Sharon Kemp\'s \"The Hidden Workforce:

Sharon Kemp's "The hidden workforce:

volunteers' learning in the Olympics"

Critical Analysis

Author Sharon Kemp, in her work "The hidden workforce: volunteer's learning in the Olympics" sets out to understand the motives behind those called to volunteer in what she deems "mega events" such as the Olympics in this case. In comparing volunteers from the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway and the 1994 Summer Games held in Sydney, Australia, Kemp was able to analyze and interpret the reasoning and motivation behind the many hundreds of volunteers' decisions to join in on these monumental events. In beginning with this simple research question, Kemp is able to use a distinct set of methodological means to undertake her research experiment and evidently interpret its results. In viewing Kemp's approach, one can specifically see where her approach exceeds an acceptable research standard as well as where her research methods stand to be improved.

In undertaking her research, Kemp aims to address "the role of volunteers during the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer as compared to the role experienced by the volunteers involved in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games" (Kemp 2002, pp. 110). As any individual familiar with the Olympics understands, the presence of volunteers is absolutely essential to the running of the Games, and without the work of these many hundreds of volunteers, the Olympic Games would cease to exist in the grand manner which the world has come to appreciate. Kemp, in her work, takes note of these many individuals who come to the aid of the Olympic host cities in order to ensure that the Olympic standard is maintained. The understanding that so many individuals continue to come out year after year is undisputed. However, the understanding as to why these individuals continuously do so had yet to be fully determined upon the beginning of Kemp's research. Kemp notes that the underlying motivations behind Olympic volunteering are vast and varied including national pride, sense of value and life enrichment, but in seeking the overarching reasoning behind this volunteerism, sets out with one main objective: to compare two sets of respondents' perceptions of learning and job satisfaction at each of the two aforementioned Olympic Games.

Kemp, in beginning her work, makes distinct mention that without the personal investment of the volunteers, mega-events such as the Olympics could simply not be arranged or carried out, a theory that was considerably recognized during the Sydney Olympic Games which consistently and considerably displayed the presence of the Olympic volunteers present. Kemp notes that while volunteerism at these events is always widely noted, there exists little research on the topic and therefore considerably few theoretical answers to the question at hand.

However, Kemp, driven by past theories and studies focusing on issues such as motivational and behavioral patterns, professionalism, volunteers' perception of an event's strengths and weaknesses, and the recruitment of volunteers, is able to draw from these smaller-scale theoretical analyses in order to apply the same motivations to a mega-event such as the Olympics (Henderson 1990, pp. 61; Lynn and Smith 1991, pp.1; Miller et al. 1990, pp.2; Pearce 1993, pp.1; Ryan and Bates 1995, pp.59; Williams et al. 1995, pp.83). In taking this theoretical framework, discovered through research on a smaller scale, and methodically interpreting its basis in volunteerism at a far greater level, Kemp is able to understand the basic motivations for volunteerism at a base level and add to this to account for the magnitude of an event such as the Olympic Games.

Kemp's methodology is solely focused on the Lillehammer Winter Olympics and the Sydney Summer Olympics. The Lillehammer component of Kemp's research is concentrated on students who presented the largest subgroup of volunteers, and older volunteers, aged 45 and over (Kemp 2002, pp. 110-111). As both of these groups worked between five weeks and three months as volunteers at the Winter Games, Kemp's evaluation was to be taken after the completion of the Games in their entirety. Contrarily, the Sydney component of the study consisted of 200 respondents comprised of both students and older volunteers who were recruited on-site at various Olympic venues during the 16-day Olympic period (Kemp 2002, pp.110). In comparing the perceptions of each of these respective groups, Kemp evaluated the groups' learning, social skills, knowledge about society, job-specific skills and volunteer satisfaction with the use of a questionnaire comprised of both open-ended and closed questions. Responses to the closed questions were specifically coded and results of the open-ended questions evaluated and compared to those of the rest of the internal group and external groups in order to gauge an overall understanding of volunteer mood.

The results of Kemp's evaluations and research proved to have a basis in the research of the past in terms of smaller venues, but found that the sense of national pride proved a significant motivator in volunteer recruitment. A majority of the volunteers (64.5% found that they had developed important social skills and further increased their knowledge of society around them (55%) (Kemp 2002, pp. 112). Volunteers additionally increased their job skills on an overarching level and at a more specific level in great numbers in both the Lillehammer and Sydney venues, with younger students learning many new skills and older respondents honing in on skills they already possessed. Despite the differences in ages amongst the volunteers, Kemp concluded that a positive relationship does in fact exist between volunteer learning and satisfaction, as well as concluding that "the sharing of knowledge and having the opportunity to exercise and learn new skills are important motivational factors of volunteers" (Kemp 2002, pp. 115).

Respondents showed no undue bias and each response questionnaire, collected upon the conclusion of each respective set of Olympic Games showed significant validity and integrity as shown through respondents' answers to open-ended questions as well as within the included comments sections. Kemp and other researchers who view her work on the topic of volunteerism has maintained the standard of research integrity, choosing respondents at random and providing no means to sway their responses. In allowing respondents to go about their business during the Olympic Games and partake in answering questionnaires after the completion of the Olympic Games, Kemp sought to receive an overarching selection of responses that encompassed the entirety of the volunteers' experiences at the Games.

Revised Research Approach

While Kemp's initial aim and objective in undertaking the research project at hand was to determine the motivations and amount of learning that occurred within the volunteers at the Olympic Games, her research may have proven more conclusive had she sought to measure the changes in attitudes of volunteers from the beginning of the Games to the end. In altering the structure of this research in this manner, questionnaires could still be used to gauge the opinions of the volunteer respondents, but more frequent use of these questionnaires would likely provide more accurate information rather than the information that is gauged from polling the respondents merely at the end of the Games when they are likely filled with a sense of nostalgia that may alter the honesty of their responses.

In this sense, the methodological approach behind the experiment that Kemp created would not be completely overthrown, but simply altered to increase the accuracy of the responses. Research has shown that a questionnaire is one of the most cost-effective research tools for use in data collection. However, certain steps should always be taken in order to ensure that these questionnaires provide as much accurate information as possible despite the "cheap" nature of the data collector. Questionnaires should be sent to a pilot sample to check reliability and validity before going directly to the research sample (Clarke and Jack 1998, pp.176). Through imposing this type of base questioning, researchers can have a level ground to judge the reactions of the respondents from. Additionally, while the volunteer subgroups in Kemp's original experiment were chosen at a semi-random status with individuals being chosen from the most represented demographics, a revised experiment should select participants randomly.

In choosing a random 200 volunteer respondents from each of the two Olympic Games to be observed, the experiment eliminates any type of group bias or generalization in favor of a more comprehensive result. The most common sampling error encountered in survey or questionnaire research occurs because the sample selected is not an accurate representation of the population being researched (Assael and Keon 1982, pp. 114). This effect can be better eliminated with the choosing of a truly random representative sample. In questioning the respondent sample with initial questionnaires upon their coming into their volunteer work at the Olympic Games, again during these Games and again at the end, a more accurate understanding of the overall motivation and learning process within the group can be discovered rather than an overly positive final review upon the end of the Olympic Games.

The implementation of such questionnaires will prove simplistic and can be managed with simple coding of answers and accurate management of the questionnaires that are completed. However, with the increase in questionnaires administered, researchers must take on the responsibility of making sure each volunteer responds to each questionnaire administered at a time in which they are not distracted from their work, which can be done by administering questionnaires during breaks or at the end of a work day. Volunteers, volunteering and the way they are organized and managed differ from context to context, and in viewing the Olympic Games, management of the administration of questionnaires is essential for overall management of volunteers and of the overall research project at hand (Graham and Stebbins 2004, pp.177).

Data analysis techniques for the administering of questionnaires must include the evaluation of all the major personality inventories samples, methods for integrating questionnaire data and findings from observation studies, the use of computers in analyzing personality data, elimination of bias, and requirements for the construction of scoring personality measures (Cattell 1973, pp.532). In the case at hand and with the simplicity of the questionnaires used in the initial experiment, scoring these questionnaires will prove simple if handled correctly. In order to eliminate any bias, some of the initially-used open-ended questions can be eliminated altogether or turned into closed questions in order to eliminate any subjectively different responses which can sway the results. With questionnaires that involve "situational" responses, data must be carefully prepared for analysis, coding must be specifically laid out and researchers must know how to select and use all charting and statistical techniques that are employed within the methodology (Zijlstra 2011, pp.186). In eliminating questions with multiple subjective responses, researchers and volunteers alike are more adept at understanding the questions at hand in a manner that allows a valid assessment of respondents to be made.