*2.3. Researcher Roles and Preconceptions*

The study became possible because of the second author's involvement with her faculty's community service project with the said NPO. At the time she was a lecturer in human resource management and a registered industrial and organisational psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). While the community service project focused on mentorship at the time, the second author's interest in well-being, coping and retention of volunteers working at the NPO evolved into a research project for her PhD. This article forms part of her PhD and was co-conceptualised with her promoter, the first author. The first author holds a doctoral degree and she is a full professor in industrial and organisational psychology and a registered psychologist with the HPCSA in the categories of industrial and organisational as well as counselling. Both authors' research interests focus on employee well-being in the workplace through in-depth qualitative inquiry. The second author conducted the interviews and both authors contributed to the methodology, data analysis and writing of this article.

#### *2.4. Sampling and Participants*

A convenient, purposive sampling strategy was employed to select information-rich participants [55,56]. Inclusion criteria were based on the definition of a formal volunteer which entails voluntary, non-paid service to others over an extended period through a formal organisation or agency [11]. Eight participants performing volunteer services through the NPO for 12 months and more, were invited and were interviewed in the period between April and July 2016. The eight volunteers, who each serviced one of four Gauteng-based hospitals constituted an adequate sample size for phenomenological research [55]. Table 1 below provides an overview of the participant profiles.


**Table 1.** Participant profiles.

#### *2.5. Data Collection*

Eight initial in-depth interviews (60–90 min each) and three follow-up interviews (20–30 min each) were conducted. The interviews followed a flexible, thematic approach to elicit rich information by exploring the lifeworld of the participant [57]. After 11 interviews, data saturation was attained based on the depth (richness and thickness) thereof [58]. The in-depth interview allows flexibility to adjust thematically prepared questions during the interview, to facilitate a natural conversation flow and develop a narrative of lived experience, in which the research phenomenon is revealed [59,60]. To understand the antecedents that promote volunteers' resilience and positive adaptation, the theme of the interview questions centred on the lifeworld experiences of volunteering as reflected in Table 2.

Two interviews were conducted on the premises of a district hospital. The other nine were done at the NPO head office, situated on the grounds of two public hospitals. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed by a professional transcriber. The software package Atlas.ti was used to store and manage the data.


#### **Table 2.** Thematic interview questions.

#### *2.6. Data Analysis*

Data were analysed through phenomenological hermeneutical analysis entailing a naïve reading, constructing a structural thematic analysis and developing a comprehensive understanding [61,62]. Throughout the three stages, the metaphorical action of the hermeneutic circle is constantly applied, causing the researcher to move back and forth between the three stages, using each as a critical reflection and verification of the other [62].

The naïve reading entails repetitive reading of the transcriptions to get a sense of it as a gestalt [62] without any thematising [63]. Thereafter, to construct the thematic structural analysis, sections of meaningful text are identified and condensed in everyday language [62]. Condensed text is then reviewed, interpreted and clustered into sub-themes and main themes while continuously reflecting back on the naïve understanding and while constantly considering the research aim [61,62]. The comprehensive understanding is lastly constructed by reflecting on the holistic meaning in relation to the naïve reading, the thematic structural analysis, the research aim, the context of the study, the author's preunderstanding and relevant meta-theoretical literature [62]. The findings reported below focus on the themes constructed in the structural analysis and the discussion that follows reflect the comprehensive understanding.

#### *2.7. Ethical Considerations*

Ethics approval was obtained from the relevant Institutional Ethics Committee (reference no. 2015\_CEMS/IOP\_050) and written permission to do the research was provided by the NPO in which the study was conducted. The study was conducted in line with the Ethics Policy of the University of South Africa (UNISA) and the Rules of Conduct for the Profession of Psychology of the HPCSA. Participants signed an informed consent prior to their participation. In reporting the results pseudonyms are used to ensure anonymity. Participant pseudonyms were used according to the abbreviation PR with the number of the participant following, for example, PR6 denotes participant six.

#### **3. Findings**

Based on the naïve reading, volunteers' resilience seems strengthened by a distinct intrapersonal disposition or orientation to work and life. The structural thematic analysis conceptualises and synthesises this disposition or work-life orientation at the hand of three themes. The three themes describe how volunteers' resilience is rooted in a characteristic inner drive, their other-directed life orientation and regarding their work as a 'calling'. Next, each of the three main themes are conceptualised in sub-themes grounded in verbatim data.

#### *3.1. Volunteer Resilience Rooted in a Unique Inner Drive*

The volunteers' unique inner drive is reflected in their self-determination and autonomous agency as well as in an innate desire to be productive and useful.

#### 3.1.1. Being Self-Determined and Demonstrating Autonomous Agency

The volunteers' narratives reveal a characteristic self-determination and autonomous agency. They take responsibility for and are in control of their own lives and choices, as opposed to being

directed by external forces, and this drives them to make their own decisions. Self-determination is demonstrated by PR4 who is active in shaping his own life and takes responsibility by acting persistently on his motives: " ... *I became aware of the organisation, and then one day I came here, to XXX's o*ffi*ce* ... *and then I came for a second time with the same person, and then I just decided okay, I want to continue with this, you know*". Similarly, PR5 makes her internal locus of control apparent when she takes responsibility for her decision to volunteer: " ... *you work under pressure, I am not working under pressure. When I am tired, or God wants to speak to me, I just stand and listen*". Both PR4 and PR5 made a personal decision to become involved in volunteering. This personal and informed decision was based on a willing engagement that was free from external coercion.

Volunteer self-determination was not only evident in relation to the volunteering environment. PR1 s self-determination is revealed in the way she approached her life from an early age:

*"You grow up knowing what you want and where you want to go. Because most of the children that I grew up with, their parents taking care of them and doing everything to them, today like they are still depending on their parents in such a way that everything the parents have to take decisions for them and even if a person is matured like me, they are waiting for their parents to take a decision for them* ... *somebody has to come to a point where you have to take decisions on yourself".*

In addition to being self-determined, the volunteers are also autonomous agents, voicing a proclivity and capacity to make their own choices. This agency on the part of the volunteer is demonstrated by the free yet deliberate choices they made to engage in volunteer work. PR7 resolved: "*Volunteer is to work with your own ability, you do not, somebody does not push you. I want to volunteer, I want it*". PR3 highlights that volunteering is "*a matter of choice*" and the deliberate choice to become involved in volunteering is confirmed by PR4 who indicates that volunteering "*is something you want to do*".

This theme indicates the volunteer's tendency to act independently, take deliberate action and apply freedom of choice. This innate predisposition of being self-determined and demonstrating autonomous agency acts as a general resistance resource, facilitating the volunteers' resilience in vigorously continuing the work they do.

#### 3.1.2. A Desire to be Productive and Useful

Volunteers voice an innate desire to be busy and useful, despite their personal difficult circumstances and challenges. After retiring for health reasons, PR7 explains how she was not happy to sit at home and feel as if she was doing nothing: "*When I am at home I think about the patient because there are other patients there at the hospital, the patient who did not have the relatives, and they struggled a lot at the hospital and I decided to go there, not doing nothing*". She (PR7) further emphasised that she could not sit at home knowing that she had the opportunity to contribute to the patients in the hospital: "*I do not want to sit at home doing nothing whereas there is somebody who want me to comfort her or him*". Similarly, PR8 wanted to participate in new tasks as opposed to being inactive as a result of her health challenges: "*When I am busy staying at home I start thinking now, I am just sitting here, I do not do nothing* ... *I start to think man, no man this sickness is going to kill me because I do nothing, I must start now, I'm going to rise up and* ... *I must go and tell the people about something, encourage people at hospital*". Despite her discomfort, PR8 is adamant that she needs to be productive explaining that she "*cannot sit here every day thinking of this pain, there is some other people there at hospital, they have got this pain also, I must go and say to him, no man God will help you, I must go and encourage the person*". PR1 describes how she constantly strives to do something: "*I just made sure that all of my spare time I spend it in something, doing something. Either I am studying or I am helping somebody or I am doing something*".

The volunteers' need to be busy is complemented by the desire to be useful in their daily lives. This is evident from PR2, who lost her job after being declared incapacitated: " ... *ek wil nou eerder in XXX, [met] sieklike mense gaan [tyd] spandeer as om by die huis te sit" (I would rather spend time with the ill patients than to sit at home)*. The extent of PR2 s desire to be useful is visible in the variety of activities she is actively involved in:

*"Mondays I work with the SAP (South African Police Service) and when there is accidents or robberies or everything* ... *Monday is this time. And when I am not busy, I pray for the people in the NPO... And then I—Tuesday is NPO. Wednesday is NPO. Thursday is 'ouetehuis' (old age home)—all the old people. And Friday is me and my husband come to NPO".*

In addition to the independent deliberate action and freedom of choice that acts as a resource for the volunteers' coping and positive adaptation, their desire to be productive provides them with psychological resilience in that they are driven to take action, to be industrious and engaged in useful activity.
