BEST PRACTICES OF SPORT VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT: A COMPARISON OF MEGA SPORTING EVENT VOLUNTEERS AND COMMUNITY SPORT VOLUNTEERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find the best practices of managing sport volunteers. A comparison was also conducted between volunteers of community sport organizations and volunteers of mega events. The thesis aims to provide practical advice for volunteer managers, with guidance on what volunteers expect and need to be successful in their roles. The review of literature sets a foundation that is built on quantitative data about the current state of volunteerism and specifically sport volunteerism. This data gave valuable insight to the demographics of volunteers, the hours they participated, motivations for volunteering, training completed and more. Interviews were then conducted to compare with the data found in the literature review and to develop a more holistic understanding of the experiences of sport volunteers. Fourteen people participated in semi-structured interviews, with seven from each type of sport volunteering experience. By observing two distinct types of sport volunteers, a comparison was also conducted to see what the overlaps are in volunteer management best practices between the two groups. Analysis was conducted on the raw data from interviews and knowledge retrieved from the literature to extract the major themes. The discussion section provides details on the four major themes that were developed along with the differences in managing community sport volunteers and mega event volunteers.