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VOLUNTEER RETENTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT BREACH
Author(s) -
Walker Arlene,
Accadia Rebecca,
Costa Beth M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.21827
Subject(s) - psychological contract , workforce , volunteer , psychology , variance (accounting) , social psychology , perceived organizational support , organizational commitment , public relations , business , political science , law , accounting , biology , agronomy
Volunteer organizations face issues related to the retention of volunteers, not unlike those found in the paid workforce; however, management and authority structures and practices are different. In previous research, support factors and psychological contracts have been found to contribute to retention of employees. Few studies of volunteers have investigated the appropriateness of these variables. Survey data from 721 Australian volunteers from diverse organizations were analyzed to learn to what degree perceived organizational support, coworker support, and psychological contract breach explained volunteer intention to remain, having controlled for age and tenure. Psychological contract breach explained much more of the variance in volunteer intention to remain than tenure, coworker support, or perceived organizational support. The relationship between psychological contract breach and volunteer intention to remain is similar to that found in the paid workforce, despite the differences in management in the 2 sectors.