Exploring Volunteer Turnover Reasons, Intentions, and Behavior. WA 2024
25/11/2024
Djurre Holtrop, Christine Soo, Marylène Gagné, Darja Kragt, Patrick D. Dunlop, Aleksandra Luksyte Management and Organisations School of Psychological Science UWA
Published March 2024
Full Article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10596011241237841
The article explores the reasons why volunteers leave, volunteer intentions and volunteer turnover using data from two samples of volunteers at 2 large Australian VIOS: The State Emergency Service (SES) in Western Australia (Sample 1) and Scouts Australia (Sample 2).
Volunteers were asked about their reasons to consider quitting these VIOs. Using these responses the researchers identified seven higher-order categories of reasons for volunteer turnover: 1) Conflict, (2) High demands/Low resources, (3) Lack of fit, (4) Lack of inclusion, (5) Personal commitments and circumstances, (6) Poor communication and organizational practices, and (7) Poor leadership.
The research suggests that if VIOS keep track of these 7 factors through regular surveys, they can identify volunteers who are most likely to leave, and act on this before turnover occurs.
The researchers compared volunteer turnover reasons with employee turnover reasons (established in other research) and found that three turnover reasons were more prevalent among volunteers than employees: Lack of inclusion and poor communication and organizational practices. As a result, the researchers emphasise that VIOs should not rely solely on best practices from employee turnover management.
The researchers developed a framework of turnover antecedents and related this to actual turnover behavior. The researchers identified 4 broad Proximal Withdrawal States: reluctant stayer, reluctant leaver, enthusiastic stayer and enthusiastic leaver. The research found that reluctant leavers represented a larger group than the enthusiastic leavers and reluctant stayers combined, in both samples. The researchers suggest that as the reluctant leavers are still content with their role, this makes them a desirable group for retention interventions. For example, personalised arrangements that focus on schedule or location flexibility and work responsibility, noting that these types of arrangements must be granted fairly and consistently.