Characteristics of volunteering in UK sport: lessons from cricket

• Autor(a) principal: Coleman, Richard
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/23016
• topic: Voluntário; Cricket; Reino Unido; Desporto

This paper builds on the first major study of volunteering in UK sport, by providing the first detailedempirical evidence relating to the characteristics exhibited by volunteers in middle level sport(county standard non-professional), in this instance managers of county youth cricket (CYC) teams.The characteristics are presented in their own right and in addition comparisons are made with thecharacteristics of sports club volunteers from the original research conducted by the LeisureIndustries Research Centre (LIRC) in 1996. The rationale for the study contends that sportsvolunteers are not homogeneous, and their characteristics, time contributions and the problems theyencounter vary according to the level at which they choose to volunteer in sport. Consistent with theLIRC research, the current investigation focuses on volunteers who are systematic: those volunteerswho have a clearly defined role and who make a regular commitment to the successful running ofthe CYC team. The findings are based on responses from 151 managers from 35 county cricketassociations (CCAs). The majority of county youth cricket team managers were male, aged 35–59 andmore likely to volunteer with age than sports club volunteers. Managers were better educatedand more likely to be retired than sports club volunteers. The average length of service of managerswas 9.4 years and they fulfilled multiple roles (coach, treasurer, secretary etc.) with a year roundcommitment of 306 hours compared to only 238 hours for sports club volunteers. Managerscontributed considerably more time during the cricket season than the close season with a minoritycontributing the majority of all volunteer hours to the team. Both self-interest and altruism weremotivations for volunteering. The major problems encountered were consistent with those reportedby sports club volunteers, and related to a volunteer shortage with work increasingly left to a fewpeople. The current study has highlighted the often multi-functional role of the sports volunteer anda variation in the characteristics exhibited at different levels of sport. While not wanting to drawdefinitive conclusions prior to further empirical studies, if one accepts the findings herein as typicalof other sports, there is tentative evidence to suggest that policy support agencies and sports’governing bodies should be cautious of treating sports volunteers as a homogeneous group.