Generation Z’s Sustainable Volunteering: Motivations, Attitudes and Job Performance

Abstract

Generation Z (Gen Z), the future of America’s workforce, is forecasted to represent more than 30 million persons by 2020. Volunteer rates have been declining since 2002. Most compelling is that overall lowest volunteer rates were found to be within the Gen Z segment, with expectations of continued decline. Thus, this study explored motivations associated with sustainable volunteering by Gen Z based upon past research that documented intent to volunteer is strongly associated with age. In doing so, the Volunteer Functions Inventory was adopted to identify Gen Z motivations for volunteering. This study then employed the theory of planned behavior to test the relationships between Gen Z volunteering motivations, their attitudes and job performance using data obtained from 306 Gen Z volunteer special event participants. Among five motives identified to be important to Gen Z, only four motives (“value”, “career”, “learning” and “self-esteem”) were found to significantly influence their attitudes. The ‘social’ motive was found to have no significant effect on their attitudes towards volunteering. This research framework was supported by validating the significant relationships between volunteer motivations, attitudes and job performance specific to the Gen Z volunteer segment. “Job training appropriateness” was found to be an important moderator for improving the relationships between Gen Z volunteer attitudes and job performance.

1. Introduction

Volunteering significantly contributes to global economies and has tremendous potential to solve economic, environmental and social problems [1]. According to a report conducted in 2015 by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society, approximately 140 million people in 37 countries engage in volunteer work during any typical year. Cumulatively, those volunteers represent the equivalent of 20.8 million full-time employees, which has a global economic value of approximately $400 billion (USD). In the USA, volunteers offer annual services valued between $113 and $161 billion.

However, for unknown reasons, the rate of volunteering in the U.S. has been declining. During 2015, volunteering was recorded at just 24.9% nationally, representing the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began comparing data on volunteers. In 2011, this percentage was 26.8%, and in 2005 it was 28.8%. Researchers addressed this issue as a significant problem specific to not only nonorganizations and community sectors and also attempted to identify important factors contributing to volunteering retention [2]. In a context consistent with this phenomenon, recent research interest on volunteering has examined how volunteers could be motivated to sustain their efforts [3]. Nichols and Ralston (2014) asserted volunteering motivation enable individuals to sustain their enthusiasm and intent to volunteer in a different context [4].

Research addressing volunteering has been conducted in part to determine important motivators that drive people to become volunteers and to sustain the volunteering effort [5]. An individual’s intent to participate in volunteering is strongly associated with age groups and cohorts because people belonging to the same age categories and social groups are usually found to have similar motivations for volunteering [6]. Of particular concern was that the lowest rate for volunteering according to age group was found to be those individuals representing the young age groups, which typically appear to be one of the most important sources for volunteering. At the time of this paper’s development, the young age group known as “Generation Z” (Gen Z) represents teenagers born in the mid-1990s through 2002 [7].

Previous research addressing the topic of volunteers documents that an increasing amount of attention has been devoted to Gen Z and volunteer motivation research [8]. One study addressing expectations in the global workplace for both Gen Y, born between 1977 and 1994, and Gen Z, found Gen Z to have a higher level of entrepreneurial spirit (17%) than Gen Y (11%) and to be very interested in volunteering in order to obtain relevant knowledge and skills for refining future career objectives [8]. Based upon these findings, this study assumes Gen Z will soon begin to represent a great supply source for future volunteers. Yet, these findings also reported that only 26% of the Gen Z segment, indicating they had a high interest in volunteering currently participate in those opportunities to do so, compared with those Gen Y individuals expressing a high interest in volunteering, where the participation rate has achieved an enviable 73% involvement rate [9].

Numerous research studies have focused on identifying an individual’s motivations toward specific activities because motivations have been proven to directly and significantly affect actual and future behavioral intentions. Research also provides empirical evidence that motivations are the most important determinants for activities associated with volunteering [6]. Therefore, in consideration of Gen Z’s low participation rate for volunteering compared with their high level of intent for doing so, this study’s attempt to identify salient motives associated with this age group’s volunteering behavior is deemed critical in order to better understand this phenomenon and what the Gen Z market segment may hold for the future regarding the sustainability of volunteering.

According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB) [10], an individual’s behavior is affected and formed by their individual attitudes and motivations toward specific events or things. Previous research has provided compelling evidence to support the fact that the Gen Z segment expresses a high level of enthusiasm for learning new skills and has a strong desire to prepare themselves for future careers [11]. If the Gen Z segment perceives organizations to provide more meaningful volunteer opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge, then they may possibly provide better performance. Therefore, it would be critical for volunteer organizations to offer appropriate training programs designed to attract the Gen Z segment to become more involved in volunteering opportunities, contributing to the overall sustainability of the organization as a whole [12].

Additionally, several studies regarding organizational team collaboration demonstrated that cohesive groups within a certain organization resulted in more positive attitudes toward collaboration and more productive outcomes compared with those noncohesive groups [13]. Their findings concluded that team cohesiveness is very important to stimulate team members to gain their cooperation and commitment to work. Doherty and Carron (2003) submitted findings documenting that having a coherent team climate was one critical factor leading to positive attitudes and behavior involving volunteering [14]. Therefore, this study expects to discover that potential resource opportunities representing the two factors of ‘volunteer job training appropriateness’ and ‘team cohesiveness’, can play significant moderating roles for enhancing positive relationships between Gen Z’s attitudes toward volunteering and their job performance.

2. Research Background

2.1. Generation Z (Gen Z)

Individuals belonging to Gen Z were born in the mid-1990s and were raised in the 2000s [7,12]. This US historical time period is significant because it represents some of the most profound economic and technological changes the country has ever experienced, including the greatest financial meltdown since the 1930’s Great Depression. Gen Z is recognized as the first US age group who does not know about a world without an Internet. Gen Z is also called the “i Generation” which is a term originated as a result of this age segment’s frequent use of the internet and its high interaction levels within the virtual place [15].

Recent academic scholars have begun to explore characteristics associated with this population segment and found that they are absolutely immersed in social networking sites and develop interpersonal relationships through social network services [12]. One study compared Gen Z’s characteristics with those of the Generation Y (Gen Y) age segment and described them as being young individuals, who yearn for a satisfying and fulfilling professional life, who are reserved, and more modest when exhibiting their thoughts, and have more confidence than those individuals belonging to Gen Y [16]. Gen Z is also called the ‘Pluralist Generation’ because they represent the age group having the most diversity with ethnicities and religious groups [17]. Finch (2015) characterized Gen Z as being practical, pragmatic and possessing future-oriented tendencies [18].

2.2. Volunteer Motivations

Most early volunteering studies addressed individual motives focusing on their humanitarianism and altruistic beliefs [19]. As the volunteering research focus has evolved into a broader context of areas including events, subsequent academic findings have identified different motives for volunteering [20]. In particular, Costa et al. (2006) found that individuals participated in event volunteering because of opportunities for training and task execution [21]. Consequently, event volunteering is considered as an arena for personal expression, development and cautious investment in one’s human and social capital [22].

One seminal study addressing attitudes and behaviors established that an individual’s desires and needs play important roles in initiating and sustaining human action [23]. Attitudes regarding a particular activity might be formed based upon motives, and thus, can possibly expect individuals to act in certain ways or to at least develop an inclination for their behavior [24]. A majority of volunteering studies following this line of thought have also embraced the important role of motivation as an initial driving force and have focused their research upon the identification of primary volunteer motivations [25,26].

One of the earliest volunteer studies conducted by Pearce [27] defined volunteer motivations as being drivers of individuals to seek out volunteer opportunities, to commit themselves to voluntary helping, and to sustain their involvement in volunteerism over extended periods of time. Frank, Finnegan and Taylor (2004) asserted that volunteer motivation and satisfaction significantly influence volunteer retention. Subsequent volunteer studies have demonstrated that an individual’s motivations for volunteering could vary according to their socio-demographics, social relationships and volunteer activities [6,26]. Therefore, the most prevalent view of the existing literature is that volunteer motivations represent multi-dimensional aspects of individuals.

Clary and Snyder (1991) assessed volunteering motivations by adopting the functional approach to volunteering motivations which change or form individuals’ attitudes and further lead them to engage in certain activities [28]. This functional approach is based upon the premise that volunteering may reflect quiet different underlying motivational processes, manifesting the functions served by volunteering in a form of a voluntary helping behavior. Based upon this functional concept, Clary et al. (1999) organized various volunteering motivational aspects into an integrated form called the “Volunteer Functions Inventions” (VFI) that includes multiple factors represented by values, career, learning, self-esteem and social dimensions, which could be pursued by performing volunteering activities [29]. The first factor, “value”, is associated with the motivation expressing volunteering values related to humanitarianism and altruistic beliefs. The “career” factor represents the development and enhancement of one’s career through volunteering. The “learning” factor is related to learning opportunities through volunteer experiences. The “self-esteem” factor represents the feeling of self-respect and self-impression when volunteering. Lastly, the “social” factor is associated with the motivation derived from the interaction with others as an extrinsic factor.

Many subsequent volunteer studies have successfully replicated this multidimensional motivation concept of VFI to a variety of volunteering contexts, making it the most widely utilized volunteer motivation research framework [6,30]. Yet, despite its broad application to many various volunteer contexts, recent subsequent research has reported that all of the VFI dimensions were not necessarily appropriate and some did not fit well when applied to specific volunteer groups involving seniors, young people, religious organizations and sports supporters [26,31]. This situation has been commonly proven in many volunteer studies that identified slightly different motivations from the VFI dimensions based upon volunteer characteristics and activities (see

Table 1. Review of major studies on volunteer motivations adopting volunteer functions inventions.

	Sample	Classification of Volunteering Motivations	Results and Implications
Clary et al. (1998)	61 older volunteers	Values, enhancement, career, social, protective, understanding	Analysis revealed six motivational factors
Johnston et al. (1999)	7000 volunteers for the 1997 Canadian Scout Jamboree	Solidary, purposive, commitment and external traditions, to do something worthwhile, creates a better society	Commitment is top motivation among special event volunteers
Twynam et al. (2002)	190 volunteers for the 1998 Star Choice World Junior Curling Tournament.	Solidary, purposive, commitment, external traditions	Volunteer motivation is multifaceted. External traditions is the least important motivator for this group of volunteers
Burns et al. (2008)	511 college students	Values, enhancement, career, social, protective, understanding	Results found the effect of gender on volunteering motivation
Bang and Chelladurai (2009)	206 volunteers for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games	Expression of values, Patriotism, interpersonal contacts, career orientation, personal growth, extrinsic rewards	Validated the volunteer motivation scale for international sporting event
Gage and Thapa (2012)	413 college student	Values, enhancement, career, social, protective, understanding	The strongest motives were related to the values and understanding dimension which reflected helping others and expanding one’s own perspective on an issue
Dwye et al. (2013)	302 volunteers at various sites through a central agency	Values, enhancement, career, social, protective, understanding	Motives concerning esteem enhancement and value expression were positively associated with volunteering satisfaction
Lee et al. (2014)	489 volunteers for the Yeosu Expo	Altruism, patriotism, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation	Patriotism and Intrinsic motivation have an effect on the satisfaction

). Thus, our study expects that the VFI dimensions would also play different roles in the Gen Z volunteer segment.

2.3. Development of Research Hypotheses

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) proposes that strong relationships exist among motivation, attitude and behavior. Within the TPB structure, the literature has demonstrated that individual positive attitudes are significantly associated with their job performance [32,33]. Job performance refers to a subjective evaluation of those individuals’ skills and competences delivered to customers, supervisors and/or other coworkers [34]. Their positive attitudes also play important roles in increasing customer satisfaction and creating customer loyalty through better job performance [35]. Therefore, the TPB research framework was used to test the relationships between Gen Z’s volunteer motivations of VFI [19], and their attitudes and job performance. This study expects to find that the Gen Z market segment is more likely to engage in volunteering to provide better job performance if they are found to have favorable attitudes towards volunteering derived from their motivations [36].

2.3.1. Volunteer Motivations, Attitudes toward Volunteering and Job Performance

An early study conducted by Katz stated that motivations make significant contributions to understanding the formation and change process regarding an individual’s attitude [37]. Individual attitudes initiating and sustaining behavior are formed based upon behavioral beliefs, which indicate that motivations are the most critical determinants of attitudes [10,36]. When the role of motivations is applied to the context of volunteering, motivations for volunteering could also result in favorable attitudes [27]. Of particular interest, Fisher and Price (1991) reported that as volunteers develop deeper motivations because of their social and intrinsic motivational aspects, they also gain more favorable attitudes that further increase their overall satisfaction in the volunteering experience [38].

Additional studies consistently documented that volunteering motivations significantly influence the formation of attitudes and also favorably shift attitudes toward volunteering [39,40]. Several empirical studies provided evidence that attitudes toward volunteering can be better predicted based upon those motivations held by participating volunteers. For example, Reeser et al. (2005) found a strong, significant and positive relationship between motivations and positive attitudes toward volunteering [41]. Lee et al. (2014) examined the motivations of volunteers who participated in a mega event and demonstrated that volunteer motivations could increase their favorable attitudes [40]. Therefore, this study predicts that motivations for volunteering specific to Gen Z could positively influence their attitudes toward volunteering. Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed:

Hypothesis 1.

Gen Z’s volunteer motivations have a positive effect on attitudes toward volunteering.

H1a. 

Gen Z’s value motivation has a positive effect on attitudes toward volunteering.

H1b. 

Gen Z’s career motivation has a positive effect on attitudes toward volunteering.

H1c. 

Gen Z’s learning motivation has a positive effect on attitudes toward volunteering.

H1d. 

Gen Z’s self-esteem motivation has a positive effect on attitudes toward volunteering.

H1e. 

Gen Z’s social motivation has a positive effect on attitudes toward volunteering.

Hsu and Huang [36] (p. 392) defined an attitude as “being a person’s positively or negatively valued predisposition to respond and behave in a consistent way toward a certain defined target.” Researchers have investigated the relationship between attitudes and behavior in many different topics, and have concluded that attitudes are one of the most important predictors of behavior [32]. Therefore, this study predicts that when Gen Z volunteers have positive attitudes toward volunteering, they are more likely to strive further to provide better job performance as volunteers.

Hypothesis 2.

Gen Z’s attitudes toward volunteering has a positive effect on job performance.

2.3.2. Moderating Roles of Job Training Appropriateness upon the Relationships Between Gen Z’s Attitudes and Their Volunteer Job Performance

This study adopts the same position as seen in early research [42]—that the effect of individuals’ attitude toward a specific activity upon their performance would vary because they act in very different ways depending upon those work environments in which they are placed. When people work in situations offering adequate training required for skills to complete tasks, they could perceive what to do and how to do their jobs properly, leading to more positive attitudes regarding their jobs and their motivated behavior in doing so [37].

Job training is commonly acknowledged as being able to effectively deliver opportunities to employees for increasing their task-related skills and better understanding their work environment [43]. “Training appropriateness”, defined as the applicability of training for performing a job, is regarded as the most critical determinant of training effectiveness [44]. Thus, organizational studies have emphasized the importance and appropriateness of job training programs for effectively and efficiently improving employee knowledge, skills and competencies [45]. When applying this concept to the volunteer setting, providing an effective training program for volunteers should be magnified because success of volunteer activities is highly dependent on the training appropriateness of volunteers.

Prior literature has demonstrated that appropriate job training programs could encourage employees to have more positive attributes towards their jobs, which further leads to their behavioral achievement representing job performance [46]. In particular, when considering Gen Z’s desires related to their characteristics, perceptions about strengths and weaknesses involving learning training program content would greatly affect their attitudes and behavior involving volunteering. With this in mind, possible opportunities that Gen Z could obtain by participating in volunteering at festivals and events may play an important role in amplifying the positive effect of their attitudes toward volunteering upon their job performance.

Hypothesis 3.

Gen Z’s positive perceptions about volunteer job training appropriateness significantly enhance the relationship between their attitudes toward volunteering and volunteer job performance.

2.3.3. Moderating Roles of Volunteer Team Cohesiveness upon the Relationships between Gen Z’s Attitudes and Volunteer Job Performance

Dynamics in organizations or groups are useful for people who work in teams in order to better understand how teams operate [47]. Thus, work team dynamics play an important role in the creation of effective teams and also in the success of those work teams [13]. Team cohesiveness is well-known as an important element of team dynamics. Defined as “the degree to which members of a group or team are attracted to a group or team and motivated to remain part of it” [48] (p. 359), team cohesiveness has been a focus of organizational academic research to develop efficient human resource strategies that improve value involving employees’ membership, cooperative attitudes and teamwork performance [49].

Employees who perceive high levels of their team cohesiveness tend to have greater appreciation for their memberships and strive further to create and maintain positive relationships with group members [49]. The existing literature provides empirical evidence supporting the fact that team cohesiveness plays a critical role in decreasing destructive conflicts that occur between team members [50] and improving task performance [51], ultimately leading to business success [52].

Additionally, team cohesiveness has been found to encourage team members to work hard due to the norm of reciprocity. One empirical study [53] demonstrated the significant role team cohesiveness plays in increasing the positive effect of employee attitudes toward innovativeness upon knowledge use and new product development performance. Existing studies have often addressed the importance of teamwork in the volunteering sector [54,55,56]. This is especially the case with event volunteering, even if individuals independently participate in volunteering in the event [54]. Supporting this, Doherty (2009) found that volunteer satisfaction is significantly influenced by team members [55]. Accordingly, Rice and Fallon [57] investigated the importance of team cohesiveness in the emergency services volunteering setting and their findings revealed that volunteer retention increased when volunteers positively perceived team cohesiveness, volunteer retention increased.

In light of these findings, our study expects to find that Gen Z’s perceptions about volunteer team cohesiveness will positively affect their attitudes and behavior toward volunteering. Thus Hypothesis 4 expects team cohesiveness to have a significant moderating role in enhancing the relationship between attitudes toward volunteering and job performance. The study’s conceptual model and hypotheses are presented in Figure 1.

Hypothesis 4.

Gen Z’s positive perceptions about team cohesiveness significantly enhance the relationship between their attitudes toward volunteering and volunteer job performance.

3. Methods

3.1. Data Collection and Sampling

The purpose of the main survey was to obtain data from a random sampling of Gen Z respondents working as volunteers at festivals and special events. All individuals were screened in order to specifically identify potential respondents between 16 and 18 year of age. The 12 largest events by estimated attendance held during fall 2016 in a major Florida city were selected for surveying. Graduate students from a university research methods class were used to collect data at these festivals and events that represented seasonal festivals, events and musical productions. At each event, graduate students randomly surveyed concession stands to identify Gen Z volunteers willing to complete the survey. Individuals were explained the purpose of the study, that participation was optional, would require about five minutes, and that their responses would remain anonymous. They were informed that they could discontinue the survey at any time and that they would be given the festival pen used to complete the survey as an incentive for their participation. As a result, the data collection effort generated a total of 306 completed useable responses from selected and prescreened respondents.

3.2. Measurements for Testing Hypotheses

The study’s measurements were developed based upon a comprehensive literature review process. The survey instrument was comprised of 29 items categorized into seven parts. The first part asked about an individual’s agreement on five different volunteering motivations using 15 items by adopting the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) developed by Clary et al., (1998) [58]. The five volunteering motivation dimensions (values, career, learning, self-esteem and social) were utilized to ask respondents to indicate their level of agreement with motivations for volunteering on a seven-point Likert-scale (1 = “strongly disagree” and 7 = “strongly agree”) (see

Table 2. Generation Z motivations for volunteering.

Motivations	Mean ± S.D.	Factor Loadings	Cronbach’s α
1. Value			0.91
I feel compassion toward people in need	6.19 ± 1.12	0.82
I feel it is important to help others	6.49 ± 0.91	0.77
I can do something for a cause that is important to me	6.46 ± 0.98	0.72
2. Career			0.91
Volunteering can help me to get my foot in the door in the door at a place where I would like to work	6.13 ± 1.22	0.74
Volunteering allows me to explore different career options	6.10 ± 1.26	0.67
Volunteering experiences will look good on my resume	6.26 ± 1.09	0.66
3. Learning			0.86
Volunteering allows me to gain a new perspective on things	6.39 ± 0.97	0.83
Volunteering lets me learn things through direct, hands on experience	6.14 ± 1.10	0.78
I can explore my own strengths	6.38 ± 1.01	0.71
4. Self Esteem			0.88
Volunteering increases my self-esteem	5.86 ± 1.27	0.86
Volunteering makes me feel needed	5.76 ± 1.28	0.82
Volunteering makes me feel better about myself	5.95 ± 1.19	0.81
5. Social			0.77
My friends volunteer	4.58 ± 1.68	0.91
Others with whom I am close place a high value on community service	4.35 ± 1.71	0.88
Volunteering is an important activity to the people I know best	5.33 ± 1.35	0.76

Notes: Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) = 0.90, Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity, p = 0.000, the total variance = 80.64%.

).

The survey’s second part measured respondents’ attitudes towards volunteering using three (3) items based upon prior research [27,59]. The third part investigated an individual’s evaluation about their volunteer job performance using items based upon research conducted by Diamantidis and Chatzoglou (2014) [45]. The fourth and fifth parts were developed to test the study’s moderating variables. Volunteer training appropriateness was measured using four items based upon research by Holton, Bates and Ruona (2000) [60]. Volunteer team cohesiveness was evaluated by using the following four statements based upon Barrick et al. (1998), and O’Reilly, Caldwell and Barnett (1989) [61,62]. All items were measured on a seven point Likert scale (1 = “strongly disagree and 7 = “strongly agree).

4. Results

Sociodemographic characteristics of respondents are presented in

Table 3. Respondents characteristics.

	n = 306
Age
16	54 (17.6%)
17	138 (45.1%)
18	114 (37.3%)
Gender
Male	108 (35.3%)
Female	198 (64.7%)
Ethnicity
Caucasian	240 (73.3%)
Hispanic	35 (10.7%)
African American	33 (10.0%)
Asian	20 (6.0%)
Primary Role as a Volunteer
Food & Beverage/Concessions	128 (41.8%)
Registration/Ticketing	54 (16.5%)
Transportation/Parking	24 (7.8%)
Guest Services/General Information	54 (17.6%)
Pre-/Post-Event Set-Up/Maintenance	44 (14.4%)
Numbers of Experiences Volunteering	2.64

.

4.1. Validity and Reliability of Measurements

To test the measurements’ validity and reliability, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, which demonstrated the reasonable measurement model fit with GFI (goodness-of-fit index) = 0.935, TLI (Tucker Lewis index) = 0.911, CFI (comparative fit index) = 0.925, IFI (incremental fit index) = 0.925 RMSEA (root-mean-square error of approximation) = 0.068 [63].

All standardized factor loadings of 29 items were greater than 0.70 and were also significant at p < 0.001 as indicators for the latent constructs. All values of composite reliability were over 0.90 and the lowest value of average variance extract was 0.651. These results provided evidence that all constructs in this research model possess acceptable convergent validity [64]. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.772 to 0.944 and indicated the satisfactory internal consistency and unidimensionality to its construct [65] (see

Table 4. Validity and reliability of measures.

Construct	Standardized Loadings	t-Value	CCR a	AVE b	Cronbach’s Alpha
Value Motivation			0.923	0.800	0.875
Value 1	0.895
Value 2	0.914	17.898 ***
Value 3	0.875	17.866 ***
Career Motivation			0.943	0.847	0.909
Career 1	0.935
Career 2	0.944	27.644 ***
Career 3	0.882	19.972 ***
Learning Motivation			0.947	0.856	0.916
Learning 1	0.926
Learning 2	0.919	21.739 ***
Learning 3	0.930	23.464 ***
Self-Esteem Motivation			0.913	0.777	0.857
Esteem 1	0.884
Esteem 2	0.891	17.298 ***
Esteem 3	0.870	16.118 ***
Social Motivation			0.848	0.651	0.772
Social 1	0.754
Social 2	0.764	11.558 ***
Social 3	0.896	9.801 ***
Attitudes towards Volunteering			0.944	0.848	0.911
I believe volunteering to help with events is an excellent activity	0.932
I enjoy volunteering at events	0.927	24.147 ***
When I volunteer at events, I like the tasks I am asked to perform	0.905	21.980 ***
Volunteer Job Performance			0.964	0.899	0.944
I make sure I fulfill all responsibilities specified in the job description	0.943
I typically perform all tasks that are expected of me	0.951	29.841 ***
I complete my assigned duties adequately	0.950	28.536 ***
Training Appropriateness			0.945	0.812	0.922
I was able to apply the training information when working as a volunteer	0.847
I was trained properly to use new skills	0.826	17.410 ***
I could recall everything I learned from the training	0.910	18.219 ***
I am able to apply the training information when working as a volunteer	0.919	19.996 ***
Team Cohesiveness			0.935	0.782	0.907
My volunteering team members support each other	0.874
My volunteering team members get along with each other	0.888	17.782 ***
While volunteering, our team members regularly help each other	0.878	17.791 ***
I would support my volunteering team members if they were criticized	0.896	18.223 ***

Notes: χ²/df = 2.97, p < 0.001; Goodness of Fit (GFI) = 0.935; Tucker Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.911; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.925; Incremental Fit index (IFI) = 0.925; Root Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.068; ^a CCR: Composite construct reliability; ^b AVE; Average variance extracted; *** p < 0.001.

).

The means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients of the nine constructs are presented in

Table 5. Correlations and discriminant validity.

Construct	Value	Career	Learning	Self-Esteem	Social	Attitudes	Performance	Training Appropriateness	Team Cohesiveness	Mean	SD
1. Value	0.89 a									6.17	1.09
2. Career	0.48 b,**	0.92								6.30	0.91
3. Learning	0.56 **	0.58 **	0.92							6.39	0.93
4. Self- esteem	0.51 **	0.27 **	0.32 **	0.88						5.87	1.11
5. Social	0.37 **	0.30 **	0.25 **	0.33 **	0.80					4.82	1.32
6. Attitudes	0.53 **	0.66 **	0.67 **	0.32 **	0.10 **	0.92				6.16	1.01
7. Performance	0.55 **	0.75 **	0.72 **	0.49 **	0.27 **	0.72 **	0.94			6.09	0.87
8. Training appropriateness	0.53 **	0.45 **	0.64 **	0.51 **	0.21 **	0.34 **	0.34 **	0.90		5.61	1.14
9. Team cohesiveness	0.43 **	0.35 **	0.48 **	0.49 **	0.32 **	0.70 **	0.63 **	0.42 **	0.88	5.14	0.99

Notes: ^a Diagonal elements are the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE); ^b Off-diagonal elements are the correlations among constructs, ** p < 0.01.

. All five motivational factors were significantly and positively correlated with attitudes and volunteer job performance. The two moderating variables (volunteer job training appropriateness and volunteer team cohesiveness) were also found to be positively related to attitudes and performance involving volunteering. All square roots of AVEs were greater than all correlations of each pair of constructs, supporting the measurements’ discriminant validity [64].

4.2. Hypotheses Testing

Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The research structural model fit appeared quite sound since all fit indices were acceptable (χ²/df = 3.008, p < 0.001; GFI = 0.906; TLI = 0.914; CFI = 0.937; RMSEA = 0.073). Results of testing hypotheses were described with the structural parameter estimates in Figure 2.

With respect to the effects of the five volunteer motivations upon their attitudes toward volunteering, results showed that only four motivations (value, career, learning and self-esteem) had a significant influence upon Gen Z’s attitudes toward volunteering. The “social” motivation factor had no significant effect upon attitudes (β = 0.049, p > 0.05). The “learning” motivation factor (β = 0.329, p < 0.001) was found to have had the most positive influence upon Gen Z’s attitudes towards volunteering. The “career” motivation factor (β = 0.301, p < 0.001) had a strong and positive effect upon attitudes, followed by the “value” factor (β = 0.191, p < 0.01) and the “self-esteem” (β = 0.164, p < 0.01) motivation. Therefore, Hypotheses 1a–d were supported, but Hypothesis 1e was not supported. Hypothesis 2 was tested to verify the positive relationship between attitudes toward volunteering and volunteer job performance. Results showed that attitudes toward volunteering had a strong and positive influence upon volunteer job performance (β = 0.582, p < 0.001). Thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported.

This study predicted that “volunteer job training appropriateness” and “volunteer team cohesiveness” were able to positively enhance the relationship between attitudes and job performance. Results revealed that “volunteer job training appropriateness” plays a significant moderating role in increasing the positive effect of attitudes upon volunteer job performance (β = 0.125, p < 0.01). However, ‘volunteer team cohesiveness’ had no significant moderating role upon the relationships between attitudes and volunteer job performance (β = 0.061, p > 0.05). Therefore, Hypothesis 3 was supported, but Hypothesis 4 was not supported.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

5.1. Theoretical Implications

Prior volunteer research findings asserted that an individual’s needs and desires can be critical sources of volunteering motivations, and people ultimately decide to volunteer and sustain their volunteering effort because of its gratifying and satisfying needs and desires [31]. Therefore, this study took the same position and adopted the functional approach that assumes that assumes Gen Z acts as volunteers in their mission to pursue specific goals [28].

This study focused on identifying the relative importance each of the five volunteering motives had to Gen Z and how their importance affected their attitudes towards volunteering. In doing so, the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) was employed [58], and demonstrated that Gen Z’s attitudes towards volunteering are significantly and positively influenced by volunteering motives, supporting previous volunteer study finding that volunteering attitudes are affected by an individual’s underlying motivations [31]. Supporting our expectations regarding the positive effect of attitudes upon job performance, this study substantiated the strong and positive relationship between Gen Z’s attitudes toward volunteering and volunteer job performance.

Particularly, motives regarding “obtaining learning opportunities” and “obtaining career benefits” were found to play the most important roles in forming Gen Z’s positive attitudes toward volunteering. The “value” and “self-esteem” motives were also found to significantly influence Gen Z’s attitudes towards volunteering, but their effects upon positive attitudes toward volunteering were weaker than the “career” and “learning” motivations. Wilson (2000) stated that most individuals hold positive attitudes toward work volunteering and intend to do so due to it being a great tool for expressing individual humanitarian values and altruistic concerns towards helping others and enhancing self-esteem [19]. However, this was not applicable to the Gen Z age group, where it was discovered that obtaining learning opportunities for their future careers represented a more important value than did altruism, which formed more positive attitudes for the Gen Z volunteer segment. Therefore, our findings regarding those more positive roles of volunteer motivations pertaining to “career” and “learning” might more accurately reflect those personality traits expressed by the Gen Z volunteer market segment.

Interestingly, the motive described as “fitting in with important social groups” was not significantly associated with Gen Z’s positive attitudes towards volunteering. Gen Z is well-recognized as being engaged in developing online social connections through a variety of social media channels and they make their commitment to virtual online social communities [66]. Our results documented that the social-related aspect would not significantly lead to Gen Z’s positive attitudes toward volunteering. Because Gen Z has been known to prefer an anonymous social media network rather than meeting people in person, and also to prefer having extensive social interactions through online social media channels, perhaps social motivation does not stimulate Gen Z as a significantly positive volunteering motivator.

This study also tested the moderating effects of job training appropriateness and team cohesiveness upon the relationship between Gen Z’s attitudes toward volunteering and their job performance. This relationship was found to be significantly enhanced as their perceptions about volunteer job training appropriateness are more positive, but tend to be not significantly affected by their perception about volunteer team cohesiveness. This result is in line with our previous discussion regarding Gen Z’s characteristics that represent high achievement and serious concerns about their careers, which make them pressured to provide better job performance. Therefore, considering this situation, it is plausible that the significant and positive role job training appropriateness plays enhances the relationship between Gen Z’s attitudes and volunteer job performance.

In contrast, although Gen Z has positive perceptions about volunteer team cohesiveness, it would not play a significant role in enhancing the positive relationship between their attitudes and volunteer job performance. Previous literature proposed that the role team cohesiveness plays upon team-members performance is greatly affected by team-member personality [67]. When applying this position to the Gen Z volunteer segment, this study revealed that it was not the case in the Gen Z volunteer segment. Regarding this finding, one possible explanation would be that due to having a high achievement focus, the Gen Z age group is commonly recognized as being comprised of very independent individuals that do not necessarily seek assistance from others. Due to having a high achievement focus, the Gen Z age group is commonly recognized as being comprised of highly independent individuals that do not necessarily seek assistance from others. Thus, this study cautiously expected that Gen Z volunteers may be comfortable with an independent work style, regardless of volunteer team cohesiveness and thus, the relationship between attitudes and volunteer job performance was not significantly influenced by volunteer team cohesiveness perceptions.

5.2. Practical Implications

The importance of volunteering to promote sustainable economic development and social inclusion is increasingly recognized by communities and national governments. At the personal level, participation in volunteering has been found to be an excellent intermediary phase for those individuals seeking jobs. It is also a proven method for individuals to gain assurance of being successfully included within the labor market [68]. In reality, only a small percent of the Gen Z future workforce intends to participate in volunteering. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain a better understanding of Gen Z’s motivations for volunteering that could be encouraged to sustain their volunteering positive attitudes associated with volunteering. With this in mind, our study identifies Gen Z’s motivations for volunteering and the effects they have had upon their attitudes and job performance.

The study’s results offer some interesting managerial implications addressing the Gen Z generation as potential volunteers for the service industry. To begin, one important managerial implication relates to the fact that social-related aspects of volunteering training programs would not be something these study results would recommend for adoption in the Gen Z context. Our results suggest that although Gen Z prefers a social media network relationship compared to interacting with people in person, the social motivation style of training used in this study would not find as much success with the Gen Z volunteer as with other volunteer generational segments. Perhaps the use of more anonymous training methods such as simulation gaming techniques would be embraced greater by potential Gen Z volunteers and this experience would then also be spread throughout out their social media network rather than in person, serving as yet another advantage to win the battle for Gen Z volunteer market share war.

Additionally, “training appropriateness” was found to be very important as a moderator for the Gen Z population with respect to their importance for “being trained appropriately to use new skills” for them to then be able to “apply this information to assigned tasks”. Thus, volunteering managers should also take into account the fact that Gen Z respondents indicated their training achieved a level of personal value to them when it was designed in such a manner as to be able to improve their skills and allow them to apply their training. This is a very important finding given that “team cohesiveness” was found to be nonsignificant as a moderating variable to Gen Z volunteers. Gen Z volunteers appear to be more independent, and thus much more reliant upon their own abilities than upon those of their coworkers, who may or may not share their same generational affiliation. Volunteer organizations should take heed of these findings, noting the importance of “training appropriateness” to Gen Z volunteers, and the fact that they may seek this volunteer experience for training to support their independence in the workplace as individuals who tend to overlook the importance of team building and cohesiveness.

6. Limitations and Future Research

Although data were collected randomly from volunteers operating within festivals and events, there are limits associated with sampling and this study’s findings. The list of festivals and events used for obtaining data pertaining to Gen Z volunteers was limited to just twelve large events held from only one city located in Florida during four months. Further, future research should obtain much more data representing different geographical regions throughout the U.S, and over different timeframes. As well, in order to accurately represent the Gen Z population, data needs to be obtained from younger individuals of the Gen Z market segment to gain a more realistic picture of the collective attitudes of this generation and their relationship to volunteering motives.