Motiv och motivation bakom volontärism i extrema situationer. : En kvalitativ studie om Volunteer Function Inventory och dess behållning som analysverktyg.

Sammanfattning: This study is based on the notion that the most widely cited and used instrument for assessing volunteer motivations, the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI), might not be sufficient in its aspiration to aid, streamline and benefit the recruitment and retention process within volunteer organizations. Understanding volunteers’ motivation is a crucial component in the process of securing future volunteer engagement in a world where their efforts are desperately needed. This study aims to explain motives and motivation behind volunteer efforts in extreme situations as well as to examine the dependability of the theoretical framework in relation to the forthcoming result, based on the following research questions: What motivated Swedish medical personnel to volunteer during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa? How could the motives and motivation of Swedish medical personnel be categorized in accordance with the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI)? Is the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) a sufficient tool for analyzing the motives and motivation of Swedish medical personnel in the given case? The presented research questions will be answer through a qualitative theory-consuming study, based mainly on interviews. The interviews are, however, complimented by various written sources in the field of research. The result and subsequent analysis confirms the authors’ notion on the VFI and highlights certain deficits in the tool’s execution and its succeeding result. The result of the study shows that the respondents were motivated by a great variety of motivational elements, a variety that the VFI cannot properly account for. Essential information is therefore left unexposed by the VFI, leaving the volunteer organizations in an undesirable situation where they, in their pursuit to recruit and retain the volunteers, are forced to evaluate and accommodate candidates without knowing their complete motivational process. Therefore, the authors deem the tool as applicable but not sufficient. Concludingly, the authors call for additional and more distinct functions in the VFI; an instrument for assessing if the volunteers are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated as well as a sub-section within the tool for determining the presence and character of inhibiting factors affecting the volunteers motivation.