A Structural Equation for Volunteer Engagement: Inclusive Leadership, Psychological Safety and Empowerment

Abstract

Volunteers play a significant role in solving community, national, and global problems and are essential to the social organization's operating structure. They help non-profits and charities meet their social missions by increasing program effectiveness and reducing overhead costs. Unfortunately, many organizations have trouble keeping volunteers engaged, and only one-third of volunteers are retained each year. Research has identified a positive relationship between volunteer engagement and retention, allowing organizations to become more efficient and effective. However, while a more engaged volunteer population may provide many benefits to social organizations, volunteer engagement is still a vague and underdeveloped concept. Additionally, modern volunteer management techniques do not recognize the differences between volunteers and paid staff, creating barriers to engagement. This quantitative study utilized structural equation modeling to identify contributors to, and outcomes of, engagement in the context of volunteerism. The results demonstrate that inclusive leadership has a positive relationship with engagement and is partially mediated by empowerment. Psychological safety has a negative relationship with engagement, though when empowerment is present the relationship becomes positive, which is a sign of competitive mediation. Further, results of serial mediation demonstrate that psychological safety and intentions to remain and inclusive leadership and intentions to remain are partially mediated by empowerment and engagement, while the relationship between psychological safety and involvement is fully mediated by empowerment and engagement. Lastly, engagement also has a significant and positive relationship with intentions to remain, service contributions, and giving intentions. This research provides volunteer managers with a greater understanding of the factors that create a more engaged volunteer workforce and the benefits or outcomes of increased engagement of volunteers for the organization. Social organizations may use this study to increase their understanding of the engagement of volunteers. As a result, volunteers may become more engaged, enabling social organizations to better meet their social missions.