Requirements for the integration of volunteers into major events: An analysis from the perspective of human resource management and project management

Abstract

Volunteers, who can lose their ability and willingness to perform due to poor organization, are a crucial success factor and unique resource for events. Due to increasing complexity of events and changing social trends, this study is to identify human resource and project management requirements for planning and holding major events with volunteers successfully. The research questions were evaluated through a systematic literature review and qualitative expert interviews based on the grounded theory methodology. The current state of research could be mapped extensively, but not fully due to time limitations of the analysis. Ten German experts were interviewed, and their results could not be analysed to the point of content saturation. Volunteer management entails nine core requirements, which include 146 tasks covering 30 topics, summarized in a volunteer management model. Its relevance is to be tested quantitatively and it is to be used for further theory development. The job characteristics model could be expanded to include a psychological stage in the context of voluntary work. Volunteer management teams should be interdisciplinary. For each manageable volunteer-number, a manager with a high degree of social competence should be appointed, who focuses particularly on appreciation, perception, assessment, and communication.