Enhancing Event Volunteer Engagement: The Role of Job Characteristics, Psychological States, and Attitudes Towards Innovation

This study investigates the effects of job characteristics on psychological states, attitudes towards innovation, event innovativeness and job outcomes among event volunteers. We propose and validate the event volunteer job design model, which sheds light on addressing both event volunteer attraction and retention challenges. Volunteers from local, national, and international events in Australia participated in this study ( n = 218). Structural equation modelling revealed that task and social characteristics have a significant impact on internal work motivation, job satisfaction, and innovativeness, leading to significant decreases in emotional exhaustion. Critical psychological states and attitudes towards innovation played significant mediating roles in the model. Moreover, the moderator analysis revealed that genuine episodic volunteers respond positively to job characteristics when compared to current and former long-term committed volunteers. This research sheds light on the significance of task and social characteristics in elucidating the net-cost analysis of why and how volunteers participate in events.