Symbolic Relationships and Motivation in Volunteer Work
Keywords:
Organizational symbolism. Motivation. Work. Volunteering. Subjectivity.Abstract
The purpose of this article is to understand the symbolic relationships involving motivation in volunteer work. The locus of the empirical part of the article is the Associação Voluntárias da APAE de Venda Nova do Imigrante (AVAPAE). The article legitimizes the relevance of studying organizations through approaches focused on organizational symbolism (MORGAN; FROST; PONDY, 1983; GIOIA, 1986; CARRIERI; SARAIVA, 2007). This is done by recognizing the relationships between the social construction of reality (BERGER; LUCKMANN, 1985) of the volunteers and their representations of motivation around a subjectivity (REY, 2005) articulated in the specifics of the volunteer work. Empirical data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with fourteen AVAPAE volunteers, a three-month, non-participant observation period at the volunteers’ workplace, and document analysis. Data were processed using the content analysis technique. With regard to the volunteers, the study is associated with their ability to produce meanings through embroidery, such as how to help others, have fun, and modify the routine. It was observed that motivation through the meanings attached to volunteer work is based on the feeling of being part of something or changing a way in the sense of being important to that social task (VERVLOET; PALASSI, 2011). Research showed the context of AVAPAE as being complex, permeated by symbolism and multiple subjectivities, especially for the social constructions of the residents of Venda Nova do Imigrante as well as the limits of the studied organization. The residents emerged as a product and producer of the symbolism surrounding the motivation for volunteering. Therefore, it is shown that subjectivity permeates the issues discussed in the article as an open system expressed in the volunteers’ everyday actions to the extent that they reconstruct the broader context of the community in which they live. As a final contribution, this study argues that the ways to address volunteers’ motivation should consider the actions of these social actors and their insertion contexts in terms of symbolic exchanges experienced within the organization and society as a whole, as was seen in the Venda Nova community.
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