Why do administrators volunteer for provincial and club rugby in New Zealand? : an application of Clary et al.'s (1998) Volunteer functions inventory (VFI) to understand the motivations and commitment of volunteer administrators : a ... thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master's of Business Studies in Management at Massey University

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) as a tool for measuring the motives of administration volunteers involved in provincial and club rugby in New Zealand. The secondary aim was to investigate the demographics, motives, benefits, satisfactions and intentions to continue to volunteer of participants. The study was conducted with a sample of 604 volunteer administrators from provincial and club rugby in New Zealand. Data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire that was posted to participants, and was then analysed using SPSS (version 12.0). Factor analysis indicated six functions that are served by volunteering for this sample and, these motives differ from those discovered by previous studies. In particular, a new motive, Cause, was revealed where an individual volunteers because of their passion for the particular cause they are involved with. This new function was the most important motive for volunteering for this sample. Volunteers were generally satisfied with their experience and intended to be volunteering in at least one years time. Multiple regression analysis indicated that individuals who volunteer for the Cause and Understanding motives, and, volunteers that felt the work they did was appreciated, were more likely to be satisfied with their experience. There were no substantial differences in the results between provincial level and club level volunteers. The paper concludes that further work is required to develop the VFI into a valid and reliable tool to measure the motives of volunteers for this population. In particular, investigation of the Cause motive, and development of the questions is required to enable the VFI to be more relevant to rugby in New Zealand.