Understanding parks and recreation volunteers: A functionalist perspective

According to the Bureau of the Census, approximately 50% of American adults volunteer their time to serve the public good. As volunteers have become an integral part of public service provision, there has been an increased need for a greater understanding of volunteer motives on the part of the people who manage those volunteers. Using a functionalist perspective of volunteerism, this study assesses whether a relationship exists between volunteer function, volunteer job setting and volunteer job satisfaction and examines the relationship between volunteer function and sociodemographic characteristics among a sample of parks and recreation volunteers. Results of this study indicate that psychological functions of volunteers vary across volunteer job settings and by specific sociodemographic variables that would be expected to give rise to shared meanings. Results also suggest that volunteer job satisfaction is, in part, a result of the interaction of job setting and psychological function served by job setting.