Enhancing Volunteer Pride and Retention Rates: The Role of Organizational Reputation, Task Significance, and Skill Variety

ABSTRACT Volunteers are vital to many organizations, and their retention is a crucial concern for management. While research confirms anticipated pride attracts volunteers to organizations, the role of pride in volunteers’ intentions to remain committed to the organization is unclear and is the focus of this study. The organizational level attributes of perceived organizational reputation and community relations are predicted to have a positive effect on pride. Additionally, the task attribute of task significance and skill variety are also explored. Using survey data collected from 712 volunteers of a prestigious golf tournament, structural equation modeling suggests pride positively influences a volunteer’s likelihood to return in the future and the number of hours they are willing to commit in the future. Although volunteers ultimately make the decision about returning, organizations can proactively market their positive reputation and community relations to retain volunteers. The implications and directions for future research are discussed.