Challenges in Volunteer Management (Hc)

A volume in Research in Public ManagementSeries Editors: Lawrence R. Jones and Nancy C. Roberts Naval Postgraduate SchoolVolunteer management has many challenges not the least of which is how we study it and view it.Academics examine it from a variety of disciplines and practitioners experience it in a variety ofcontexts. However both approaches have limitations. In academia we go to public administrationschools to learn about public and nonprofit management to business schools to apply the principlesof private enterprise to nonprofit management to sociology departments to study the phenomenaof volunteerism to psychology departments to understand the motives of volunteers andeconomics departments to examine the value or economic worth of volunteerism. The liability ofthe academic approach is the segmentation of study and research into departmental areas. Thestudy of volunteers and volunteerism needs to cross all of these organizational and disciplineboundaries to be fully appreciated and understood as a field of interest. In contrast practitionersview volunteer management from their own unique experiences. They try to gauge success in volunteermanagement based on what they have encountered in particular organizations towns cultures and countries in which they work.As important as these insights are they are difficult to generalize beyond local settings. Just because an individual has been successfulin working with volunteers it does not mean that the lessons learned in one situation can be translated to others under all conditions.The target audience for this volume is anyone who manages volunteers. The goal of the volume is to demonstrate the breadth of thoughton volunteer management both across disciplines and a wide range of settings in which volunteers work.