Book Description

Abstract Impact of Best-Practices Management of Volunteers on Volunteer Satisfaction in a Church Setting. Darren Kizer, 2012: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler School of Education. ERIC Descriptors: Volunteer Training, Best Practices, Personnel Management, Nonprofit Organizations, Churches Leaders at a megachurch in the northeastern United States are highly dependent upon hundreds of volunteers to staff the worship services and programs. Because church attendance continues to grow, recruiting volunteers, increasing their contributions, and reducing turnover are constant necessities. Accordingly, leaders need an understanding of ways to increase volunteers' feelings of satisfaction, commitment, and investment. To address this need, the researcher reviewed best-practices management approaches in the current literature. The researcher wanted to assess to what extent the implementation of best-practices management as defined in the literature could impact volunteers' feelings of satisfaction. To assess this impact, the researcher and paid staff members in the family-ministries sector of the church conducted a 6-week intervention with the volunteers at a church campus. The intervention consisted of managing the volunteers at the treatment campus according to the best practices delineated in the literature. Using a mixed-methods approach, the researcher gathered quantitative data from pre- and postintervention surveys that measured the volunteers' perceptions of satisfaction with their volunteer work. The researcher also collected qualitative data from focus groups in order to supplement and assess the quantitative data. Contrary to expectations, the between-groups analysis revealed heterogeneous groups and did not demonstrate statistical significance on any of the 6 research questions. As expected, after the implementation of the best-practices intervention, the within-group treatment scores on all scales were greater than their paired pretest scores. The treatment group's paired scores on volunteer satisfaction, organization support, and organizational commitment increased at statistically significant levels. The increased scores provided some support for the hypothesis that implementation of best-practice management of volunteers would increase satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to remain.