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J Acad Ethics (2011) 9:87106
DOI 10.1007/s10805-011-9131-6
Henrietta Grnlund & Kirsten Holmes & Chulhee Kang & Ram A. Cnaan &Femida Handy & Jeffrey L. Brudney & Debbie Haski-Leventhal & Lesley Hustinx & Meenaz Kassam & Lucas C. P. M. Meijs & Anne Birgitta Pessi & Bhangyashree Ranade & Karen A. Smith & Naoto Yamauchi & Sinia Zrinak
Published online: 5 April 2011# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract Voluntary participation is connected to cultural, political, religious and social contexts. Social and societal factors can provide opportunities, expectations and requirements for voluntary activity, as well as influence the values and norms promoting this. These contexts are especially central in the case of voluntary participation among students as they are often responding to the societal demands for building a career and qualifying for future assignments and/or government requirements for completing community service. This article questions how cultural values affect attitudes towards volunteerism, using data from an empirical research project on student volunteering activity in 13 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. The findings indicate that there are differences in motivation between countries which represent different cultural values. This article sets these findings in context by comparing structural and cultural factors which may influence volunteerism within each country.
H. Grnlund (*)
Department of Practical Theology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 33,00014 University of Helsinki, Finlande-mail: [email protected]
K. Holmes
Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6152, Australia
C. Kang
Yonsei University, 262 Seongsanno, Seodaemun-GU, Seoul 120749, Korea
R. A. Cnaan : F. Handy
University of Pennsylvania, 3451 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
J. L. Brudney
Cleveland State University, 1899 East 22nd Street, Cleveland, OH 44114, USA
D. Haski-Leventhal
Centre for Social Impact, Australian School of Business, University of NSW, Level 6, East, Australian School of Business, UNSW, Kensington, NSW 2033, Australia
Cultural Values and Volunteering: A Cross-cultural Comparison of Students Motivation to Volunteer in 13 Countries
88 H. Grnlund et al.
Keywords Volunteer motivation . Cultural values . Students . Cross-cultural comparisons
Introduction
The context of volunteering takes on different meanings in different settings (Handy et al. 2000, Merrill 2006). Cultural settings provide the socio-political models that regulate the requirements and possibilities for volunteering. The substantial differences between cultures...