Can institutional support improve volunteer quality? An analysis of online volunteer mentors

Mason, D. P., Chen, L.-W. and Lall, S. A. (2022) Can institutional support improve volunteer quality? An analysis of online volunteer mentors. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 33(3), pp. 641-655. (doi: 10.1007/s11266-021-00351-9)

Abstract

Volunteer management practices have been shown to have positive effects on employees in terms of skill development, job success, organizational identity, and morale in the public, nonprofit, and corporate sectors. Despite considerable research on volunteering, questions remain about how management practices of volunteer programs may affect volunteer performance. Leveraging data comparing self-enrolled and corporate-recruited volunteer mentors into a large-scale online program for entrepreneurs, this study measures the impact of institutional support on volunteer intensity, persistence, and quality. It also presents a novel way to measure volunteer quality through sentiment analysis to measure the tone of online messages, an emerging statistical technique. Findings suggest that a high level of institutional support leads to higher quality mentor engagement, compared to self-enrolled volunteers, while a low level of support leads to mentor quality much lower than self-enrolled volunteers.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lall, Dr Saurabh
• Authors: Mason, D. P., Chen, L.-W., and Lall, S. A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 0957-8765
• ISSN (Online): 1573-7888
• Published Online: 12 April 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2021
• First Published: First published in Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 33(3):641-655
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy