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High-Performance Human Resource Practices and Volunteer Engagement: The Role of Empowerment and Organizational Identification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Charlotte Traeger Open the ORCID record for Charlotte Traeger [Opens in a new window]  and
Kerstin Alfes
Charlotte Traeger*
Affiliation:
ESCP Europe Business School Berlin, Heubnerweg 8-10, 14059, Berlin, Germany
Kerstin Alfes*
Affiliation:
ESCP Europe Business School Berlin, Heubnerweg 8-10, 14059, Berlin, Germany
*
ctraeger@escpeurope.eu
kalfes@escpeurope.eu
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Abstract

Volunteering research has long focused on the characteristics of volunteers and their motivations to highlight what drives them to dedicate their free time to good causes. More recently, researchers have turned their attention toward exploring the management practices that nonprofit organizations can implement to promote volunteers’ motivations and thereby improve their attitudes and performance. Our study contributes to this research by analyzing the extent to which combinations of human resource practices can be leveraged to influence volunteers’ level of engagement in their role. Survey results from 256 volunteers in five different nonprofit organizations in the Netherlands support our hypothesized model. Specifically, high-performance human resource practices are related positively to volunteer engagement, and volunteers’ organizational identification and psychological empowerment can account for a significant portion of variance in this relationship. Implications for research and the professional management of volunteers are discussed.

Keywords

EmpowermentEngagementHigh-performance human resource practicesNonprofit organizationsOrganizational identification

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Type
Article
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , October 2019 , pp. 1022 - 1035
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2019

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