A cross national study of senior volunteerism in two non government organizations in singapore and p r china

A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY OF SENIOR VOLUNTEERISM IN TWO NON-GOVERNMENT ORGNIZATIONS IN SINGAPORE AND P R CHINA HUANG YUNONG NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2003 A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY OF SENIOR VOLUNTEERISM IN TWO NON-GOVERNMENT ORGNIZATIONS IN SINGAPORE AND P R CHINA HUANG YUNONG (B Phi., Xiamen University) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK AND PSYCHOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2003 Acknowledgements I am grateful to the National University of Singapore for the research scholarship which made this research possible I am also grateful to my supervisor, Dr Kalyani K Mehta for her constant guidance and support in every stage of this thesis Her advice was invaluable to its completion My thanks also go to all senior volunteers who participated in the survey and spent their time to share experiences of volunteer participation with me Furthermore, I would like to extend my heart-felt appreciation to the staff members of Lions Befrienders in Singapore and the Huozhou Jiayi Service Company in Shanxi, China, who helped me to contact the senior volunteers in their organizations and also shared their work experiences with me Without their cooperation and kind assistance, this thesis would have been impossible Special thanks are due to Madam Zhang Xin, the manager of the Huozhou Jiayi Service Company for her kind assistance and care during my data collection in the city of Huozhou, Shanxi, China I am also grateful to Prof Vasoo, S for his comments about my research proposal, Prof Chang Weining Chu for her assistance in statistics, and Ms Li Bing for her assistance in connecting me with the Huozhou Jiayi Service Company Last but not least, I am grateful to all my friends for their encouragement and support in my research ii Table of Contents Page Title page Acknowledgements List of Tables List of Figures Summary Chapter One: Introduction Issues and Challenges of Senior Volunteerism Population Ageing in Singapore Population Ageing in P R China Why Compare Singapore and China? Aims and Significance of the Research Research Questions Hypotheses Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework Literature Review Important Concepts Theoretical Framework i ii v viii ix 12 13 16 16 27 31 Chapter Three: Methodology 37 Research Design Sample Data Collection Data Coding and Analyses Limitations and Strengths Ethical Issues in the Research 38 39 42 46 47 49 Chapter Four: Overview and Profile of the Sample Socio-demographic Characteristics of the Participants Household and Support of Volunteering by Family members and Friends Worries and Self-Perceived Usefulness and Competence Concerns and Preferences in Old Age 51 51 55 57 59 iii Page Chapter Five: Perceptions and Motivations of Senior Volunteers in the Two Organizations Introduction Section I: Volunteer Work in the Organizations Section II: Views on Volunteer Work Section III: Reasons for Initial Volunteering Section IV: Reasons for Continual Volunteering Section V: Qualitative Data Section VI: Discussion Chapter Six: Organization Factors and Satisfaction of Senior Volunteers in the Two Organizations Introduction Section I: Views on the Organizations Section II: Past Experiences of Volunteering and Satisfaction of Volunteers Section III: Views on Encouraging and Maintaining Senior Volunteers and Preferences and Expectations of Volunteer Work Section IV: Qualitative Data Section V: Discussion Chapter Seven: Conclusion and Recommendation Conclusion Recommendations Appendix 1: Questionnaire Appendix 2: Guideline of Qualitative Interviews Appendix 3: Lions Befrienders Appendix 4: Huozhou Jiayi Service Company Bibliography 63 63 64 70 73 77 82 93 101 101 102 107 114 121 128 132 132 137 142 154 155 160 163 iv List of Tables Page Table 4-1 Profile of the Participants in the two Organizations in the Survey 52-53 Table 4-2 Average Monthly Gross Income of the Respondents in the two Organizations 55 Table 4-3 Time Spent on Household Activities per Day by Respondents in the two Organizations 56 Table 4-4 Support of Volunteer Participation by Family Members and Friends in the two Organizations 57 Table 4-5 Worries of the Respondents in the two Organizations 58 Table 4-6 Mean and Standard Deviation of Item Scores of Self-Perceived Usefulness and Competence by the Respondents in Each Organization 59 Table 4-7 The Concerns of the Respondents in the Two Organizations 60 Table 4-8 The Preferences in Old Age of the Respondents in the Two Organizations 61 Table 5-1 The Distribution of Channels of Becoming Volunteers in the two Organizations 65 Table 5-2 The Distribution of Length of Time as Volunteers in the two Organizations 66 Table 5-3 The Distribution of Various Activities by the Respondents in the two Organizations 67 Table 5-4 The Distribution of Time Spent on Volunteer Work per Week in the two Organizations 68 Table 5-5 Responses to Convenience of Time and Place for Volunteering in the two Organizations 69 Table 5-6 Means and Standard Deviations of Items of Views on Volunteer Work by the Respondents in LB and JY 70 Table 5-7 Means and Standard Deviation of Items of Reasons for Initial Volunteering by the Respondents in LB and JY 74 Table 5-8 Means and Standard Deviation of Items of Reasons on Continual Volunteering by the Respondents in LB and JY 78 v Page Table 6-1 Means and Standard Deviation of Items of Views of Voluntary Organization by the Respondents in LB and JY Table 6-2 104 History of Volunteering and External Influence of Volunteering for the Respondents in the two Organizations 108 Table 6-3 Means and Standard Deviations of Items of Self-perceived Social Acceptance of Volunteer Work by the Respondents in LB and JY 110 Table 6-4 Means and Standard Deviation of Items of Encouraging Senior Volunteers by the Respondents in LB and JY 115 Table 6-5 Means and Standard Deviation of Items of Maintaining Senior Volunteers by the Respondents in LB and JY Table 6-6 Frequency Distribution of Preferences of Doing Volunteer Work in the two Organizations Table 6-7 117 119 Frequency Distribution of Expectations from Doing Volunteer Work in the two Organizations 120 vi List of Figures Page Figure 5-1 Factors Contributing to Initial Volunteering from Qualitative Interviews Figure 5-2 92 Factors Contributing to Continual Volunteering from Qualitative Interviews 92 Figure 6-1 Distribution of Satisfaction Levels of Volunteer Work by the Respondents in the two Organizations 112 vii Summary This thesis describes a cross-national study of senior volunteers in two welfare organizations, i.e Lions Befrienders in Singapore and Huozhou Jiayi Service Company in the city of Huozhou, Shanxi, China The aim of the research is to understand the senior volunteers’ perceptions, motivations, and satisfaction levels of volunteer participation in the two organizations, so that comparison can be made between them Senior volunteers’ views toward the organization were also examined and compared Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to collect the required data In each organization, 60 senior volunteers were asked to fill the questionnaire and 10 persons from these 60 people were selected for qualitative interviews Findings of the study revealed that the senior volunteers in both organizations took the view that volunteer work was not only self-developmental, but also altruistic Analysis of quantitative data indicated that for both organizations, senior volunteers’ initial volunteering was influenced by many factors, such as self-development, altruism, friends’ influence and so on Furthermore, for both organizations, senior volunteers were also influenced to continue volunteering by many factors, such as personal outcomes of volunteer participation, the positive outcomes of volunteer work, and commitment Analyses of qualitative data also revealed many reasons for senior volunteers’ initial and continual volunteering, such as remaining useful in the society and improvement of health status To conclude, for both organizations, senior people’s volunteer participation is multidimensional; it is a combination of personal growth, friends’ influence, altruism, and so on Senior volunteers not act on either altruistic or egoistic motives, but on both viii However egoistic motives seem to have a much stronger influence on volunteer participation than altruistic motives The findings also showed that for both organizations, most senior volunteers were satisfied or very satisfied with their volunteer work Regarding senior volunteers’ views toward the organization, the results indicated that senior volunteers in both organizations had a positive view toward their own organization However, based on the findings in this study, both organizations could also take some steps to improve their management of senior volunteers The findings also indicated that many strategies could be used to encourage and maintain senior volunteers and both organizations could learn from each other The social exchange theory was found to provide a useful theoretical perspective to understand and explain senior peoples’ volunteer participation in both organizations Continuity theory, however, did not provide a helpful theoretical perspective to explain and understand senior volunteerism in this study The study has its limitations and the subject needs further investigation The study only involved 60 senior volunteers in each voluntary organization in the two countries Thus, the conclusions of this study should be treated with caution ix Appendix Huozhou Jiayi Service Company Huozhou Jiayi Service Company is a voluntary welfare organization set up by some retired senior members of the Community Party of China in the city of Huozhou, Shanxi It was officially registered with the Department of Civil Welfare in the city of Huozhou in June 2001 The aim of the organization is to some useful things for a civil and wealthy city of Huozhou under the direction of the Community Party of China Most sponsors of the organizations were retired cadres of government departments in the city of Huozhou They had rich experiences in organizing different social activities The organization has grown rapidly and built up a good reputation since it was founded In July 2002, the organization had three groups, i.e., the group of gong and drum players providing entertainment for people, the group of medical carers - offering check up on a voluntary basis and providing some medical treatment for poor people, and the group of law consultants - providing law consultation for people As soon as the organization was set up, it introduced many social activities The members of the organization frequently helped to clean the streets and manage the Tan Rong market (the biggest shopping center in the city of Huozhou) to ensure a safe and comfortable shopping environment The group of gong and drum players often went to provide entertainment for the army, factory workers, and peasants in remote areas It was estimated that tens of thousands of people saw the plays The group of medical volunteers also visited some remote villages and conducted check up for people on a voluntary basis They provided some free medical treatment for poor people At the same time, they 160 spread the knowledge of health care and taught people to prevent some diseases The group of law consultants was also recognized by the public due to their frequent services They not only provided free law consultation for people, but also spread the knowledge of social policies Moreover, the services that the organization provided also included haircuts for the poor people Apart from the above activities, the organization also hoped to contribute to income generation for the peasants in the city of Huozhou Given that some members of the organization were experts in agriculture and pomology, the organization planted more than 20 kinds of fruit trees, totally about 12,000 The organization hoped to find out which kinds of fruit trees would be suitable to grow and introduce to the peasants in the city of Huozhou Furthermore, for the purposes of finding more ways of income generation for the peasants, a rearing pond and a vineyard were also under construction The organization planned to raise some fish and plan more fruit trees The money for these expenditures was raised from the members of the organization The Huozhou Jiayi Service Company was totally run by volunteers There was no paid staff The organization relied on volunteers to carry out all the various services The number of volunteers in the Huozhou Jiayi Service Company had increased from 80 in June 2001 to 208 in June 2002 The original 80 volunteers were all senior people Later many young people also joined the organization Among the 208 volunteers in June 2002, 91 persons were retired and had pensions, 52 persons were peasants, 27 were employed people, and the other 38 persons were retired persons without pension Within the first year, many people applied to join but not even one volunteer left the organization Most volunteers were enthusiastic about the organization and it activities Sometimes they had 161 to spend their own money when they went to volunteer work, because the organization did not get financial support from the government There was also no training course for the volunteers in the organization However after every activity, the leaders of the organization gathered to discuss the results of the activity and suggested further improvements The quality of their activities has improved and most members of the organizations recognize the importance of learning from others to improve their organization The strength of JY lies in the commitment and enthusiasm of its members However, the Huozhou Jiayi Service Company faced serious financial problems in their volunteer services Some activities were cancelled due to the shortage of money The organization also did not have its own offices Some members of the organization temporarily offered their houses as meeting places 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Issues and Challenges of Senior Volunteerism Population Ageing in Singapore Population Ageing in P R China Why Compare Singapore and China? Aims and Significance of the Research Research Questions... efforts to prepare for an ageing society Why Compare Singapore and China? As we can see from the above discussion, both Singapore and China are experiencing rapid demographic aging of populations... Young and Glasgow, 1998; Wasserbaurer, Arrington, and Abraham, 1997; Caro and Bass, 1997; Herzog and Morgan, 1993) and Australia (Warburtor, et al., 2001; Warburton and Terry, 2000; Warburton,