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Setting expectations during volunteer recruitment and the first day experience: A preregistered experimental test of the met expectations hypothesis
Dunlop,Patrick D. Holtrop,Djurre Kragt,Darja Gagné,Marylène Farid,Hawa Muhammad Luksyte,Aleksandra
Dunlop,Patrick D.
Holtrop,Djurre
Kragt,Darja
Gagné,Marylène
Farid,Hawa Muhammad
Luksyte,Aleksandra
Abstract
In a preregistered experimental study that draws from the met expectations hypothesis, we examined how volunteer recruitment messaging can shape expectations of new volunteers prior to their first day, and whether meeting or failing to meet expectations on the first day would affect satisfaction. By experimentally manipulating a recruitment poster, we set either a transactional (i.e., by volunteering, one can learn new skills) or a relational expectation (i.e., one can work in a team). Participants then viewed an experimentally determined vignette that depicted their first day as a volunteer as either being rich in, or bereft of, experiences of teamwork and learning new skills (crossed). We found that recruitment messaging strongly impacted the participants’ expectations of the volunteering experience prior to their first day. Neither meeting expectations regarding teamwork nor learning new skills played a statistically significant causal role in determining satisfaction. By contrast, richer experiences notwithstanding expectations, and especially those pertaining to learning new skills, were more important determinants of satisfaction. Polynomial regression analyses supported the experimental results, namely that experiences far more strongly determined satisfaction than did expectations. We conclude that providing richer experiences to volunteers is more important than expectation management for volunteer satisfaction.
Description
This work was financially supported by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.
Date
2022
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Research Projects
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Keywords
ATTITUDES, ATTRACTIVENESS, BEHAVIORS, MOTIVATIONS, Met expectations, PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACTS, REALISTIC JOB PREVIEWS, RESPECT, TURNOVER, VIOLATIONS, WORK, experiment, preregistered, recruitment, volunteering
Citation
Dunlop, P D, Holtrop, D, Kragt, D, Gagné, M, Farid, H M & Luksyte, A 2022, 'Setting expectations during volunteer recruitment and the first day experience : A preregistered experimental test of the met expectations hypothesis', European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 842-853. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2022.2070478
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess