ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complexity of the psychology of volunteering in sport, including the key factors of motivation, satisfaction, commitment and increasingly important concepts such as psychological contract and continuity theory in understanding the relationship between sport volunteers and the organisation for which they volunteer. It also explores what is currently understood about the psychology of sport volunteers and what future research is required to assist sport organisations develop appropriate volunteer management practices to recruit, support, develop and retain their volunteers. The chapter describes the psychology of sport volunteering has focused on several core concepts: volunteer motives, satisfaction, commitment, future intentions and performance. It discusses the problematic lack of agreement on the dimensionality of sport volunteer motivation and the diverse range of bespoke measurement scales developed by researchers. D. J. Mesch et al. identified that motives, meaningful work and satisfaction have been reported to affect volunteer retention.
