Measuring Self-Expression in Volunteer Organizations: A Theory-Based Questionnaire

Abstract

This article introduces a measure of self-expression in volunteer organizations and examines its reliability and validity. Using a model derived from the work of Argyris and others, we examine how the fit between member predispositions and organizational rewards affects the attitudes and behaviors that influence organizational success. Ratings of the importance of predispositions toward volunteer participation and the extent to which members were able to express them were obtained from representative samples of members of a higher status women's volunteer organization in 1975 and again in 1992. Factor analysis of the importance ratings identified the same five dimensions at both times: community involvement, organizational efficiency and flexibility, sociability and affiliation, leadership and self-development, and status attainment and maintenance. An overall measure of each member's expression of her predispositions was related to several organizationally relevant outcomes: satisfaction with membership, plans to remain in the organization, time spent on organization activities, and low interpersonal friction. The instrument is being used in a self-assessment packet by many chapters of the organization studied; other organizations have modified it successfully for their use.