Networks of volunteers and paid staff
This project is an international collaboration between researchers from the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (Jurgen Willems), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Sarah Dury) and Antwerp University (Peter Raeymaeckers). It is funded in the WEAVE program with two funding partners: FWOVlaanderen (Belgium) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [I 6320].
Public and nonprofit organizations are increasingly relying on social networks of volunteers and paid staff for social service delivery. That means that volunteers and paid staff collaborate on a daily basis to provide public services. For these collaborations, they rely on personal connections with other volunteers and paid staff. The combinations of all these personal connections form a social network between all collaborators involved. This social network is relevant to reach more effective public services. In this project, we analyze how different types of networks and different positions in those networks are relevant in steering the effectiveness of the public services.
We rely on social network analysis to advance theoretical and practical knowledge on (1) the structure of networks as well as the positions in networks of volunteers and paid staff, and (2) how volunteers and paid staff use their social networks to reach more effective social services. Our project has a strong empirical component. Given the nature of our research questions, we apply quantitative and qualitative research methods, including interviews, social network analysis, Q-sorting interviews, and conjoint experiments. The planned research will contribute –through the interdisciplinary collaboration of scholars involved in this project– to the literature on social networks, social work, and volunteer management.
Citizen Science Pilot study (2025).
As a part of this FWF project, data is collected with and for volunteer organizations. Guided by the WU researchers of this FWF project, citizen-scientists in the role of volunteers, as well as volunteer coordinators, take a central role in collecting data, interpreting results, and formulating recommendations for improving impactful volunteering. The goal of this pilot study is dual: (1) Support volunteers and volunteer organizations in improving the organizational contexts for impactful volunteering, and (2) conduct high-level scientific research on effective volunteer management practices.
Registration is currently open for the Volunteer Environment Check (VEC). Participating organizations will—with our support and coaching—collect data on volunteer management practices and volunteer satisfaction. This will be elaborated in a practice-oriented feedback report providing various insights for volunteers and volunteer coordinators on the contexts in which volunteering takes place. In turn, these feedback-reports serve as the starting point for follow-up workshops, in which practitioners and researchers work closely together to expand the analysis in a practice-oriented manner. Volunteer managers and coordinators of interested volunteer organizations can obtain further information or register for participation in the VEC by sending an email to kai.udo.klein@wu.ac.at.
Earlier studies that led to the elaboration of the project proposal
Raeymaeckers, P., Vermeiren, C., Noel, C., Van Puyvelde, S. & Willems, J. 2020. The Governance of Public-Nonprofit Service Networks: a Comparison Between three Types of Governance Roles. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. 32: 1037–1048: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-017-9920-7
Willems, J., Andersson, F.O., Jegers, M., & Renz, D. O. 2017. A coalition perspective on nonprofit governance quality: Analyzing dimensions of influence in an exploratory comparative case analysis. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. 28(4): 1422–1447. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-016-9683-6
Willems, J., & Dury, S. 2017. Reasons for not volunteering: Overcoming boundaries to attract volunteers. Service Industries Journal. 37 (11–12): 726–745 (Special issue: Nonprofit Services - Part 1) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2017.1318381
Willems, J., Van Puyvelde, S., Jegers, M., Vantilborgh, T., Bidee, J., & Pepermans, R. 2015. Exploring board interlocking behavior between nonprofit organizations. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. 86(1): 73–88. (Special issue: Governance of non-profit and non-governmental organizations - Within and between organization analysis) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12067
Willems, J. & Walk, M. 2013. Assigning volunteer tasks: The relation between task preferences and functional motives of youth volunteers. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(6): 1030–1040. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.03.010