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Organisational socialisation and the decision to volunteer: A
study of volunteers in English golf clubs
C H R I S TO P H E R M I L L S
1 1 T H M A R C H 2 0 2 0
S P O R T S V O L U N T E E R I N G R E S E A R C H N E T W O R
K S E M I N A R
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Golf? Do they have volunteers in golf?
You know I hate golf.
You’re not going to start playing golf are you?
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Content
Context: golf clubs and their volunteers
Literature on sports club volunteering
Research aim
Methodology
Findings
Discussion
Recommendations
Conclusions
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Golf Clubs in England
➢1,991 golf courses➢51% private member clubs
➢37% proprietary / business owned courses
➢8% municipal courses
➢Average of 484 members per club➢79% male
➢63% aged over 55 years
➢Average membership fee of £901(R&A, 2017; England Golf,
2018)
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Golf Club Volunteers in England
➢44,000 volunteers
➢Range of roles:
➢Governance & management
➢Organising play
➢Helping out
(England Golf, 2018)
Issues
➢ Organisational challenges - falling membership, nomadic
golfers
➢ The role of volunteers in driving organisational change
➢ Volunteer diversity - how do members become volunteers?
➢Profile:
➢99%+ are golf club members
➢69 male
➢86% aged over 55 years
➢95% play at least weekly
(England Golf, 2019)
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Literature on the Decision to Volunteer in Sports Clubs
Individual factors
➢Demographic➢ Age, gender, ethnicity, dependent children
(Taylor et al., 2012; Hallmann, 2015)
➢ Socio-economic➢ Income, employment status, working hours,
education and human capital (Burgham and Downward, 2005; Taylor
et al., 2012; Schlesinger and Nagel, 2013; Hallmann and Dickson,
2017)
➢Psychological➢ Motivations for sport club volunteers
(Nichols et al., 2016)
Limitations➢ Individual factors account for a low variance
in volunteering.➢ Difficult to generalise across sports
&
geographies.➢ Motivational research hasn’t demonstrated
predictive capacity of motivations (e.g. no longitudinal
studies).
➢ Individual factors ignore the socially situated nature of
sports club volunteering. Sporting participation and organisational
membership typically precede volunteering (Burgham and Downward,
2005; Cuskelly and O’Brien, 2013; Schlesinger and Nagel, 2013;
Hallmann, 2015)
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Literature on the Decision to Volunteer in Sports Clubs
Organisational factors
➢Organisational factors influence volunteering rates(Østerlund,
2013; Schlesinger and Nagel, 2013; Hallmann and Dickson, 2017;
Swierzy et al., 2018)
➢Organisational factors more significant than individual factors
at explaining why members volunteered (Swierzy et al., 2018)
➢Members develop organisational attachment that affect whether
they volunteer:➢Social and emotional commitment (Schlesinger and
Nagel, 2013)
➢Maintain relationships, identity and a sense of belonging
(Cuskelly and O’Brien, 2013).
Limitations➢ Limited understanding of
how organisational experience affects whether members
subsequently decide to volunteer.
➢ Limited appreciation of the decision to volunteer as a
meaningful action.
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Organisational socialisation
➢Organisational socialisation defined as ‘the process by which
an individual acquires the social knowledge and skills necessary to
assume an organizational role’ (Van Maanen & Schein, 1979,
p.211)
➢‘Socialisation means learning how our society and specific
communities work so we can be a part of them. Through socialisation
we learn the skills and taken-for-granted norms and values of our
groups along with the requisite skills, views and actions to
conduct ourselves as bona-fide members.’ (Charmaz et al, 2019)
➢Only study of organisational socialisation of volunteers done
in social welfare context (Haski-Leventhal and Bargal, 2008)
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Research Aim
To understand how golf club members become golf club
volunteers.
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Methodology
Constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014)
Data collection
• 4 English private member golf clubs:
• Documents (e.g. websites, strategies, policies, notices)
• Participant observation
• 21 semi-structured interviews with volunteers
• Additional theoretical sampling:
• 7 semi-structured interviews with golf club volunteers aged
under 55 years across England
Data analysis
• Initial, focussed & theoretical coding (Charmaz, 2014)
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Semi-structured interviews
➢Different routes into golf and club membership:➢8 were members
of their golf club
since their teenage years.
➢9 learnt to play golf as young people & returned to golf
later in their adult life.
➢11 took up golf as adults.
Age (yrs) Male Female Total
20-39 5 2 7
40-59 4 2 6
60+ 10 5 15
Total 19 9 28
➢ In all cases, a period of golf club membership preceded their
volunteering.
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Findings: The pathway to sports club volunteering stages and
transition model
New memberEstablished
memberDecision to volunteer
Assimilation Activation
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New member
Unfamiliar with history & tradition
Unversed in behavioral norms
Playing uncertainty
Relational uncertainty
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Unfamiliar with history & tradition
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Unversed in behavioral norms
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Unversed in behavioral
norms
When I first joined somebody said to me, "Oh god, you're going
to be a pain. Look at those trainers." I had these flowery trainers
on that I thought were quite cool.
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Playing uncertainty
The three of us would come down late in the evenings. Out of
sight! We were frightened of getting involved in the golf club. We
used to park up at the far end of the carpark and zip on to the
course to play nine holes and back in the car and out. We never
ever came in the clubhouse. We got people coming up to say, "When
are you going to get your handicaps?" Very scary. We just thought
it was very scary.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND
https://loristillman.wordpress.com/category/resolutions-are-for-sissies/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
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Relational uncertainty
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
https://ceiri.news/donald-trump-dos-eufemismos-uma-ameaca-real/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
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Assimilation
Spending time at the club
Confidence in playing the sport
Social interaction
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Spending time at the golf club
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Confidence in playing the sport
You stick your name down on the start sheet for a competition
wherever there happens to be a gap. I wasn't particularly
interested in necessarily playing golf with a particular person. I
just stuck my name down with whoever, wherever the gaps happened to
be. That way, I got to meet various members of the club. I'm a
reasonably gregarious individual, quite happy to talk to
people.
Four Man
Scramble
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Social interaction➢Learning from others: listening and
observing
➢Contingent on finding a group to play and socialise with
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Established member
Routinization
Group participation
Orientation towards personalisation
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Routinization & Group ParticipationI got into a regular
group, probably about 10 of us that went out fairly regularly. That
became routine. We'd play at the weekend and we'd play Wednesday.
In the winter, we'd come and have a bacon sandwich and then go out
in the afternoon. In the summer, we arrived at tee time so that
people who are still working could come out and we'd played during
the evening.This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC
BY-SA
http://blog.golfgamebook.com/2016/11/08/meet-our-ambassadors-ireland/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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Orientation towards personalisation
So here, we do operate a pretty relaxed, comfortable dress code.
I come up here in my shorts and shoes without socks, and the
comments and the looks you get sometimes. Look, I can walk into any
golf club in America, any golf club in Europe, the top golf clubs
in the world, I can walk into in this because it’s smart casual
wear.
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Activation
Asked by others
Putting oneself forward
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Decision to volunteer
Informed decision
Modification goals
Meaningful
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The pathway to sports club volunteering stages and transition
model
New member
• Unfamiliar with history & tradition
• Unversed in behavioural norms
• Playing uncertainty• Relational
uncertainty
Established member
• Routinization• Group participation• Orientation towards
personalisation
Decision to volunteer
• Meaningful• Informed• Modification goals
Assimilation
• Spending time at club
• Social interaction
• Confidence in playing the sport
Activation
• Asked by others
• Putting oneself forward
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Discussion➢Understanding organisational socialisation is
important to understanding whether sports club members go on to
volunteer.
➢Organisational socialisation helps to frame volunteering as a
meaningful act grounded in social context – i.e. the decision to
volunteer is not easily reducible to the effect of individual
factors.
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Discussion➢Organisational socialisation of volunteers helps
explain why golf clubs are slow to change:➢Assimilation factors can
be exclusionary- favour confident players, older, retired.
➢Through assimilation members take on the club’s established
cultural practices.
➢Members become volunteers if they know or are known to existing
volunteers.
➢However, the model does allow for organisational change as some
volunteers pursue modification goals.
➢Active management of transitions has the potential to
improve:➢Member diversity and member retention.
➢Supply of volunteers and diversity of volunteers.
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Recommendations➢Reduce uncertainty for new members:➢Relax
traditions and behavioural norms.➢Welcome new members, provide them
with information and offer inductions.
➢Active management of the assimilation process:➢On-course
coaching and support.➢Support new members to form social relations
/ find a group – e.g. buddying schemes.➢Focus on assimilating
younger adults and females to improve diversity of membership.
➢Management of the activation stage:➢Provide more information to
members.➢Engage all members in thinking about the club’s future –
e.g. club vision & strategy.➢Promote volunteer role vacancies
throughout the whole club and include strong
messages around inclusion.
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Conclusions
The pathway to volunteering in a sports clubs involves a process
of organisational socialisation that includes various stages and
transitions.
The organisational socialisation process affects whether members
subsequently volunteer and creates a meaningful decision to
volunteer.
Active management of the socialisation process offers the
opportunity to increase the quantity and diversity of
volunteers.
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Contact Details
[email protected]
@sllim_chris
mailto:[email protected]
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References▪ Burgham, M. and Downward, P. (2005) ‘Why volunteer,
time to
volunteer? A case study from swimming.’ Managing Leisure, 10(2)
pp. 79–93.
▪ Charmaz, K. (2014) Constructing grounded theory. 2nd ed.,
London: Sage Publications.
▪ Charmaz, K., Harris, S. R., & Irvine, L. (2019). The
social self and everyday life: Understanding the world through
symbolic interactionism. John Wiley & Sons.
▪ Cuskelly, G. and O’Brien, W. (2013) ‘Changing roles: Applying
continuity theory to understanding the transition from playing to
volunteering in community sport.’ European Sport Management
Quarterly, 13(1) pp. 54–75.
▪ England Golf (2018) Club membership questionnaire: Key
findings 2018. Lincolnshire: England Golf.
▪ England Golf (2019) Volunteer survey report[unpublished]
▪ Hallmann, K. (2015)‘Modelling the decision to volunteer in
organised sports.’ Sport Management Review, 18(3) pp.448–463.
▪ Hallmann, K. and Dickson, G. (2017) ‘Non-profit sport club
members: What makes them volunteer?’ Voluntary Sector Review, 8(2)
pp. 187–204.
▪ Haski-Leventhal, D. and Bargal, D. (2008) ‘The volunteer
stages and transitions model: Organizational socialization of
volunteers.’ Human Relations, 61(1) pp. 67–102.
▪ Nichols, G., Knight, C., Mirfin-Boukouris, H., Uri, C., Hogg,
E. and Storr, R. (2016) Motivations of sport volunteers in England:
A review for Sport England.
▪ Østerlund, K. (2013) ‘Managing voluntary sport organizations
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Quarterly, 13(2) pp. 143–165.
▪ R&A (2017) Golf around the world 2017. Fife, Scotland.
▪ Schlesinger, T. and Nagel, S. (2013) ‘Who will volunteer?
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707–715.
▪ Swierzy, P., Wicker, P. and Breuer, C. (2018) ‘The impact of
organizational capacity on voluntary engagement in sports clubs: A
multi-level analysis.’ Sport Management Review, 31(3) pp.
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▪ Taylor, P. D., Panagouleas, T. and Nichols, G. (2012)
‘Determinants of sports volunteering and sports volunteer time in
England.’ International Journal of Sport Policy, 4(2) pp.
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▪ Wicker, P. and Hallmann, K. (2013) ‘A multi-level framework
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