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Volunteering and Service

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Wikipedia-Article "Volunteering"

For other uses, see Volunteer (disambiguation).
This group of political volunteers is working to promote voter turn-out.
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This group of political volunteers is working to promote voter turn-out.

The term volunteer is contested -- there is no one agreed-to definition, and the term is frequently debated. Some say a volunteer is someone who performs or offers to perform service out of his or her own free will, without payment, usually in support of a non-profit organisation, mission-based initiative or community. Others say the term volunteer can apply to someone who receives a stipend for his or her service, as long as the volunteer is engaged in full-time service and has no other paid job. The term is usually used for such service to non-profit organisations, civil society organizations or even initiatives that originate in the public sector (schools, city offices, etc.), but not for those who work for free for a for-profit business.

Some people volunteer formally, through a non-profit organisation/charity. Other people volunteer informally, helping a sick neighbor, for instance. Some volunteer for clinical trials or other medical research, and may even donate their bodies to science after their death.

The year 2001 was the International Year of the Volunteer, as designated by the United Nations. Every 5 December is International Volunteer Day, also designated by the United Nations. 2005 is the United Kingdom Year of the Volunteer.

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International Volunteer

An international volunteer is a person who volunteers outside of his or her own country. Some international volunteers, usually those who will spend a year or more in the field, receive a small stipend, and agree not to engage in any other jobs during their full-time volunteer assignment. Short-term international volunteers usually receive no stipend, and sometimes must even pay all of their own transportation and housing expenses.


A few organisations that place and support international volunteers:

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Online Volunteer

An online volunteer is a person who contributes time and effort with an organization through an online connection, rather than or in addition to onsite service. The practice of donating time online goes by other names, such as virtual volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, e-volunteering, and cyber volunteering. The practice was first researched and detailed by the Virtual Volunteering Project [1].

Online volunteers do a variety of tasks, such as translating documents, proofreading books, editing or preparing proposals, designing logos, researching information, developing strategic plans, reviewing budgets, creating web pages, designing flash presentations, moderating online discussion groups and managing other online volunteers. Online volunteers usually support organizations in their own community, and often in addition to onsite service. There are also online volunteers who support organizations entirely remotely.

Resources focused primarily on helping people to find online volunteering opportunities:

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ICT Volunteer

An ICT volunteer is someone who uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a central part of his or her service, or, who advocates for ICT access for under-serviced communities.

Some organisations relating to ICT Volunteering:

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Mandated Volunteer

In recent years mandated volunteering has been on the rise and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. In 2002, the median number of hours annually spent on volunteer services for 16-25 year olds was 38 hours. Since 1976 there has been a 13% increase in the number of high school seniors involved in volunteering. Mandated volunteering is most often found to be used as a requirement to graduate for high school students, an alternative to jail time, or as a requirement in order to maintain membership in an organization. The definition of mandated volunteering is complicated. If you look up the words separately then it is defined as required services which is performed by someone out of his or her own free will, often without compensation. This definition is an oxymoron. Despite the recent statistic that only 5% of youth attribute their volunteer activities to a school requirement, mandated volunteering is full of contradicting and controversial ideas.

Approximately 41% of volunteers began after being approached by an organization or school. In a 2002 survey, sponsored jointly by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and the Council for Excellence in Government, participants were asked their opinion on mandating volunteer activities for high school graduation. Those who were in the age ranges 15-17, 18-20, 21-22 had 66%, 53%, and 49% opposition rates respectively. The age group 23-25 found the proposal favorable by 49%. There were not significant differences in opinion between different ethnic groups and sexes. If the people to be participating in the volunteering oppose it, then will they put forth their best effort or will they be resentful?

Is the quality of work from mandated volunteers equal to the quality of work from internally motivated volunteers? Suellen Carlson, the Director of Volunteers, at Lutheran Social Services in New York does not believe so, “I no longer do someone else's job for them. The judge will have to find another way to punish someone other than punishing me in the process. I don't want to chase anyone, get nasty phone calls from someone who has to get in so many hours by a certain time (usually within the next couple of days). I am not interested in surly teenagers who are only putting in their time (and, whose mother has usually made the first call),”

Not everyone is as strongly against mandated volunteers as Suellen Carlson is. Hillary Roberts, the President at Project Linus at the NJ Inc. believes that mandated volunteers can be an asset, but need to be treated differently than self motivated volunteers. This includes putting them on jobs that does not require training and on more short-term assignments. Linda Graff, the President and Senior Associate at Linda Graff and Assoc., Inc., in Ontario, Canada, talked about the mandated volunteering required for graduation that affected the 2000 students in her area who had not completed 40 hours of community service. She believes that “mandatory service of any sort is not volunteering but is often called that. What message are we conveying about volunteering? When we offer the option of volunteering or jail time to an offender are we not saying, ‘Which punishment would you like to choose today?’”

She continues to talk about governments worldwide that are seizing volunteering and using it to meet political, social and economic needs. “They most often do so without understanding volunteering, without understanding the implications of their programs, and without consulting those who really know about volunteering. For example, what bright spark in government decided 40 hours of mandatory service was a good idea for high school students? The work is supposed to be "meaningful". By the time the student is interviewed, screened (however much might be necessary for the setting), oriented, trained and placed, how much of the 40 hours is left to do something meaningful? IN the interim the organization bears the expense of all of the front end work to get the student involved, and the overworked manager of volunteers has to do all of the paper work for the education system ... with no compensation.”

However, it has been found that there are benefits in mandated volunteering. A study done on data from the 2000 National survey of giving, volunteering, and participating found that membership in volunteer organizations is more likely to stimulate higher levels of electoral turnout and attentiveness to news and current affairs. The conductors of the study went on to say that, ”Governments should consider recruiting more young newcomers into the voluntary sector and reforming high school graduation requirements to include mandatory student memberships in volunteer organizations.” Although only 6% of young people report volunteering for political organizations in comparison to the 67% that volunteer at youth organizations, volunteering can be linked to higher levels of electoral turnout, political interest and trust among immigrants. Other characteristics that are more likely to occur in volunteers is a feeling of being connected to their community, less risky behavior, and better performance in school than their non volunteering counterparts.

It is estimated that 15.5 million youth or 55%, aged 12 to 18, participate in volunteering activities. This is twice the rate of the 29% of adults that volunteer. Members of families that include volunteers are more likely to be involved in volunteering themselves. The likelihood that a young person will volunteer is directly proportional to their connections to the social institutions of family, religious congregations, and schools according to the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey that was conducted between January and March of 2005. Robert Grimm, the director of the Corporation’s Office of research and policy development noted that not only do these factors predict whether an individual will participate in volunteering but also to what extent. Youth that attend religious services are twice as likely to volunteer than those who do not. These affiliations also affect where their services are being carried out. 74% of youth volunteers carry out their activities in part through a religious organization (34%), a school-based group (18%), or a leadership organization (12%). The results these studies make it seem as if volunteering doesn’t make people more involved but more involved people are likely to volunteer.

There can be benefits to mandated volunteering, these can be found in those who participate in service learning. The likelihood that the volunteer will enjoy and return to the activity that they are participating in is higher if they are getting something out of it. Those whose volunteering hours include menial tasks are less likely to engage in volunteering in the future than those who feel as if their work is making a difference. Service learning, which combines academic instruction and community service, accounts for 65% of the 38% of youth that report of engaging in community service as part of a school activity. This way not only is the volunteer helping the community but is also receiving knowledge that can help them in their future. The first lady, Laura Bush, visited the Church of Epiphany where she joined students from Cardozo High school. The students were volunteers in the Youth Service Opportunities Project. Mrs. Bush announced a federal study finding that youth volunteers outnumbered adult 2:1. “I think it’s really, really good news, and I’m very, very proud. I’m proud of this generation. We know that volunteering can be taught, that helping people is something you can learn to do. And now we know that so many young people in the United States have learned that,” said Mrs. Bush.

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See also

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External links (not already listed above)

Look up volunteer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary
This article is based on the article "Volunteering" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia-Article "Service"

This article is about a term used in economics. For other uses, see service (disambiguation).

In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. Service provision has been defined as an economic activity that does not result in ownership, and this is what differentiates it from providing physical goods. It is claimed to be a process that creates benefits by facilitating either a change in customers, a change in their physical possessions, or a change in their intangible assets.

By supplying some level of skill, ingenuity, and experience, providers of a service participate in an economy without the restrictions of carrying stock (inventory) or the need to concern themselves with bulky raw materials. On the other hand, their investment in expertise does require marketing and upgrading in the face of competition which has equally few physical restrictions.

Providers of services make up the Tertiary sector of industry.

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Key attributes

Services can be described in terms of their main attributes.

  • Intangibility - They cannot be seen, handled, smelled, etc. There is no need for storage. Because services are difficult to conceptualize, marketing them requires creative visualization to effectively evoke a concrete image in the customer's mind. From the customer's point of view, this attribute makes it difficult to evaluate or compare services prior to experiencing the service.
  • Perishability - Unsold service time is "lost", that is, it cannot be regained. It is a lost economic opportunity. For example a doctor that is booked for only two hours a day cannot later work those hours— she has lost her economic opportunity. Other service examples are airplane seats (once the plane departs, those empty seats cannot be sold), and theatre seats (sales end at a certain point).
  • Lack of transportability - Services must be consumed at the point of "production".
  • Lack of homogeneity - Services are typically modified for each client or each new situation (customised). Mass production of services is very difficult. This can be seen as a problem of inconsistent quality. Both inputs and outputs to the processes involved providing services are highly variable, as are the relationships between these processes, making it difficult to maintain consistent quality.
  • Labour intensity - Services usually involve considerable human activity, rather than precisely determined process. Human resource management is important. The human factor is often the key success factor in service industries. It is difficult to achieve economies of scale or gain dominant market share.
  • Demand fluctuations - It is very difficult to estimate demand. Demand can vary by season, time of day, business cycle, etc.
  • Buyer involvement - Most service provision requires a high degree of interaction between client and service provider.
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Service delivery

The delivery of a service typically involves five factors:

  • The service providers (e.g. the people)
  • Equipment used to provide the service (e.g. vehicles, cash registers)
  • The physical facilities (e.g. buildings, parking, waiting rooms)
  • The client
  • Other customers at the service delivery location

The service encounter is defined as all activities involved in the service delivery process. Some service managers use the term "moment of truth" to indicate that defining point in a specific service encounter where interactions are most intense.

Many business theorists view service provision as a performance or act (sometimes humorously referred to as dramalurgy, perhaps in reference to dramaturgy). The location of the service delivery is referred to as the stage and the objects that facilitate the service process are called props. A script is a sequence of behaviours followed by all those involved, including the client(s). Some service dramas are tightly scripted, others are more ad lib. Role congruence occurs when each actor follows a script that harmonizes with the roles played by the other actors.

In some service industries, especially health care, dispute resolution, and social services, a popular concept is the idea of the caseload, which refers to the total number of patients, clients, litigants, or claimants that a given employee is presently responsible for. On a daily basis, in all those fields, employees must balance the needs of any individual case against the needs of all other current cases as well as their own personal needs.

Under English law, if a service provider is induced to deliver services to a dishonest client by a deception, this is an offence under the Theft Act 1978.

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Service-Goods continuum
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The service-goods continuum

The dichotomy between physical goods and intangible services should not be given too much credence. These are not discrete categories. Most business theorists see a continuum with pure service on one terminal point and pure commodity good on the other terminal point. Most products fall between these two extremes. For example, a restaurant provides a physical good (the food), but also provides services in the form of ambience, the setting and clearing of the table, etc. And although some utilities actually deliver physical goods — like water utilities which actually deliver water — utilities are usually treated as services.

In a narrower sense, service refers to quality of customer service: the measured appropriateness of assistance and support provided to a customer. This particular usage occurs frequently in retailing.

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List of economic services

The following is an incomplete list of service industries, grouped into rough sectors. Parenthetical notations indicate how specific occupations and organizations can be regarded as service industries to the extent they provide an intangible service, as opposed to a tangible good.

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See also

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Finding related topics

This article is based on the article "Service" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.