What are the motivations of people who become volunteers at major sport events - Essay Example

The purpose of the research was explained and the authorities were assured that names and information would not be shared. Once the University authorities granted permission, their help was sought in identifying students that had worked as sports and non-sport volunteers. The Universities came forward will all support. Once the participants for the focus group was identified, informed consent of the participants was then taken. The responses and communication over Skype was fairly stable although at times the researcher did have to ask the respondents to repeat their answers.

Connectivity being good, all the participants could express their views clearly, except for two participants who had some issues with the English language. To combat this, efforts were made to make them repeat their views so that minimum distortion in understanding takes place. Care was taken to ensure that all the participants to the focus group were between the age of 20 and 25 years, since this was focused on students’ motivation in sports volunteering. Out of a total of 12 participants in three different groups, 4 were female students and 8 male students.

Students were all of Chinese nationality and hence this was a homogenous group, which enhances the responses and participation in focus group studies. This helped the researcher to make the group relax with light comments about sports and general discussions about volunteering before steering the group towards specific questions. This was an effort by the researcher to guide the group. The first group that was interviewed comprised of those who volunteer for sports. More than 50% respondents agreed that they volunteer for sports based on their interest in sports such as football.

In fact some of them even play while others are sports enthusiasts. However, one of the participants in the focus group admitted that he ‘did this to help others’. Strong correlation has been found between volunteering and career prospects.