Motives behind volunteerism: A pilot study of Hong Kong university students

Abstract

Why people are willing to engage in work with little, and in most case, even no monetary return? Motives behind such kind of altruistic and/or prosocial behaviors have long been a topic of great interest to psychologists and sociologists. Anchored on a functional approach, Clary and his colleagues (Clary, Synder, Ridge, Copeland, Stukas, Haugen, & Miene, 1998) identified six functions that could potentially served by volunteerism (Values, Understanding, Social, Career, Protective, and Enhancement) and designed an instrument (known as Volunteer Function Inventory; VFI) to assess these functions. A Chinese version of the VFI was administered to a sample of 135 university students in Hong Kong enrolling to a volunteer services program affiliated to the university. Highest mean was found on the domain of Values, followed by Understanding and Enhancement. Greatest variability was found on the domain of Social, followed by Career. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.