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Intrinsic need satisfaction and the job attitudes of volunteers versus employees working in a charitable volunteer organization
Author(s) -
Boezeman Edwin J.,
Ellemers Naomi
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of occupational and organizational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0963-1798
DOI - 10.1348/096317908x383742
Subject(s) - deci , job satisfaction , psychology , volunteer , autonomy , social psychology , competence (human resources) , job attitude , job design , applied psychology , job performance , agronomy , political science , law , biology
This research examines how intrinsic need satisfaction during volunteer work relates to the job attitudes of volunteers (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000). We distinguish between autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, and predict these to have distinct effects on volunteers' job satisfaction and intent to remain with the volunteer organization. We then compare volunteer workers to a matched sample of paid employees (performing identical tasks within the same organization) in the way in which they derive their job satisfaction and intent to remain from satisfaction of these three types of needs. As predicted, path analysis ( N =105) shows that satisfaction of autonomy needs and relatedness needs are positively related to the intent to remain a volunteer with the volunteer organization, and this relation is mediated by satisfaction with the volunteer job. The matched samples comparison further reveals that whereas the job satisfaction and intent to remain of paid employees is most clearly predicted by satisfaction of autonomy needs, satisfaction of relatedness needs is the primary predictor of job satisfaction and intent to remain among volunteers. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as avenues for further research, are discussed.