Journal
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY
Volume 32, Issue 4, Pages 534-564Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0893318918792094
Keywords
volunteering; boundaries; boundary management; professionalism
Categories
Funding
- Trust Waikato in New Zealand
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This article employs a boundary work framework to analyze how volunteers from two nonprofit human services organizations navigated the tensions between volunteerism and professionalism. Based on interview data and analysis of organizational documents, the study found that volunteers at the first organization, fundraisers for child health promotion and parent education, dichotomized volunteerism and professionalism as incompatible social systems with divergent objectives, practices, and tools. Volunteers at the second organization, which provides emergency ambulance services, engaged in constant boundary crossing, oscillating between a volunteer and professional approach to tasks and relationships depending on the context. In both cases, paid staff and members of the public affected participants' ability to engage in boundary work. The study offers insights for nonprofit organizations wishing to professionalize their volunteer workforce by specifying how volunteer job types, organizational structure, and interactional partners' feedback impact volunteers' ability to engage in boundary crossing, passing, and boundary spanning.
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