applying the psychological contract to the management of volunteers in sport. geoff nichols,...
TRANSCRIPT
Applying the psychological contract to the management of volunteers in sport. Geoff Nichols, Sheffield University Management School
10/04/23 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
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Structure
• The importance of volunteers in sport• Application of the psychological
contract to employees• The nature of volunteering, in
contrast to paid work• Implications for applying the
psychological contract to volunteers
10/04/23 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
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The importance of sports volunteers
• To help achieve government policies
• Expression of individual or collective identities
• Contribution to democratic structures.
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How many volunteers?
• 44% of adults volunteer formally (England)
• ‘sport & exercise 3rd most important type of organization
• Sports clubs run by their members = 75% of sports volunteers [100,000 clubs]
• Major events – 70,000 volunteers for London Olympics
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Psychological contract for employees
• As mutual promises
• Subjective
• Studied to help manage behaviour
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Types of contract / measurement
• Content – transactional / relational
• By features – written / unwritten etc.
• By how employees evaluate it
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Content – exchange balance
Diagram 1. The Exchange Balance
Reward
Employeeunder-obligation
Employeeover-obligation
Mutual low obligations
Mutual highobligations
Effort
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Issues in application to employees• Free engagement v conflict of interests
• Trust – a substitute for control
• Change with experience
• Usually just employees’ view – not managers’
• Dominant quantitative methods
• Attempts to generalize
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Psychological contract and volunteers• Subjective experience – with socio-
cultural and institutional influences
• Nature of volunteering
• Contrast to paid work
• Illustrated with sports volunteers
• New research questions
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Volunteering as Leisure
• Unpaid work
• Activism
• Serious Leisure – provision and expression of valued social identity
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Volunteering as Leisure
Unpaid work or service
Serious Leisure
Activism
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Unpaid work - implications
• Effort bargain – minus pay
• Manage volunteers like paid employees
• Motives a proxy for expected rewards
• A transactional contract is possible
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Activism - implications
• Focus on values of volunteers
• Aligned with those of organisation
• Values may extend to how the organization meets its objectives
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Serious leisure - implications• Used to understand volunteers in
small organizations
• Explains ‘stalwarts’
• Commitment – self-identity from volunteering – strong bond
• Changes – transactional to relational
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3 types of leisure - implications• Psychological contract understood
through qualitative research
• Might be considerable variety on one organization e.g. a sports club
• Might be better to research them as a social gathering
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Influence of views of paid work• Work / leisure couplet – defined in
relation to each other
• As co-operation / or as conflict?
• Less free will than leisure
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Views of paid work - implications • If a conflict view of paid work, volunteers
may resent management as ‘manipulation under another name’
• If a co-operation view – management is effective organization
• But – a different style of management may be expected by volunteers
• Need to understand volunteers’ and managers’ views
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Conclusions
• Psychological contract useful in understanding the relationship between volunteers and managers
• But mutual expectations will be influenced by experience of volunteering as leisure, and leisure as a contrast to paid work.
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Conclusions
• Difficult to generalize from employees• Require qualitative research e.g. in
sports clubs• Compare views of volunteers and
managers• Different between event volunteers
and sports clubs
10/04/23 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
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Some research questions
• Does a view of volunteering as leisure affect the PC?
• How and why do contracts change – how can management influence this?
• Do views of employment affect PC in volunteering?
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Some research questions
• How do managers view the PC with volunteers? Is it different to employees?
• When volunteers manage volunteers can we understand this as a viable combination of psychological contracts – a social relationship. e.g. sports club?