A model of future participation of political campaign volunteers

Abstract

The future participation of political volunteers is examined using the theoretical lenses of social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982) and stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984). These theories have been applied to the volunteers of non-profits (Dwiggens-Beeler, Spitzberg, & Roesch, 2012; Scott, 2007) and corporations (Donaldson & Preston, 1995), but they have not been used to examine political volunteers. The results of the non-profit research suggest that the identification, commitment, and organizational role of political volunteers should impact a volunteer's willingness to volunteer again. As these variables can be communication-based, the communication satisfaction of the volunteers is also hypothesized as a factor in future participation. Results indicate that these four variables all predict the likelihood of political volunteers to continue their work with a campaign. This result is discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications, and future directions are suggested.