The Impact of Ethical Leadership on Volunteer Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Intention to Stay Among Vita Volunteers Post Covid-19

This quantitative study sought to determine if ethical leadership influenced volunteers’ satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to stay within a financial nonprofit operating an Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The strength of the relationship between ethical leadership and volunteer satisfaction, volunteer satisfaction and organizational commitment, and volunteer satisfaction and retention of volunteers was assessed using a correlations test. The study included a subset of volunteers (n = 70) from the 2022 tax season. Results demonstrated (1) ethical leadership was positively correlated and significant with volunteer satisfaction (r = .49, p < .001); (2) volunteer satisfaction was positively correlated with organizational commitment (r = .54, p < .001); and (3) volunteer satisfaction and intention to stay were statistically significant for one-year (r = .27, p < .05) and two years (r = .28, p < .05), but not for volunteering six-months in the future (r = .21, p = .088). Additional data examined through the survey did gleam additional insight on the extent of which volunteers view the importance of leadership of the sites as compared to other key components. When comparing the relative importance of the key components of volunteering at a VITA site, volunteers overwhelmingly ranked leadership as their first choice in what mattered most to them. The research concludes with a detailed set of recommendations designed to support and enhance the volunteer experience at the nonprofit VITA program in the study.Keywords: client, ethical leadership, organizational commitment, retention, VITA, VITA site leader, volunteer

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Cavallone-Jurek, Phyllis C.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Forman, Seth

• Client
• Ethical
• Nonprofit
• Volunteer

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://cdr.creighton.edu/handle/10504/153889

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/153889