Issues of Coordination and Management: How can the activities of volunteers be best organised?

Abstract

This chapter looks at the ways in which the work of volunteers can be coordinated or managed. It starts from the understanding that the debate about whether volunteers should be managed, which was a feature of the not-too-distant past, has been resolved and that the discussion has moved on to focus on how the work of volunteers should be organised. We will begin by tracing the way in which the consensus about management has developed and the increasingly common adoption and adaptation of the language and techniques of managing paid staff. It will then make the case for caution in applying these practices to volunteering and the need for a range of management approaches to reflect the diversity of volunteering opportunities. The chapter will then introduce two models of volunteer management – the modern ‘workplace’ model and the less formal ‘home-grown’ alternative – and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.