• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Massey Documents by Type
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Massey Documents by Type
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Work values and volunteers : an investigation into the work values of New Zealand volunteer firefighters : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

    Icon
    View/Open Full Text
    01_front.pdf (76.48Kb)
    02_whole.pdf (992.0Kb)
    Export to EndNote
    Abstract
    Declining populations in smaller rural areas in New Zealand over the past 30 years have resulted in significant reductions in many services and an increased reliance on volunteer labour to provide these services. New Zealand firefighters are predominately volunteers, with approximately 85% belonging to volunteer brigades. The cost of training these volunteers is significant and retention of volunteers is an issue for many brigades. By measuring the importance of work values of firefighters and the level that these values being are met by the firefighting organisations they belong to, this research is endeavouring to investigate person-organisation (P-O) fit via the needs-supplies framework. The Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) looks at P-O fit and how higher levels of fit result in increased satisfaction with ones' work environment. Satisfaction is theorised to lead to longer tenure. This research measured the work values of 178 volunteer firefighters throughout New Zealand. Results indicated that overall there was good P-O fit between individual and organisational values. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out on individual and organisational value items in an effort to compare these to the six-factor structure of Elizur's (1984) work. This analysis found resulted in a three-factor structure for individual values and a different three-factor structure for organisational values, suggesting that work values among volunteers may be somewhat different from those in the paid workforce, although this issue needs to be explored further. Higher satisfaction was related to the individual work value factors of pride and self-development and the organisational work values factors of work environment, recognition and pride. EFA was also conducted on the mean value differences between individual and organisational values, and revealed five factors. All factors: work environment, self-development, self-esteem, power and pride, were correlated with increased satisfaction while self-development, power and pride were correlated with lower intentions to leave. Future areas of research are suggested to improve understanding in this field and to assist brigades to retain existing firefighters.
    Date
    2017
    Author
    Stark, Caroline Maree
    Rights
    The Author
    Publisher
    Massey University
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10179/12214
    Collections
    • Theses and Dissertations
    Metadata
    Show full item record

    Copyright © Massey University
    | Contact Us | Feedback | Copyright Take Down Request | Massey University Privacy Statement
    DSpace software copyright © Duraspace
    v5.7-2020.1-beta1
     

     

    Tweets by @Massey_Research
    Information PagesContent PolicyDepositing content to MROCopyright and Access InformationDeposit LicenseDeposit License SummaryTheses FAQFile FormatsDoctoral Thesis Deposit

    Browse

    All of MROCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Copyright © Massey University
    | Contact Us | Feedback | Copyright Take Down Request | Massey University Privacy Statement
    DSpace software copyright © Duraspace
    v5.7-2020.1-beta1