Measuring Olympic Volunteers’ Motivation
Niki Koutrou
The University of Kent, UK
Volunteers, who donate to the best of their ability, time, and effort, for achieving the organizational
goals of an Olympic Games Organizing Committee, have in recent years become a vital part of the
human resources required for the effective staging of the Olympic Games. Furthermore, volunteers
are often seen as the 'soft infrastructure' following the legacy plans of host nations aiming to stage the
Olympic Games. Despite the significance of volunteers for the delivery of the Olympic Games,
research on Olympic volunteers’ motivations, characteristics, and experiences is still limited. The purpose
of this study was to explore and investigate the characteristics and motives of volunteers at the
London 2012 Olympics and examine the factorial structure of the Motivation Scale adapted for this
purpose. Data was gathered from a volunteer sample of 163 individuals, who offered their services as
volunteer drivers at the Fleet Transport Department for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The 27-
item motivation scale demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability. The five extracted factors
(patriotism and community values; love of sport and the Olympics; interpersonal contacts; personal
growth; career orientation) were well defined and interpreted in terms of the items included. The
findings demonstrate that volunteers at the Olympic Games are motivated by a variety of factors, different
from those who volunteer at local sporting events or sport clubs, and the impact of these factors
may vary considerably from one individual to another. Therefore, this study will enhance event
organizers’ understanding of the reasons that initiate volunteer involvement with the Games, in order
to maximize the value that can be derived from the effective use of volunteers. It can also enable the
host community to adopt effective retention policies after the Games, to further utilize this network of
committed and trained individuals for future community events or organizations, and develop social
capital and benefit the society in the long term.
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Introduction
Many sectors of society benefit each year from the contributions of volunteers. Specifically, the sport
and recreation sector relies heavily on volunteer resources.1
Sport volunteers perform various roles
such as coaching, administrating, officiating, or fundraising for community organizations, sport clubs,
schools, or sport governing bodies. Sport events that take place at a local, regional, national, or international
level are one of the main avenues for volunteering in sport, yet they are of an episodic nature
in terms of the time commitments expected from the volunteers.
Major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, have grown considerably
in size and complexity. Thus, their staging presents organizational difficulties and financial bur-
Measuring Olympic Volunteers’ Motivation 56
dens to Organizing Committees. Consequently, they involve a substantial number of volunteers in a
variety of functional areas to sustain their operations. This suggests that considerable planning and
effort is required from event managers to recruit and train members of the public to fulfill these tasks.2
For instance, 70,000 individuals contributed to the London 2012 Games’ operations in areas such as
media, athletes and spectator services, tickets, and transportation.3
Given the international nature of
such major sporting events and the media attention they attract, a greater understanding of volunteer
motivations is integral to the development of effective volunteer recruitment and retention strategies.4
Interestingly, despite the heavy reliance on volunteers to meet the Games’ goals, a limited number of
studies investigating the factors that motivate individuals to volunteer for an Olympic Games have
been published. Organising Committees should place more emphasis on understanding the reasons
that motivate individuals to volunteer at major sporting events in order to enhance their experiences
by responding to their needs and, subsequently, develop a potential volunteer base willing to help
with future community events and organizations.5
The purpose of this exploratory study is to contribute to the body of knowledge on volunteerism
by identifying the motivational factors that underpinned volunteer participation in the London 2012
Olympic Games, which will inform volunteer strategies for Organizing Committees of future Games.