ABSTRACT
This paper examined potential drivers of volunteer member retention of young professionals as defined by their intention to stay, with a specific focus on members within the 21-40 age range. This focus group has been determined to benefit greatly from their experiences within these types of organizations through skill development and community enrichment. This study leverages the principles of social exchange theory and transactional leadership theory to connect trust in leadership to organizational citizenship behavior and role satisfaction to participant intention to stay behaviors in the attempt to foster an improved understanding of young professional retention behaviors. Considering the age range of the focus group, the implications of the findings can be used to better improve overall participation, further enrich those communities that depend on such volunteer support and improve volunteer organizations participation. Using a quantitative research method, 208 individuals identified by this focus group were surveyed using a research instrument that has been developed, implemented, and validated through multiple research studies that have shown statistical significance and adequate validity. As the research suggested, this study found that trust in leadership promoted positive influences on organizational citizenship behavior (p value < 0.001) with a path coefficient of 0.421 and organizational citizenship behavior promoted a positive influence on role satisfaction (p value < 0.001) with a path coefficient of 0.474. Similarly, the mediating relationship between these measures proved to be positive. Conversely, none of the measured variables had any significant correlation to the members' intention to stay behaviors, with p-values ranging between 0.176 thru 0.270, nor were there any identified relationships to the COVID-19 response, leading to further questions on motivations for intention to stay behaviors for these types of volunteer organizations. As this research was conducted during the unprecedented COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, it isn't clear how the results of this research were swayed by changes in the economic and social landscape. Therefore, the prospect for continued research at a future time when more stability is achieved could foster an awareness of outlier influences or correlations that span economic disparities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This paper examined potential drivers of volunteer member retention of young professionals as defined by their intention to stay, with a specific focus on members within the 21-40 age range. This focus group has been determined to benefit greatly from their experiences within these types of organizations through skill development and community enrichment. This study leverages the principles of social exchange theory and transactional leadership theory to connect trust in leadership to organizational citizenship behavior and role satisfaction to participant intention to stay behaviors in the attempt to foster an improved understanding of young professional retention behaviors. Considering the age range of the focus group, the implications of the findings can be used to better improve overall participation, further enrich those communities that depend on such volunteer support and improve volunteer organizations participation. Using a quantitative research method, 208 individuals identified by this focus group were surveyed using a research instrument that has been developed, implemented, and validated through multiple research studies that have shown statistical significance and adequate validity. As the research suggested, this study found that trust in leadership promoted positive influences on organizational citizenship behavior (p value < 0.001) with a path coefficient of 0.421 and organizational citizenship behavior promoted a positive influence on role satisfaction (p value < 0.001) with a path coefficient of 0.474. Similarly, the mediating relationship between these measures proved to be positive. Conversely, none of the measured variables had any significant correlation to the members' intention to stay behaviors, with p-values ranging between 0.176 thru 0.270, nor were there any identified relationships to the COVID-19 response, leading to further questions on motivations for intention to stay behaviors for these types of volunteer organizations. As this research was conducted during the unprecedented COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, it isn't clear how the results of this research were swayed by changes in the economic and social landscape. Therefore, the prospect for continued research at a future time when more stability is achieved could foster an awareness of outlier influences or correlations that span economic disparities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)