Research Concepts Draft

Leadership Cognate

Case Study Project

Leadership Development in Volunteer Organizations

Table of Contents

Problem Statement…………………………………………………………….………….….3

Research Questions……………………………………………………………………….….4

Methodology………………………………………………………………………...…….…9

Research Framework…………………………………………………………………….….11

Permission Request…………………………………………………………………………15

References……………………………………………………………………………….….16

Research Concept

            This qualitative method, single case research design will study the effects of leadership development in volunteer organizations. The method affords the opportunity to provide a detailed, in depth understanding of the problem of volunteer organizations to identify and train future leaders with skills needed resulting in reduced membership and decreased service opportunities to communities. Three concepts are relevant to this research. First, volunteer organizations provide essential services to communities. Second, leaders play a vital role in the success of volunteer organizations. Third, leadership development prepares the leaders for the challenges of leading a volunteer organization

Problem Statement

            The general problem to be addressed is the effect of untrained leadership on volunteer organizations resulting in dissatisfied volunteers and the inability to attract and retain members.  York (2017) states that in the United States, volunteers provide over 7.9 billion hours of service worth over $184 billion dollars yet leaders in volunteer organizations fail to utilize tools to strengthen the organization’s ability to remain sustainable and attract volunteers. Leadership skills are necessary in volunteer organizations that are in the business of serving society. Milbourn, Black, and Buchanan (2019) state that members of volunteer organizations have expectations of leaders that are not being met which impacts the retention of members. The effectiveness of the volunteer organization depends in large part to the ability of the volunteer leader to influence members to participate in the goals of the organization without compensation. The volunteer leader can positively impact the organization’s people and performance or send the organization on a downward spiral creating volunteer member turnover. Organizations that seek continued success must work to identify and train the next generation of leaders. Senses-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna (2016) state that leaders in the for-profit sector use extrinsic motives to encourage employee performance, whereas leaders in volunteer organizations must seek creative ways to satisfy and retain the volunteer members. The specific problem to be addressed in this study is the failure of the Lions Clubs District 34C to identify and train future leaders with the skills needed resulting in reduced membership and decreased service opportunities to communities.  

Research Questions

            Volunteer organizations in the United States provide much needed social and humanitarian services to individuals and communities accounting for billions of volunteer workhours valued at over $300 billion. The American society would suffer without the continued support gained from volunteer organizations. Volunteer organizations are challenged to continuously attract and retain volunteers. Leaders in volunteer organizations play a critical role in the effectiveness of member engagement and retention. The actions and behavior of leaders set the tone for the internal operating environment. Identifying and training potential future leaders will result in continued success of the organization to attain objectives and goals that will support and serve communities.

             To understand how leaders are developed in a volunteer organization the following research questions are asked:

            (1) What services do volunteer organizations provide to communities?

            (2) What role do leaders play in the success of volunteer organizations?

            (3) What skills are necessary for effective leadership in volunteer organizations?

            (3a) What leadership actions or behaviors contribute to the success of the volunteer organization?

             (3b) What leadership actions or behaviors contribute to the failure of the volunteer organization?

            (4) How do organizations prepare for leader succession?

            (4a) How are future leaders identified?

             (4b) What training can be provided to prepare future leaders in volunteer organizations? 

            The first research question seeks to identify the services volunteer organizations provide to communities. Volunteer organizations provide countless services to communities. Non-profit and volunteer organizations are a significant component of the United States workforce. Volunteers are an essential human resource complementing paid staff in attaining the goals and objectives of the organizations. The United States has over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations that require over 8 billion volunteer hours annually to remain successful (Sense-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016).  The value of the volunteer service is estimated at $184 (York, 2017). The financial impact of nonprofits in the United States is estimated to account for over five percent of the national gross domestic product with a value of over $300 billion (Posner, 2015). Society relies on volunteer and nonprofit organizations to support the needs of local communities. Volunteer organizations provide a broad range of services to communities in the field of social services such as providing health care support, assistance with feeding the hungry, and counseling services (Kang, 2015). Civic and service volunteer organizations also provide support to communities for veteran support, youth services, and homelessness.  Society would be negatively impacted by a reduction in services currently provided by nonprofits and volunteer organizations (Sense-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016).     

            The second research question identifies the role leaders play in the success of a volunteer organization. Leaders of volunteer organizations, as with leaders in any organization, play a critical role in organizational effectiveness. Leadership challenges with a volunteer workforce are unique as the motivational factors of the staff are different. Relationship building is a central role that the volunteer leader must utilize as the leaders have limited authority over volunteers that cannot be motivated financially (Posner, 2015). Posner provides an effective five-part framework that summarizes the role of leadership and that can strengthen the critical leader-follower relationship: model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others, encourage the heart (Posner, 2015).              

             The third research question seeks to identify the leadership skills that are necessary to successfully lead a volunteer organization. Milbourn, Black, and Buchanan (2019) state that members of volunteer organizations have expectations of leaders that are not being met which impacts the retention of members which ultimately effects the success of the organization. York (2017) states that leaders of volunteer organizations fail to practice effective volunteer management. Volunteer organizations that are well led are adaptable to changes and have a greater ability to carry out the organization’s mission (York, 2017). The volunteer leader has little authority over volunteers and must be able to motivate the members to accomplish shared goals (Posner, 2015). 

            Part of the third research question is identifying the leadership actions and behaviors contribute to the success of a volunteer organization. The attitudes of volunteers can be influenced by the leader’s emphasis on ethical behavior and personal concern for the well-being of members (Posner, 2015). The volunteer leader’s integrity and inclusive behavior increase the satisfaction of members to participate in projects and remain in the organization (Senses-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016). One study demonstrated that leaders that focused on growth opportunities, rewarding volunteers, and developing future leaders resulted in volunteers that were more satisfied with their experiences in the organization and willingness to remain (Senses-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016). Leaders with integrity improves the commitment of volunteers to remain in the organization (Senses-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016).

            Another aspect of the third research question is to determine leadership actions and behaviors that can contribute to the failure of a volunteer organization. Volunteers join an organization for various reasons and have specific expectations that, if not met, influences their decision to quit. One study suggests that retention of members is impacted by the volunteer’s perceived lack of trust in the organization’s leadership (Milbourn, Black, & Buchanan, 2019). The study further suggests that leaders that fail to recognize the contributions of volunteers contributed to dissatisfaction and lower rates of member retention (Milbourn, Black, & Buchanan, 2019). Leaders that fail to foster an inclusive environment leads to volunteers that feel unvalued decreasing willingness to remain (Senses-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016).

            Research question four seeks to determine how organizations prepare for leader succession. The continued success of an organization requires a pipeline of willing and able leaders. One study compared the differences between leadership in a volunteer organization compared to an employee run company and found that in the volunteer organization the leaders were reluctant to take on a leadership role and preferred to be less influential role (Posner, 2015). Leaders of volunteer organizations are challenged to identify high performing individuals that have the desire to progress up the leadership ladder.  Organizations must establish a disciplined approach to leadership identification and development. Newhall (2015) identifies succession plan methods to improve the chances of identifying the right potential leaders. Newhall (2015) suggests that organizations must identify the critical positions within the organization to include roles that require specific skills. Once the positions have been identified, the organization should outline the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by the future candidate of the positions (Newhall, 2015).

            Organizations that develop a sound plan for succession planning win half the battle. The other half of the battle is identifying candidates as future leaders.  Part of research question four is to determine how future leaders are identified. Newall (2015) states that many organizations measure an individual’s leadership success on current performance without analyzing the skills needed for that individual in the next leadership role. Philpot and Monahan (2017) state that in order for a leader to continue to be successful in future leadership roles, the leader must have sound judgment, the ability to provide a vision, and the skills to inspire and influence others to work together to attain the objectives. One study discovered that upper level leaders believe that they have the ability to identify potential future leaders citing their intuition and “gut” feelings as skills (Philpot & Monahan, 2017). The same study claims that leaders often select successors who are pleasant, good-looking, nearby, and similar to themselves (Philpot & Monahan, 2017). Human resource assessment tools are available to assist leaders in determining the potential of leader candidates.

            The second aspect of research question four is to identify what training a volunteer organization can provide to prepare future leaders. Leadership development strategies are crucial for training future leaders. The first requirement to developing a potential future leader is assisting the individual in viewing themselves as a leader. Middleton, Walker, and Reichard (2019) contend that when an individual begins to view themselves as a leader that individual becomes motivated to act leader-like including participating in leadership development opportunities. Organizations must stablish quality, professional leadership development programs. Caine (2018) states that the most important aspect of a leadership development program is a strong linkage to the organization’s strategy. Organizations, including volunteer organizations, will only succeed if leaders have the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organization. Cain (2018) further states that a strong leader development program must be tailored to the organization and specific leadership positions. Organizations must invest in expert leaders, trainers, and facilitators to deliver the training (Caine, 2018). For leadership development to be successful it must be continuous to allow for constant sharpening of skills.

Methodology

            This study will be conducted with a case study design using a qualitative method specifically, a single case study design will be used. The case study research design is appropriate for the study of leadership development in volunteer organizations. The method affords the opportunity to provide a detailed, in depth understanding of the problem of volunteer organizations to identify and train future leaders with skills needed resulting in reduced membership and decreased service opportunities to communities. Bansal (2018) states that research based on qualitative information provides insights that offer a different view of taken-for-granted concepts and can highlight new methods. Qualitative studies provide an opportunity to understand “what causes what” while attempting to understand the factors that determine different outcomes (Bansal, 2018).

            The use of a qualitative method for this study will allow research to determine if, and how, leadership development impacts the success of volunteer organizations to retain members and therefore continue to provide service opportunities to communities. Qualitative research is appropriate when studying real life issues that are not easy to quantify (Isaacs, 2016). When little is known about a phenomenon, or the knowledge about the situation is biased, qualitative research is suitable (Cypress, 2019). Volunteer organizations are losing members impacting the ability to service communities with much needed social and humanitarian support.  This research focuses on the role leader development plays in the phenomenon of membership retention. Qualitative research into this problem will provide an opportunity to study what has happened in a specific volunteer organization and understand what the volunteers have experienced regarding leadership role in membership retention. As Stake (2010) contends, the focus of qualitative research is to understand one phenomenon well.

            Central to qualitative research is that multiple perspectives about the phenomenon are critical and the perspectives are obtained from the personal experiences of people (Wu, Thompson, Aroian, McQuaid, & Deatrick, 2016). Anderson (2017) opines that qualitative research does not need to be considered ‘scientific’ and ‘objective’ but focused on making sense or interpreting phenomena. The volunteers in the organization, in this research case, can provide multiple perspectives on their personal experiences of their leaders and the challenge of retaining members. Quantitative research supports identifying what has happened whereas the aim of qualitative research is to understand the reason(s) why something happened and if remedies are needed (Denny & Weckesser, 2019). The what is clear for this research case. Volunteer membership is declining. This research aims to determine why membership is decreasing by focusing on the role leadership development plays in the problem. This research will focus on the experiences of volunteers by collecting data through a survey with opened ended questions and with interviews to gain human understanding of the problem which is supported by a qualitative not quantitative method.

            The single case study is an appropriate design for the research into this problem. This research study seeks to explore the failure of a volunteer organization to identify and train future leaders with skills needed resulting in reduced membership and decreased service opportunities to communities.  The case study design supports exploring real-life, current problems using multiple, detailed data collection methods from various sources (Creswell & Poth, 2018).  A case study design can provide information thickness rather than generalized assessments of the phenomena (Gammelgaard, 2017). The case study design supports research to better understand a complex situation by providing extensive and in-depth data and information (Yin, 2014). 

Research Framework

            Volunteer organizations add value to communities by providing necessary services and support. Leadership in a volunteer organization is challenging. Developing leaders with the right skills will strengthen the volunteer organization’s ability to attract and retain members and continue to serve communities. The relationship between leadership development and the success of a volunteer organization with the relevant internal and external influences is depicted in Figure 1. Leadership Development. The concepts and theories impacting the relationship between organizational success and leadership are identified below.

            Concepts.  The first concept is that volunteer organizations provide essential services to communities. Volunteer organizations provide an unpaid workforce that invests thousands of hours, valued at millions of dollars, to benefit local communities with much needed social services especially for economically challenged citizens (Brayko, Houmanfar, & Ghezzi, 2016).  The second concept is that leaders play a vital role in the success of volunteer organizations. The leaders of volunteer organizations play a pivotal role in the retention of volunteers and their commitment to attaining the organization’s goals (Schreiner, Trent, Prange, & Allen, 2018).  The final concept is that leadership development prepares the leaders for the challenges of leading a volunteer organization. Business environments are constantly changing requiring a focus on sustainability through the use of strong leadership development practices (Gordon & Gordon, 2017).

            Theories. The study identifies five theories that are related to the research study. The theories identify skills necessary for effective leadership. In Figure 1 Leadership Development, the five theories are identified as supporting the effective leadership within an organization. The first theory is the Functional Motivation Theory. The decision for an individual to volunteer can be determined using the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) which identifies six specific areas for which a volunteer may be inclined to serve: enhancement, career, social, values, understanding, and protective (Butt, Hou, Soomro, & Maran, 2017). The second theory is the Servant Leadership Theory. Servant leadership is an appropriate model in the volunteer organization context for use in attracting and retaining volunteers with defining leadership characteristics that could provide added value to an organization (Erdurmazli, 2019). Transformational Leadership Theory is another theory that is relevant to this study. Transformational leadership style encourages a climate that supports needed change, inspires and empowers members, and motivates the team to exceed expectations (Nascimento, Porto, and Kwantes, 2018). The third theory is the Behavioral Leadership Theory. A leader’s behavior sets the example of expected behavior within the organization therefore influencing, among other actions, the organization’s ability to attain stated goals (Palanski, Cullen, Gentry, & Nichols, 2014). The final theory is the Followership Theory. Confident leaders who create a shared vision will gain the trust and confidence of followers and inspire them to help the organization realize the vision (Phillips, 2017).

            Framework summary. The focus of the research is that leadership development supports effective leadership in a volunteer organization. As Figure 1 depicts, five theories are identified as positively influencing effective leadership. As Figure 1 reflects, an effective leader in an organization supports the members’ need for satisfaction and thereby leaders and members jointly working towards a shared vision for the organization. As depicted in Figure 1, the success of the volunteer organization is measured outside the organization, by the ability of the organization to meet the needs of the community through service. Every volunteer organization is unique and influenced by the community in which it serves. As shown on Figure 1, members of the organization come into the organization from the community it serves. The demographics, community culture, community stakeholders, and the government support influences the types of projects and services the organization provides as depicted by the external influences in Figure 1. Another external influence to the local volunteer organization is the organization’s higher-level leaders.  As reflected in Figure 1, the district organization leaders provide support and training for leader development. The effectiveness of leadership and member satisfaction are impacted by internal factors such as organizational values, leadership style, individual values, organizational culture, and past and current leaders.

            SEE ATTACHED FILE FOR DIAGRAM OF FIGURE 1

            Figure 1 Leadership Development

Conclusion

            The aim of this qualitative case study is to address the failure of a volunteer organization to identify and train future leaders with skills needed resulting in reduced membership and decreased service opportunities to communities. The skills needed to lead a volunteer organization differ from a for profit business. This study provides awareness to the internal and external influences on a volunteer organization and how effective leadership is needed for success.

Student name

412 Old Newton Road

Daleville, Alabama 36322

February 15, 2020

District Governor

Lions Club District 34C

4850 N. Campanella Dr.

Theodore, AL 36582

Dear District Governor Yvonne Burroughs,

As a doctoral student in the Business Department at Liberty University pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration, I am conducting research to examine the effect of untrained leadership on volunteer organizations by asking what role do leaders play in the success of a volunteer organization and what leadership actions or behaviors contribute to the success or failure of the organization. The working title of my research project is Leadership Development in Volunteer Organizations, and my study method will be a Case Study Project. This is an Applied Doctoral Research Project and neither the research project or the results will be published. I will however provide your organization with a final manuscript upon completion of the study.

I am writing to request your permission to conduct my research at your organization and contact your members to gain their participation in this study. Taking part in this study is completely voluntary, and participants are welcome to discontinue participation at any time. I welcome an opportunity to discuss this with you further and to answer any question you might have.

Thank you for considering my request. If you choose to grant permission, I will need a signed statement indicating your approval.

Sincerely,

Claudia T. Wigglesworth

Claudia T. Wigglesworth

Doctoral Student

Liberty University School of Business