From the literature review it was seen that a number of researchers have attempted to develop models and relationships to address the problem of volunteer retention using volunteer management practice (Cuskelly et al. 2006; Hager & Brudney, 2004). Though many correlates have been developed to address this issue, hardly any theory has been propounded that could be used as a basis for furthering research in this area (Hoye et al. 2008). Thus there is no specific theory that could be applied to either volunteer management practice or volunteer retention. However the research efforts of Cuskelly et al. (2006) and the model developed by them linking volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention provide a basis for taking the investigation into the relationship between volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention further. Although the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) can be criticized for such aspects as that it is applicable to the field of sports only; five out of the seven correlates of management practice have not been found to have statistically significant
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relationship with volunteer retention that has statistical significance; and that the correlates are limited to seven only, their effort is perhaps one of the earliest.
On the other hand the model has many positive aspects that include the use of the widely accepted Human Resource Management (HRM) concepts (Sozanska et al. 2004), and correlates that have significant correlation amongst themselves. This provided the basis to consider the correlates as factors of management practice and the significance of planning and orientation as important independent variables linked to volunteer retention problems and the validity and reliability of the instrument that could be used for other research purposes. Furthermore the research outcomes published by Cuskelly et al. (2006) are widely referred and many authors have cited the research outcomes published by Cuskelly et al. (2006). A search through Google showed that 12 authors have used the outcomes published by Cuskelly et al. (2006). The model of Cuskelly et al. (2006) provide a strong basis to conduct further investigations into the relationship between volunteer management practice correlates and volunteer retention. Thus the basic model that was adopted for this research was the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) (Figure 3.1).
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Solid lines indicate statistically significant relationship while broken lines indicate lack of statistical significance in the relationship. At this point it is possible to make certain inferences from the findings of Cuskelly et al. (2006). At the outset it is necessary to test the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) (see Figure 3.1) again in order to verify whether the findings derived by Cuskelly et al. (2006) can be repeated in a context-free study and see if any new insight could be gained with a new dataset collected from a context-free environment. While the outcome of the tests conducted by Cuskelly et al. (2006) on the model developed by them clearly point out that planning and orientation are the main constructs that have significant relationship with volunteer retention, any such outcome if derived in this research could provide a basis to explore ways to enhance the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) taking into account what literature says.
However in case the outcomes are not the same then the researcher could bring out the differences in the two findings and a new expanded model could be developed using those outcomes. In either case an important point that needs to be understood is that while the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) directly links management practice constructs to volunteer retention, such a linkage could be criticized for not taking into account highly relevant variables that have been argued to affect volunteer retention and management practice. For instance most researchers (see Sections 2.6 and 2.7) have argued that variables such as volunteer motivation and job satisfaction are very important variables that cannot normally be delinked from any research related to volunteer retention. Thus there is a necessity to test the original model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) (see Figure 3.2) and find how it can be enhanced to include important variables identified as essential and affecting the relationship between volunteer management practice and volunteer retention. This research aims to do this. Included in this effort is the testing separately of the statistical significance of the relationship between volunteer satisfaction and motivation on the one hand and the management practice concepts on the other. This would inform volunteers and volunteering organisations whether there is a one-to-one relationship between the management practice constructs on the one hand and the satisfaction and motivation constructs on the other. It must be noted here that in Figure 3.2 there are only five factors of management practice namely planning,
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recruitment, training and support, performance management and recognition. Screening and orientation have been considered to represent training and support, an argument that can be supported using the findings of other research outcomes published (see Section 2.5).
Figure 3.2 Cuskelly’s model for testing
Further to the arguments that indicate the necessity to test the original model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) in this research, another important step has been proposed. That is, the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) can be criticized to suffer from an important limitation of not relating volunteer motivation and satisfaction to volunteer retention and management practice, an argument that finds strong support in the literature (see Section 2.8). That is to say that the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) can be modified using appropriate theoretical support (see Section 2.8) to include two basic constructs namely volunteer motivation and satisfaction, identified as vital to the understanding of the dynamics that work between volunteer management practice and volunteer retention. How this can be done is provided in the following sections. At this
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stage it emerges that there could be two models, one is the original model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) and the other developed for this research by enhancing the model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006) through the inclusion of volunteer satisfaction and motivation as constructs affecting the relationship between management practice and volunteer retention. The following sections deal with second model development which includes volunteer satisfaction and motivation as constructs in the original model developed by Cuskelly et al. (2006).