What Do We Expect? An Examination of Perceived Committee Norms in Non-profit Sport Organisations

Group norms are agreed standards describing behaviours that should and should not be performed in a prescribed context. The purpose of this study was to examine, in the context of volunteer sport executive committees, the types and relative strength of perceived committee norms. A further purpose was to explore the influence of individual and group factors on those norms, and the relationship between perceived norms and individual behaviour. Volunteer sport executive committee members (N = 121) completed a questionnaire that measured perceptions of committee norms, various individual (position, tenure) and group (size, gender and tenure composition) variables, and individual behaviour (attendance, effort, intention to stay with the committee). Committee norms that reflect members' expectations about how to treat each other (social norms) and how to work together (task norms) were perceived to be very strong. Only committee size explained any variation in perceived committee norms, where three norms were perceived to be stronger by members of large versus medium-size committees. Committee norms were mildly associated with member attendance and effort. The findings suggest there are strong expectations, with very little variation, for member behaviour in volunteer sport executive committees. However, those group expectations have only a modest influence on the individual behaviours examined here.