Abstract:
Volunteerism is the act of providing service to the public or to an organization
without compensation. Currently, many organizations operate with the help of volunteer
workers, such as non-profit and service organizations. Although volunteerism is mutually
beneficial to the volunteer workers and the organization, issues in work ethics may arise,
such as questions of organizational commitment of a volunteer.
A qualitative study was performed to describe the nature of the three components
of organizational commitment of volunteers, (1) affective, (2) continuance, (3) and
normative; based on their motivations. The study gathered data from three organizations:
Project PEARLS, 2KK Tulong sa Kapwa Kapatid Foundation, and Pahinungod.
Participants were identified through purposive sampling with two criteria: participant (1)
should be serving consistently to the organization based on the regularity of the
organization’s activities; and (2) should be serving for free, that is, without any monetary
compensation nor allowance from their respective organization.
The results of this study reveals identification with organization’s purpose and
advocacy characterize the affective commitment of the volunteers. Two themes were
identified describing their continuance commitment: (a) they benefit in volunteering; and
(b) they perceive leaving the organization as a cost. Lastly, this study shows that
normative commitment does not greatly contribute to the organizational commitment of
volunteers as they do not feel obligated in volunteering, and that they do it out of their
own will especially that they are not pressured to attend each volunteer session.
