Volunteering in Turkish Civil Society and the Psychological Contract

With the incentives for volunteering in civil society in Türkiye since the 2000s, the number of active civil society organizations (CSOs) and the rate of formal volunteering, which refers to volunteering under the umbrella of a CSO, have increased. Thus, CSOvolunteer relations and the management of these relations have become important. In regard to this importance, the study explores the problem areas in CSO-volunteer relations through the concept of the psychological contract and investigates the connection between volunteer expectations and volunteering experiences in Türkiye. The study aims to understand and describe the factors and processes that create obstacles to volunteer work or that make its sustainability difficult in Türkiye. The qualitative findings are based on 22 focus group discussions with 10 groups (i.e., CSO managers, CSO professionals, CSO volunteer coordinators, academicians, public bureaucracy, local governments, international organizations, volunteer initiatives, those with formal volunteer experience, and those without formal volunteer experience), have a high potential to provide information about volunteering, and indicate that problems exist related to developing a sense of belonging to CSOs in the relational dimension of a volunteer’s psychological contract in Türkiye and problems to exist related to the volunteer management processes of CSOs in the transactional dimension. The facts that volunteers are not recognized as stakeholders at either the managerial or organizational level in CSOs and that their contributions are not sufficiently valued result in a violation of the psychological contract in the relational dimension. The lack of a professional approach starting from the first contact with a volunteer and the lack of a framework regarding volunteers’ rights and responsibilities result in a violation in the transactional dimension.