Weakening Organizational Ties? A Classification of Styles of Volunteering in the Flemish Red Cross

This article presents an initial empirical assessment of a new analytical framework of styles of volunteering (SOV). The framework suggests that volunteering can be categorized in terms of a multidimensional set of cultural and structural indicators that cohere in systematic and varying ways. With data drawn from a survey of 652 Flemish Red Cross volunteers, a multivariate analysis reveals five different SOV categories of volunteers: episodic contributors, established administrators, reliable coworkers, service‐oriented core volunteers, and critical key figures. The research findings indicate that the volunteer reality is far more complex than suggested by conventional approaches to the study of volunteering.