Volunteers and Paid Staff in Social Services: A Scoping Review

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Abstract

The aim of this theoretical paper is to advance the debate about mixed workforces of volunteers and paid staff in nonprofit organizations providing social services. Governments in many Western countries are concerned with the sustainability of their social services fields, as decreased budgets and increased expenditures have largely shifted the delivery of these services to nonprofit providers (e.g., Curley et al., 2021; Trappenburg & van Beek, 2019). These nonprofit or often hybrid organizations frequently rely on mixed workforces of volunteers and paid staff, funding governments expecting that these organizations work efficiently (Metz et al., 2017; Rimes et al., 2017). For many of these organizations, volunteers are a critical resource, for others, they are mainly an additional input (Bittschi et al., 2019). There is interchangeability between the volunteers’ and paid staff’s roles, duties and responsibilities (Handy & Mook, 2011; Netting et al., 2004). Yet, as much as volunteer – paid staff interactions and relationships contribute to social service delivery, they also constitute a confrontation between two important stakeholder groups, which is a potential breeding ground for conflict between them (e.g., Kreutzer & Jäger, 2011; López-Cabrera et al., 2020).

Besides questioning what is known about the dynamic interactions and relationships between volunteers and paid staff, we also ask what research knows with respect to tensions and conflicts between these two groups. To that end, we conduct a scoping review in which we first search available literature on volunteers and paid staff in nonprofit organizations in different academic databases and grey literature. All collected papers will then be judged for eligibility based on a list of formal (e.g., English, peer-reviewed papers) and research criteria (e.g., clear theoretical framework and research questions) in different exclusion rounds. Thereupon, the included papers will be read and coded using NVivo. Results will be reported by means of data extraction tables and written text. The paper will contribute to the knowledge as concerns volunteers – paid staff interactions and relationships by describing and integrating what previous research concluded on these topics and which theoretical frameworks they used.

References

- Bittschi, B., Pennerstorfer, A., & Schneider, U. (2019). The Effect of Volunteers on Paid Workers’ Excess Turnover in Nonprofit and Public Organizations. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 39(2), 256–275.
- Curley, C., Levine Daniel, J., Walk, M., & Harrison, N. (2021). Competition and Collaboration in the Nonprofit Sector: Identifying the Potential for Cognitive Dissonance. Administration & Society, 53(8), 1293–1311.
- Handy, F., & Mook, L. (2011). Volunteering and Volunteers: Benefit-Cost Analyses. Research on Social Work Practice, 21(4), 412–420.
- Kreutzer, K., & Jäger, U. (2011). Volunteering Versus Managerialism: Conflict Over Organizational Identity in Voluntary Associations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(4), 634–661.
- López-Cabrera, R., Arenas, A., Medina, F. J., Euwema, M., & Munduate, L. (2020). Inside “Pandora’s Box” of Solidarity: Conflicts Between Paid Staff and Volunteers in the Non-profit Sector. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 556.
- Metz, J., Roza, L., Meijs, L., Baren van, E., & Hoogervorst, N. (2017). Differences between paid and unpaid social services for beneficiaries. European Journal of Social Work, 20(2), 153–166.
- Netting, F. E., Nelson, H. W., Borders, K., & Huber, R. (2004). Volunteer and Paid Staff Relationships: Implications for Social Work Administration. Administration in Social Work, 28(3–4), 69–89.
- Rimes, H., Nesbit, R., Christensen, R. K., & Brudney, J. L. (2017). Exploring the Dynamics of Volunteer and Staff Interactions. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 28(2), 195–213.
- Trappenburg, M., & van Beek, G. (2019). ‘My profession is gone’: How social workers experience de-professionalization in the Netherlands. European Journal of Social Work, 22(4), 676–689.

Authors

• Nathalie Colpin

• Sarah Dury, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Marc Jegers, Vrije Universiteit Brussels

• Stijn Van Puyvelde, University of Antwerp