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This research has established a linkage between volunteer management practice constructs and volunteer retention initially through the model developed in Chapter three (see Figure 3.3) and finally through the re-specified model drawn in Chapter 5 based on the results of factorization and SEM (see Section 5.8 and Figure 5.13). The linkage is not direct but through two mediating constructs namely motivation and satisfaction. In addition the latent construct management practice has been factorised into three factors MP-1, MP-2 and MP-3 and the latent construct retention has been factorised into two factors RTN and RTN1. The factorization required the modification of the model portrayed in Chapter 3 (see Figure 3.3). Re-specified models have been provided in Figures 5.5 and 5.6. While Figure 5.5 shows the relationship between the latent constructs MP-1, MP-2 and MP-3 as independent variables and RTN as the dependent variable, Figure 5.6 shows the relationship between the latent constructs MP-1, MP-2 and MP-3 as independent variables and RTN1 as the dependent variable. The difference between RTN and RTN1 is that RTN as a latent construct is measured by observed

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variables that were indicating the intentions and timing of the plans of participants to continue volunteering while RTN1 as a latent construct is measured by observed variables that were indicating the intentions and timing of their plans to leave volunteering. The scales were adopted from the article published by Hoye et al. (2008). It can be seen that Hoye et al. (2008) measured retention as a single latent construct using six observed variables which comprised of the three shown in this research as measuring RTN and the other three shown as measuring RTN1. Thus this research takes a departure from the way retention was measured by Hoye et al. (2008) and argues that measuring the intention of a volunteer to continue in an organisation could be sufficient enough to understand volunteer retention thus making the measuring instrument more efficient which uses optimum number of observed variables to understand the volunteer retention as dependent variable.

While the above arguments point out that volunteer management practice as an independent variable, originally assumed as single latent construct in Figure 3.3, has been factorized into three latent constructs and related to RTN and RTN1 the dependent variables, the relationship between the independent and dependent variables have been shown to be mediated by two variables volunteer satisfaction and volunteer motivation. This follows the original concept developed in this research and explained in Chapter 3. Thus the relationship between the latent management practice constructs MP-1, MP-2 and MP-3 on the one hand and the latent construct volunteer satisfaction on the other now shows that there are three new relationships (Figures 5.5 and 5.6) that have been specified after factorization. A similar situation can be seen with regard to the latent construct volunteer motivation (Figures 5.5 and 5.6). Thus the original set of hypotheses was also redefined (see Sections 5.5 and 5.6).

From the foregoing arguments it can be seen that the relationship between the latent management practice constructs as independent variables and the latent retention constructs as dependent variables is seen to be one of an indirect relationship mediated by latent construct volunteer satisfaction and volunteer motivation. Already the justification for including the volunteer satisfaction and volunteer motivation in the relationship

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between volunteer management practice construct and volunteer retention construct has already been discussed in detail in Chapter 3. Thus it can be seen that while the model developed by this research has attempted to understand the relationship between volunteer management practice and volunteer retention using mediating variables, at the same time it sought to build and expand on the arguments of Cuskelly et al. (2006). While the research outcomes of Cuskelly et al. (2006) applied to a single context of volunteers associated with sports organisations, this research has attempted to apply the research outcomes to a broad spectrum of volunteers disregarding the need to specify a particular type of volunteer organisations and thus generalizing the research findings across volunteer organisations.

Next, the research outcomes obtained by Cuskelly et al. (2006), by directly relating volunteer management practice constructs to volunteer retention, show that only one aspect of management practice namely planning has been found to have a significant relationship to retention while the remaining four constructs (recruitment, training and support, performance management, and recognition) have been found to have no significance at all to volunteer retention. However in this research exploratory factor analysis of the 24 observed variables measuring the latent construct pointed to the possibility to group the observed variables under three factors instead of the five factors identified by Cuskelly et al. (2006) (see Section 5.4). By this way three new latent management constructs were identified and the model was re-specified. These three new factors are named as MP-1 (Management Practice (P&R) (Management Practice- Planning and Recruitment)) and MP-2 (Management Practice (T&S) (Management Practice-Training and Support)) and MP-3 (Management Practice (RGN&PM) (Management Practice-Recognition & Performance Management)) and linked to volunteer satisfaction and volunteer motivation directly which in turn have been linked to RTN (Figure 5.5) and RTN1 (Figure 5.6). From the foregoing discussions it is possible to conclude that research question RQ3 has been answered.

Further, the two models depicted in Figures 5.5 and 5.6 have been tested details of which are provided in the following sections. In addition findings were derived from the data

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analysis provided under Section 5.8.4 which enabled the researcher to answer RQ4, test the relationship between management practice constructs and retention, and verify the hypotheses.

6.4 RQ4: How do the factors volunteer motivation and satisfaction affect the