A comparative study between Australian and South African university sport students volunteer motives and constraints

Abstract

Volunteering plays an integral part in the success of numerous South African and Australian organisations and university students have been identified as a latent target population with the greatest potential for volunteering. Organisations who wish to recruit students should be knowledgeable regarding their motives and constraints in order to increase community and sport volunteer activities. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the motives and constraints influencing volunteerism amongst South African and Australian sport students. A non-probability convenience sampling design was used to collect data from 278 South African and 208 Australian students enrolled in a sport curriculum at two universities in the Gauteng province and three universities within the Queensland area. The volunteer questionnaire developed by Auld and Cuskelly (2001) was used to gather data. The study identified slight egoistic differences in volunteer constraining and motivating factors between South African and Australian sport students. However, students from both countries indicated a low social motivation factor but an equal perceived confidence in their ability to solve problems when volunteering. The comparative results could aid organisations to broaden their current recruitment operations.