Organizational Climate and other Factors that Promote Satisfaction and Sustained Volunteerism in NPOs: The Role of Motivation and its Regulation

The toughest challenge for NPOs is to maintain their volunteers to attach to the organization and fulfill their responsibilities. This research is aimed at finding out the factors, either individual or organizational, that increase volunteer interest or satisfaction or encourage them to quit the organization. For this, we propose a theoretical framework explaining how different organizational factors such as 1. Autonomy, 2. Consciousness, 3. Participation of Decision, 4. Perception of Relevance, 5. Relationship with Boards, and 6. Relationships with Volunteers promote outcomes such as Satisfaction and Sustained Volunteerism in NPO. These outcomes are represented by 1. Intention to Leave, 2. Satisfaction with Job, 3. Tenure as Volunteer. They would ultimately lead to Volunteer Satisfaction. We also contend that organizational factors influence the outcome through increasing Motivation and Better Regulation. Motivation factors included as 1. External Regulation of Motivation 2. Identified Regulation of Motivation, 3. Introjected Regulation of Motivation, and 4. Intrinsic Motivation. Empirical validity was established by conducting a survey using a close-ended questionnaire. For this purpose, two hundred sixty-five volunteers in five different NPOs were asked to fill in a self-reported questionnaire to observe their satisfaction and perception of the organization's conditions in the NPO they worked with, their motivation to work, and their service satisfaction with respect to work they involved in. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. Results showed that organizational factors such as Autonomy, Perception of Relevance, and Relationship with Boards seem to have a significant positive impact on External, and Identified Regulation of Motivation, whereas Perception of Relevance, Consciousness of outcomes, and Relationship with Boards seem to have a positive impact on Intrinsic, and Introjected Regulation of Motivation. Relationships with Volunteers also have a significant positive effect on Identified Regulation of Motivation. Moreover, External and Identified Regulation of Motivation tends to increase the Intention to Leave, Satisfaction with Job, and Tenure as Volunteer. Intrinsic Motivation and Introjected Regulation of Motivation seem to increase Satisfaction with Job. Intrinsic Motivation also seems to affect Intention to Leave, whereas Introjected Regulation of Motivation has a significant positive effect on Tenure as Volunteer. Lastly, Autonomy and Relationship with Volunteers both have a direct and positive impact on Volunteer Satisfaction. The findings showed that motivation and its regulation intercede the relationship between organizational climate and intentions to quit an organization.