Measuring Motivation to Volunteer for Special Events

Special event organizations (SEOs) are formed and operate in a different environment. Due to the increasing scale and complexities of special events combined with financial constraints, these organizations are typically reliant on unpaid volunteer labor for a large number of activities during the event. The purpose of this article is to develop a measurement scale for motivation to volunteer for special events, which is a relatively unexplored area. It first explores several fundamental aspects of the complexities of the relationship between the volunteer and the employers of volunteer labor. It then presents a five-dimensional model to better understand the motivations of special event volunteers as measured by a 26-item scale developed on the basis of literature on special events and motivation to volunteer (MTV). The scale is tested in a survey and the findings are presented.