An Investigation into Volunteering at a Local Soprts Club: A Case Study of Wootton Bassett Tennis Club
Abstract
Sports clubs contribute considerably to the provision of sporting opportunities in England, yet suprisingly (sic), there is a lack of appropriate literature and research into the way that clubs operate, their structure and their management styles. Also, research into the numbers of members, clubs sizes and trends within sports clubs has yet to been undertaken (Hoye et al., 2009).
The aim of this study was to explore key motivations for becoming a volunteer and to do this by considering issues of recruitment and retaining volunteers. It also aimed to discover the main issues which the club is facing at present and see if these issues are likely to be overcome in the next five years. The third aim was to explore management principles and discover which are perceived as the most and least important to the particular case study.
A tennis club in Wiltshire was selected to investigate these issues. A qualitative approach was adopted and four key volunteers were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule.
This small scale study revealed the importance of volunteers to sports clubs. It also highlighted ongoing pressures for volunteers, together with a number of emerging issues that this club was facing. There was not an obvious profile for these volunteers, in line with Doherty (2005), although three out of the four interviewees shared similar socio-demographic characteristics.
Description
BA Enterprise Project
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, subject and abstract.
-
What motivates individuals to volunteer at events?
Richards, Nia Eleri (Cardiff Metropolitan University, 2010)This study has been undertaken as part of an MSc in Events Management course at UWIC. As the events management industry has grown, understanding events management has emerged as an academic discipline and there needs to ... -
An Investigation of the Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Factors Motivating the Decision to Volunteer, within Sports Organisations with a View to Better Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Policy Initiatives
Davies, Gareth (University of Wales Institute Cardiff, 2008)In light of the well-reported decline in sports volunteers both in terms of uptake and of those existing volunteers ceasing their involvement. The study aimed to build on that of previous research in identifying a ... -
An investigation into what motivates volunteers to work at events and the issues that event managers face in managing volunteers
Jordan, Lauren Dee (Cardiff Metropolitan University, 2009)The purpose of this study was to investigate the motivations of volunteers at events and to discover the issues faced by managers of volunteers at events in order to recommended effective solutions. The data used in this ...