Committing to refugee resettlement volunteering: Attaching, detaching and displacing organizational ties

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
en
Date
2018
Authors
McAllum, Kirstie
Abstract

As members of local host communities, volunteers play an important role in effective long-term refugee resettlement. This study investigated the nature of volunteer commitment by organizational volunteers who were assigned a front-line role in organizing material assistance and providing information about cultural practices for newly arrived refugees. Using interview data from volunteers, organizational representatives, and organizational recruitment and training documents, the study found that volunteers’ commitment was structured by the presence and absence of volunteer coordinators, the organization’s clients and volunteers’ significant others. While insufficient ties to the organization or strong, competing ties from significant others led volunteers to detach themselves from the organization, overly strong affective ties with refugees displaced organizational ties, leading to volunteers’ organizational exit. This study problematizes an individual-centric, psychological notion of commitment; instead, it situates commitment as a collective communicative process whereby relevant stakeholders negotiate the relationships that tie them together. It thus expands the range of voices present in decisions about commitment and provides new data on how organizational and relational others impact sustainable volunteer management.

Description
Citation
McAllum K (2018). Committing to refugee resettlement volunteering: Attaching, detaching and displacing organizational ties. Human Relations. 71(7). 951-972.
Keywords
commitment, not-for-profit organisations, refugee settlement, turnover, volunteers
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3507 - Strategy, management and organisational behaviour::350708 - Not-for-profit business and management
35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3505 - Human resources and industrial relations::350503 - Human resources management
52 - Psychology::5205 - Social and personality psychology::520501 - Community psychology
44 - Human society::4410 - Sociology::441013 - Sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism
Rights
All rights reserved unless otherwise stated