Chapter 16 The Critical Role of Emotions in the Recruitment, Retention, and Wellbeing of Volunteers – A Review and Call for Research

Volunteerism underpins the sustainability of communities and a wide range of organizations. A review of the academic literature on volunteerism yields few studies considering the role of emotions, but those that do exist clearly indicate that emotions are critical factors in the recruitment, retention, and wellbeing of volunteers. The contribution of this chapter is to provide a review of the existing published academic research on emotions in the context of volunteerism, and to put out a call for emotions research in this critical aspect of sustainable communities and organizations.