season). This means that the way in which an organisation attracts, supports, celebrates, and retains these volunteers may also require different management techniques. 7
Resources and reading
- The Curious Case of The Disappearing Race Volunteer, opens in a new tab, Caryn Maconi Lawler, Outside, (9 August 2023). Multisport events across the country rely on volunteers to operate, but not only are volunteers not always free, they're also becoming an endangered species. What happens when the helpers stop showing up?
- Surviving and Thriving from the Volunteer Involvement in Mega-Sport Events, opens in a new tab, Tracey Dickson, Simon Darcy, Volunteering Australia, (November 2022). MSE like the summer Olympic and Paralympic Games can require up to 70,000 OCOG volunteers. They may provide a series of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to attract volunteers that are well above volunteering norms. An important issue for this paper is how the MSE volunteering experience impacts the future desire to volunteer elsewhere. With such a demand, other organisations dependent upon volunteers need to have a strategy in place both to survive the games-time impacts upon their volunteers, but also to thrive beyond the games from the increased public awareness of, and enthusiasm about, volunteering.
- London 2012 Games markers: Towards redefining legacy, opens in a new tab, Dickson T and Banson A, Government of the United Kingdom, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, (2013). Volunteering is an essential aspect of many mega-sporting events with stakeholder rhetoric suggesting that it is desirable and that these events will leave a ‘volunteering legacy’ beyond the Games. For London, work among a wide range of stakeholders has created a new volunteering spirit and an improved volunteer network with more opportunities and better training for those who want to give their most important commodity – time.
- London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games: post-Games review, opens in a new tab, National Audit Office, (2012). This report focuses on the cost of the Games and contains a section on the impact of volunteers (p. 12).
- Beyond 2012 – Outcomes, opens in a new tab, Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, (2012). Chapter 4 of this report covers volunteering. When the discussion moved on to their ambitions for the round table itself, the tone shifted to a more equivocal one: yes London 2012 had made a huge success of volunteering but now we are back in the “real world” of austerity with the Games already fading slowly into history, how do we motivate people to volunteer on a regular basis? The answers to the question “What question would you like to have answered by this group?” revealed this uncertainty quite clearly questioning what such a group could actually achieve, the steps needed to establish the widespread value of volunteering and investigating the reasons why people do or don’t volunteer and how best to engage those volunteers previously involved in London 2012.
- Serious Leisure Event Volunteering and Social Capital, opens in a new tab, Hallmann, Kirstin; Wright, Richard; Morellato, Massimo, Event Management, Volume 27(3), pp.353-366, (2023). It has been argued that all serious leisure activity is founded upon a strong sense of companionship and community. Besides, social capital is widely believed to generate mutual understanding and communal reciprocity. Sport event volunteering is considered a form of serious leisure. However, the interrelationships between these concepts deserve further investigation. This study analyzed the interrelationships between serious leisure volunteering and social capital acquisition of 311 World Masters Games volunteers using a structural equation model. Moreover, differences between groups of volunteers were assessed. The findings revealed a significant relationship between serious leisure and social capital. For example, local volunteers identified significantly more with serious leisure volunteering than those from outside of the host region.
- Multi-dimensional framework as a new way to study the management of Olympic volunteering, opens in a new tab, Olesya Nedvetskaya, European Sport Management Quarterly, Volume 23(5), pp.1523-1548, (2023). The London 2012 Olympic Games volunteer (Games Maker or GM) programme was the primary case for this research. Data was gathered before, during and 14 months after the Games in the UK via a mixed methods approach. Survey data from volunteers was complemented with semi-structured interviews with volunteers and managers, the author’s participant observations and documentary analysis. The proposed framework helped identify and evaluate the systems, mechanisms, and processes of developing and managing the GM programme. It became evident that unless key event stakeholders acknowledge the complex nature of Olympic volunteering and put adequate structures, resources and practices in place, the volunteer programmes are ineffective in managing volunteers and attaining a sustainable volunteering legacy. This paper offers valuable insights into the organisation and management of Olympic volunteering to achieve various programme results. It answers a call for a holistic approach to the phenomenon under study and features new directions for continued academic research in this critical area.
- Opening the black box of the sport event volunteer’s journey: from candidate to volunteer, opens in a new tab, Veronica Lo Presti, Tracy Taylor, Jennifer Onyx, European Sport Management Quarterly, (18 July 2022). This paper investigates candidates’ journey to being selected as a volunteer for the Rio2016 Games. Drawing on Actor–Network Theory, the research tracked the sociomaterial practices undertaken by candidates to become volunteers and sought to identify the actors that participate in these practices and the role the latter played in facilitating a positive (or negative) experience. The journey to volunteering at Rio 2016 comprised sociomaterial practices that impacted the volunteer candidate’s progression (or lack thereof) through the journey to volunteering. These were qualifying as a candidate, Waiting for ‘Godot’, Being rejected and Getting the ‘passport’ to the Games. This research presents a practice-based conceptualisation of volunteer candidates’ journey to selection. The findings demonstrate the centrality of sociomaterial practices in volunteer recruitment and the importance of an effective human and non-human interface. Flexible approaches to volunteer recruitment and selection that consider the diversity of interactions of actors involved can be profitably deployed to facilitate a good candidate experience and minimise the stress, tension and communication issues that potential volunteers face.
- Volunteers in Sport Organizations and Events: A Source of Competitive Advantage?, opens in a new tab Erik Lachance, Milena Parent, International Journal of Sport Management, Volume 22, pp.1-24, (July 2021). Data were gathered from eight semi-structured interviews with four volunteers and four executives (executive director, president) from different sport organizations and events in the same community. Following an inductive and deductive thematic analysis, findings highlight the ability for volunteers to be valuable, rare, and inimitable resources supported by organizational practices, thus representing a source of competitive advantage in sport. These findings indicate how volunteers should be considered when planning and developing the strategic outcomes of sport organizations and events to outperform their competitors (e.g., as brand ambassadors/organizational representatives providing legitimacy to the sport organization or event). To gain a competitive advantage in sport, managers should develop formal human resource management practices and procedures, and incorporate volunteers into their strategic planning.
- Managing sport volunteers with a disability: Human resource management implications, opens in a new tab, Pam Kappelides, Jennifer Spoor, Sport Management Review, Volume 22(5), pp.694-707, (November 2019). The authors examine the benefits and barriers to including volunteers with a disability in three Australian sport and recreation organisations, as well as the potential human resource management implications. The authors draw on interviews with sport volunteers with disability, staff from sport organisations, and recipients of services from volunteers with disability conducted in 2016–2017. Researchers have not previously examined these diverse perspectives, but they are important for understanding how to include and support sport volunteers with disability. Analysis of the interviews revealed a wide range of benefits of including volunteers with disability including social acceptance, social inclusion and personal development; but both volunteers and organisations identified numerous barriers to volunteering, including negative attitudes, personal factors, organisational factors and lack of social inclusion. Based on the results of this study, the authors develop recommendations for human resource management practices and policies to support volunteers with a disability in sport and recreation organisations, which are organised around an ability-motivation-opportunity framework. The results suggest that organisations need to create an environment that facilitates open, two-way communication with volunteers with a disability about their needs and wants. There also should be training and education to all volunteers and staff around an inclusive workplace culture.
- The impact of volunteer experience at sport mega‐events on intention to continue volunteering: Multigroup path analysis, opens in a new tab, Hyejin Bang, Gonzalo A. Bravo, Katiuscia Mello Figuerôa, et al., Journal of Community Psychology, Volume 27(4), pp.727-742, (May 2019). This study examined the impacts of volunteers’ motivation and satisfaction through Olympic/Paralympic volunteering experiences on their intention to volunteer for future community events and the moderating role of previous volunteering experience in the relationships among motivations, satisfaction, and intention to continue volunteering. Path analysis revealed that among the total sample, motivations had direct and indirect (through satisfaction) effects on intention to volunteer. Results of multigroup path analysis showed that the relationships among motivations, satisfaction, and intention vary by returning and first‐time volunteers, supporting the moderating role of prior volunteering experience in the path model.
- Determinants and Outcomes of Volunteer Satisfaction in Mega Sports Events, opens in a new tab, Daehwan Kim, Chanmin Park, Hany Kim, et.al., Sustainability, Volume 11(7), (March 2019). The role of volunteers is an important factor for the sustainability of mega sports events. Key issues in the literature on sports event volunteers are volunteer satisfaction and its determinants and outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of the fulfillment of volunteers’ psychological needs and Volunteer Management Practices (VMP) on overall volunteer satisfaction, and to test their conditional effects depending on volunteer involvement. Overall volunteer satisfaction was found to positively affect future volunteering intention, spreading positive words regarding sports event volunteering, and intention to visit the host city as tourists. In conclusion, sports event managers need to design an optimal work environment that can fulfill volunteers’ psychological needs and improve VMP to enhance the sustainability of mega sports events.
- Olympic Volunteers: the case of 2018 Games, opens in a new tab, Keunsu Han, Yong-Yeon Ji, Jin Dong Park, Journal of Sport and Recreation Management, Volume 16(2), pp.51-62, (2019). The role of volunteers has become a core component for the overall success of major international sport events. In recent years, the Olympics, considered to be the world’s biggest sporting event could not be hosted without the contribution of a large number of volunteers. From the large number of volunteers, the Olympic organizing committee could not only obtain a huge financial advantage but also create a positive energy and culture. Despite the significance of volunteers in the Olympics, research on Olympic volunteers’ motivations is still limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the motives and future intentions of volunteers at the 2018 Olympics, and investigate the factorial structure of the Motivation Scale adapted for this study. Data were collected from a volunteer sample of 36 individuals who offered their services at the 2018 Olympic Games. The results from the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression show that only the “Volunteer Attachment” variable out of the four factors of volunteer motivation has a significantly positive relationship with volunteers’ future intention. This study will provide information that could enhance effective volunteer recruitment and retention in the Olympics.
- Lean thinking in leisure: continuously improving event volunteering and management, opens in a new tab, Clayton J. Hawkins and Michael S. Bonney, Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 22(3), pp.362-372, (2019). The events industry is facing rapid societal change. Issues such as professionalization of the industry, competing funding streams, a crowded market, and decreasing access to volunteer labour are creating an environment of need for solutions. This paper proposes the application of lean thinking as a platform for simplification and continuous improvement in the event industry as a case example of potential broader relevance to the leisure industry. It scopes the event industry context, discusses the concept of lean, and proposes the testing of lean as a philosophy and methodology to assist event organizers and their volunteers navigate the changing event industry context. This paper also examines the potential benefits of lean to time poor volunteers to maximize the value of their participation.
- Selling volunteering or developing volunteers? Approaches to promoting sports volunteering, opens in a new tab, Nichols, G., Hogg, E., Knight, C., et al., Voluntary Sector Review, Volume 10 (1), pp.3-18, (2019). This paper considers the balance between promoting volunteering in sport by emphasising the personal rewards to prospective volunteers themselves – the dominant management approach – and promoting it by the long term development of the values of volunteering. We review the motivations and rewards of sports volunteers and how these can be used to promote volunteering as being a transaction between volunteer and organisation. This is contrasted with a life-course approach to understanding volunteering, and evidence that an understanding of the value of volunteering can be inculcated that underpins continued volunteering. The two approaches regard potential volunteers respectively as ‘consumers’ and as ‘citizens’. We suggest that a shift to treating volunteers as consumers can lead to volunteering being regarded as transactional. The discussion has implications for volunteering in general; in particular, how it can be promoted in a society where narratives of ‘the consumer’ increasingly dominate over those of ‘the citizen’.
- Volunteering legacy of the London 2012 Olympics, opens in a new tab, Olesya Nedvetskaya, Vassil Girginov, Chapter 4 in Legacies and Mega Events, opens in a new tab, Routledge, (2017). London 2012 Volunteering Strategy was premised on the commitment to use the Games as a way of inspiring a new generation of volunteers and contributing to a lasting volunteering legacy for the UK. Using a critical realist evaluation approach, this chapter examines the processes through which the volunteering legacy can be achieved, for whom, under what circumstances, and over which duration. It concludes that the momentum to build on the enthusiasm of 70,000 volunteers was lost, and the volunteering legacy became declared rather than delivered. This inevitably poses questions about the effectiveness of legacy planning and delivery. The chapter extends the body of knowledge about social legacies of mega sport events and their governance and can be highly beneficial for future bids and host cities.
- Pioneer volunteers: the role identity of continuous volunteers at sport events, opens in a new tab, Fairley S, Green B, O’Brian D, et.al., Journal of Sport and Tourism, Volume 19(3-4), pp.233-255, (2015). This study looks at the role identity of 125 volunteers during lead-up events as well as their participation in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. In addition, a small sample were interviewed 12 years after the Olympics. Six themes described the experience of ‘pioneer volunteers’ (i.e. continuous volunteer participation): (1) friendship and teamwork; (2) prestige; (3) behind the scenes access and knowledge of the event; (4) learning enabled by their experience; (5) a sense of connection with and ownership of the event, and; (6) transition to Games time roles. Pioneer volunteers experienced a strong and sustained identification with their role and sought out continued opportunities to volunteer in future events.
- Volunteer Management: The Case of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, opens in a new tab, Heeyle Park, Eric Olson, Iowa State University, (2020). Volunteer management is an integral part of any event that relies on volunteer contributions. Managing volunteers for events is related to three related domains: events, human resources, and volunteering. Each of the domains is discussed for its relation to volunteer management in the context of a sport event. The practice of managing volunteers is considered in terms of its phases. A real–life case is provided so that students can apply their understandings of volunteer management in resolving the case problems.
- Rugby World Cup 2011 volunteering resources, opens in a new tab. Sport NZ, (2011). The 2011 Rugby World Cup was supported by New Zealand's biggest ever volunteer effort. Officially called the Rugby World Cup 2011 Volunteer Programme, it saw an unpaid workforce of more than 5000 play a crucial role in the delivery of a great sporting event. This resource covers planning, recruitment, training, volunteer compliance, uniform distribution, scheduling, reward and recognition, research and reporting.
- VounTEARS: What would sport be like without us? A look at volunteering in major sporting events, Participation Leaders Network In-Focus Seminar Series, Australian Sports Commission, held online, (27 March 2023). Hosted by Dr. Lindsey Reece (Australian Sports Commission) and Dr. Sue Regan (Volunteering Australia), during this online conversation we discussed the essential role volunteers play in enabling major sporting events. We explored who is volunteering at major events, reasons why and how you can apply these learnings into future sport delivery and drive enhanced community outcomes.
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