The Lived Experience of Empowered Volunteers: A Study of Christian Church Volunteers

The psychological empowerment construct has been studied thoroughly in the workplace context, but little research has been conducted on volunteer empowerment. Eight interviews were conducted with Christian church volunteers identified as displaying empowered behaviors based upon Spreitzer‟s (1995) construct. Four primary themes, make a difference, rewarding, lifestyle of service, and passion, as well as three secondary themes, autonomy, awareness, and ability, were found. These results and their implications were discussed in relation to current literature. Future research opportunities and direction are discussed. 77 Introduction The motivational concept of empowerment has grown in prominence over the last two decades with both researchers and practitioners (Chen, Kirkman, Kanfer, Allen, & Rosen, 2007). The workplace is becoming a place where traditional command and control hierarchies are becoming less appropriate and employees instead take more initiative (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1997). With this change, a body of research on empowerment in the workplace has ensued. Most research on empowerment has been conducted in the workplace environment. Little research could be found studying the Spreitzer (1995) definition of empowerment in volunteers – one exception being Kulik (2007). However, Kulik‟s study was focused more at the outcomes of volunteering, where empowerment was merely one possible outcome of many. Volunteerism, as a broad topic, has been extensively researched. Volunteers come from many different sectors. But to get a sense of the size of the industry, the nonprofit sector alone in the United States was, in the late 1990s, over $100 billion of the nation‟s economy (Liao-Troth & Dunn, 1999). Volunteers play such a vital role in today‟s economy that we must consider their needs and motivations. As Liao-Troth & Dunn stated, “Differences in understanding such a primary question as why volunteers are present can reasonably be expected to have an impact on organizational effectiveness” (pg. 345). Garland, Myers, and Wolfer (2008) explained that the call for volunteers is increasing, yet populations “long known for their service” (pg. 255) such as older women, long-term service volunteers, and retirees, are declining in volunteerism. If indeed the workplace is changing from management‟s command and control to employees initiating and being creative and still little is known regarding how this shift 78 affects volunteerism, then empirical data is needed to understand the phenomenon of empowerment in the volunteer setting. The possibility of providing greater empowerment for volunteers is important in understanding what organizations can do to be more effective volunteer managers through enhancing retention, helping to meet the increasing call for volunteers in our society. There is great hope and potential in the concept of empowerment. In one of the early works on psychological empowerment, Conger and Kanungo (1988) reported that “studies on leadership and management skills suggest that the practice of empowering subordinates is a principal component of managerial and organizational effectiveness” (pg 471). By the mid-1990‟s, there was widespread interest in the concept (Spreitzer, 1995) and since then, evidence has continued to accumulate relating empowerment to work-related outcomes (Seibert, Silver, & Randolph, 2004). It is important to understand that empowerment is a process of changing the internal beliefs of people, rather than being simply a set of external actions (Conger, 1989). Paired with the hope of empowerment is the ongoing need of volunteers in society. This calls for continued research and understanding of how volunteers are motivated. Yeung (2004) explains motivation as the “essential feature” and the “cornerstone” of volunteerism. The author goes on to give two reasons to study volunteer motivation, describing it as the “core of actualization and continuity of voluntary work” (pg 21) and an “excellent area of research for reflection on, and exploration of, the sociological conception of late-modern commitment and participation” (pg 22). Since empowerment is defined as a type of intrinsic task motivation (Thomas & Velthouse, 1990), empowerment is equally as important to research as motivation. 79 Many questions exist regarding volunteerism and empowerment. While empowerment has been studied in many different ways in the work environment, including through leader behaviors, work teams, empowerment climate, and psychological empowerment, little is known about empowerment in volunteer settings. Since the research on volunteerism and empowerment is still in the early stages, this study selected a qualitative approach exploring the phenomenon of empowerment to expand the literature, providing an open-ended approach seeking to uncover factors of empowerment unique to volunteerism. Sample Four church leaders from four different churches were contacted and asked to participate through identifying volunteers, and three churches/church leaders agreed to participate in the study. As such, all participants came from one of three churches, three participants from each of two churches, and two participants from one church. There were a total of eight participants in this study. All three churches were from the same medium-sized Midwestern city. Churches varied in size from average attendance of one church less than 500, one church 500 to 2,000, and one with greater than 2,000. Each church was part of a different denomination or sector of Christianity, but all shared in Christianity as their religion. Participants ranged in age from the mid-thirties to mid-seventies. There were three male and five female participants. Weekly volunteer hours ranged from three hours to nearly 20 hours per week. All participants were married and had children, though the children varied in age from toddlers and younger to grown children living away from their parents‟ home on their own. Volunteer roles varied greatly, as did responsibilities 80 and expectations of each role. Involvement in community activities beyond church varied, and the amount of involvement within the church varied, though all were relatively involved. Interviews took between thirty-one and seventy-five minutes, and the average length was fifty minutes. Research Design This study consists of eight exploratory interviews with volunteers of three different churches. These volunteers were identified by a church leader with whom they worked. Leaders identified empowered volunteers through identification of displayed empowerment behaviors. The qualifications given to the leaders were as follows: A volunteer is someone who...