Examining the motivational profiles and work outcomes of nonprofit workers and volunteers

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) N.J.), 2024-10, Vol.43 (42), p.33077-33088
• Main Authors: Anderson, Gregory G., Gilin, Debra A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Employee turnover; Job performance; Job satisfaction; Motivation; Nonprofit organizations; Psychology; Public sector; Social Sciences; Variables; Volunteers; Workloads
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-024-06827-3

The nonprofit sector is an important element of the global economy that employs millions of people and provides multiple types of humanitarian services. Previous research has found that individuals who decide to work or volunteer in this sector are uniquely driven by altruistic and intrinsic motivations when compared to their for-profit counterparts. The current study investigates this phenomenon by combining self-determination theory with latent profile analysis to determine the different motivational profiles that exist within the nonprofit sector, and how these profiles differ on important work outcomes. Nonprofit workers and volunteers ( N  = 235) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed an online survey measuring their work motivations and specific organizational work outcomes (e.g., work effort, affective commitment, job performance, turnover intentions). Using latent profile analysis, four distinct motivational profiles emerged from the sample: Autonomously Motivated, Highly Motivated, Moderately Motivated, and Amotivation. As predicted, the Autonomously Motivated profile comprised the majority of the sample and, along with the Highly Motivated profile, was associated with better work effort, job performance and affective commitment. The significance of these results and their implications for both work motivation research and the nonprofit sector are discussed.