Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Organized Cooperation: a Behavioral Perspective on Volunteerism

Organized Cooperation: a Behavioral Perspective on Volunteerism In 2014 in the United States, an estimated 62.8 million people, or 25.3% of the population volunteered their time and money to a nonprofit organization, spending around 7.9 billion hours of volunteer time (“Volunteering in 2014,” 2015). Volunteerism accounts for a significant portion of the workforce, particularly among nonprofit organizations that rely heavily on community support to provide necessary, yet usually unprofitable services. Despite the importance of volunteer practices, volunteer retention is a pervasive issue and can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor for the organization. The current paper provides a review of behavior analytic literature to discuss how behavior science is suited for empirically investigating the origins and maintenance of volunteer behavior. Furthermore, although behavior systems analysis has not specifically addressed volunteerism, this analytic approach could be beneficial to investigate ameliorating volunteer retention on the large scale. The conclusion explores research suggestions and likely implications of expanding behavior analysis further into this domain. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Behavior and Social Issues Springer Journals

Organized Cooperation: a Behavioral Perspective on Volunteerism

Download PDF
22 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/organized-cooperation-a-behavioral-perspective-on-volunteerism-3C0QpDRm8w
Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Carolyn Brayko, Ramona Houmanfar, & Elizabeth Ghezzi
Subject
Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Personality and Social Psychology
ISSN
1064-9506
eISSN
2376-6786
DOI
10.5210/bsi.v25i0.6739
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In 2014 in the United States, an estimated 62.8 million people, or 25.3% of the population volunteered their time and money to a nonprofit organization, spending around 7.9 billion hours of volunteer time (“Volunteering in 2014,” 2015). Volunteerism accounts for a significant portion of the workforce, particularly among nonprofit organizations that rely heavily on community support to provide necessary, yet usually unprofitable services. Despite the importance of volunteer practices, volunteer retention is a pervasive issue and can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor for the organization. The current paper provides a review of behavior analytic literature to discuss how behavior science is suited for empirically investigating the origins and maintenance of volunteer behavior. Furthermore, although behavior systems analysis has not specifically addressed volunteerism, this analytic approach could be beneficial to investigate ameliorating volunteer retention on the large scale. The conclusion explores research suggestions and likely implications of expanding behavior analysis further into this domain.

Journal

Behavior and Social Issues – Springer Journals

Published: May 1, 2016

References

  • Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis
    Baer, D M; Wolf, M M; Risley, T R
  • Helping managers stimulate employee voluntary, helpful behavior
    Bandura, R P; Lyons, P R
  • Selection by consequences: one unifying principle for a transdisciplinary science of prevention
    Biglan, A
  • The role of advocacy organizations in reducing negative externalities
    Biglan, A
  • The nurture effect: How the science of human behavior can improve our lives and our world
    Biglan, A
  • APA Handbook of Behavior Analysis, Vol. 2: Translating Principles Into Practice
    Biglan, A; Glenn, S
  • Volunteer recruitment: the role of organizational support and anticipated respect in non-volunteers’ attraction to charitable volunteer organizations
    Boezeman, E J; Ellemers, N
  • Volunteerism and community development: A comparison of factors shaping volunteer behavior in Irish and American communities
    Brennan, M A
  • Social capital and philanthropy: An analysis of the impact of social capital on individual giving and volunteering
    Brown, E; Ferris, J M
  • Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: results from a prospective study of mortality
    Brown, S L; Nesse, R M; Vinokur, A D; Smith, D M
  • Other-regarding preferences in a non-human primate: Common marmosets provision food altruistically
    Burkart, J M; Fehr, E; Efferson, C; Schaik, C P
  • Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: a functional approach
    Clary, E G; Snyder, M; Ridge, R D; Copeland, J; Stukas, a a; Haugen, J; Miene, P
  • Cooperation between non-kin in animal societies
    Clutton-Brock, T
  • Volunteer work in youth organizations: predicting distinct aspects of volunteering behavior from self- and other-oriented motives
    Cornelis, I; Hiel, A; Cremer, D
  • The historical roots of organizational behavior management in the private sector: The 1950s-1980s
    Dickinson, A M
  • Volunteer participation and withdrawal
    Farmer, S M; Fedor, D B
  • America’s children: Key national indicators of well-being
  • Volunteer satisfaction and volunteer action: A functional approach
    Finkelstein, M a
  • Improving Public Perception of Behavior Analysis
    Freedman, David H.
  • Volunteering and professionalization: Trends in tension?
    Ganesh, S; McAllum, K
  • Using economic theory and research to better understand volunteer behavior
    Govekar, P L; Govekar, M a
  • Analyzing social behavior: Behavior analysis and the social sciences
    Guerin, B
  • Trajectories of Volunteering and Self-Esteem in Later Life: Does Wealth Matter?
    Han, C-K; Hong, S-I
  • Still participating after all these years: A study of life task participation in later life
    Harlow, R; Cantor, N
  • On the practical value system building for behavior science
    Hayes, L J; Thomas, J L
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory , and the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapies
    Hayes, S C
  • Mentalism, behavior-behavior relations, and a behavior-analytic view of the purposes of science
    Hayes, S C; Brownstein, A J
  • Expanding the scope of organizational behavior management: Relational frame theory and the experimental analysis of complex human behavior
    Hayes, S C; Bunting, K; Herbst, S; Bond, F W; Barnes-Holmes, D
  • Moral behavior and the development of verbal regulation
    Hayes, S C; Gifford, E V; Hayes, G J
  • Cooperation came first: Evolution and human cognition
    Hayes, S C; Sanford, B T
  • Finding the philosophical core: A review of Steven C. Pepper’s World Hypotheses: A study in evidence
    Hayes, S; Hayes, L; Reese, H
  • Psychological approaches to values in organizations and organizational behavior management
    Herbst, S A; Houmanfar, R
  • Behaviorism: part of the problem or part of the solution
    Holland, J G
  • Functions of organizational leaders in cultural change: Financial and social well-being
    Houmanfar, R A; Alavosius, M P; Morford, Z H; Herbst, S A; Reimer, D
  • Organization implications of gossip and rumour
    Houmanfar, R; Johnson, R
  • The Metacontingency and the Behavioral Contingency: Points of Contact and Departure
    Houmanfar, Ramona; Rodrigues, N. Joseph
  • Emergence and metacontingency: Points of contact and departure
    Houmanfar, R; Rodrigues, N J; Ward, T A
  • Training shelter volunteers to teach dog compliance
    Howard, V J; Digennaro Reed, F D
  • An evaluation of training procedures for animal shelter volunteers
    Howard, V J; Digennaro Reed, F D
  • A systematic review of episodic volunteering in public health and other contexts
    Hyde, M K; Dunn, J; Scuffham, P A; Chambers, S K
  • Strengthening the focus on business results: The need for systems approaches in organizational behavior management
    Hyten, C
  • The effect of implicit and explicit rules on customer greeting and productivity in a retail organization
    Johnson, R A; Houmanfar, R; Smith, G S
  • Delay, probability, and social discounting in a public goods game
    Jones, B A; Rachlin, H
  • Principles of psychology: A systematic text in the science of behavior
    Keller, F; Schoenfeld, S
  • Participation in formal and informal volunteering: Implications for volunteer recruitment
    Lee, Y J; Brudney, J L
  • Are they here for the long haul? The effects of functional motives and personality factors on the psychological contracts of volunteers
    Liao-Troth, M a
  • Real and hypothetical rewards
    Locey, M L; Jones, B; Rachlin, H
  • Social discounting and the prisoner’s dilemma game
    Locey, M; Safin, V; Rachlin, H
  • Addressing organizational complexity: A behavioural systems analysis application to higher education
    Malott, M E; Martinez, W S
  • Targets of intervention in cultural and behavioral change
    Malott, M; Glenn, S
  • Rule-governed behavior and behavioral anthropology
    Malott, R W
  • Strategic nonviolent power: The science of Satyagraha
    Mattaini, M
  • Constructing nonviolent alternatives to collective violence: A scientific strategy
    Mattaini, M A
  • Contributions of Behavioral Systems Science to Leadership for a New Progressive Movement
    Mattaini, Mark A.; Aspholm, Roberto
  • Institutional predictors of volunteer retention: The case of Ameri Corps National Service
    McBride, a M; Lee, Y
  • The nonprofit sector in brief 2015: Public charities, giving, and volunteers
    McKeever, B S
  • Volunteer behavior: A hierarchical model approach for investigating its trait and functional motive antecedents
    Mowen, J C; Sujan, H
  • Not the community, but a community: Transforming youth into citizens through volunteer work
    Nenga, S K
  • The psychological contract of volunteers: A new research agenda
    Nichols, G
  • Altuism, happiness, and health: it’s good to be good
    Post, S G
  • Altruism and selfishness
    Rachlin, H
  • Altruism among relatives and non-relatives
    Rachlin, H; Jones, B A
  • A behavioral analysis of altruism
    Rachlin, H; Locey, M
  • Self-congruity and volunteering: a multi-organisation comparison
    Randle, M; Dolnicar, S
  • The motivation to volunteer: A systemic quality of life theory
    Shye, S
  • Science and Human Behavior
    Skinner, B F
  • Volunteerism: Social issues perspectives and social policy implications
    Snyder, M; Omoto, A
  • The False dichotomy of morality and self-interest as determinants of action: Facilitating intervention against genocide
    Soreth, M
  • Demographics, personality traits, roles, motivations, and attrition rates of hospice volunteers
    Starnes, B J; Wymer, W W
  • Stimulus equivalence and arbitrarily applicable relational responding
    Steele, D; Hayes, S C
  • Empathy-motivated helping: The moderating role of group membership
    Stürmer, S; Snyder, M; Kropp, A; Siem, B
  • Prosocial emotions and helping: the moderating role of group membership
    Stürmer, S; Snyder, M; Omoto, A M
  • Volunteer work and well-being
    Thoits, P; Hewitt, L
  • Units of analysis and kinetic structure of behavioral repertoires
    Thompson, T; Lubinski, D
  • Origins of human cooperation and morality
    Tomasello, M; Vaish, A
  • Volunteers’ psychological contracts: Extending traditional views
    Vantilborgh, T; Bidee, J; Pepermans, R; Willems, J; Huybrechts, G; Jegers, M
  • Conceptual foundations and practical guidelines for recruiting volunteers to serve in local nonprofit organizations’: Part I
    Wymer, W W; Starnes, B J
  • Future altruism: Social discounting of delayed rewards
    Yi, R; Charlton, S; Porter, C; Carter, A; Bickel, W