Drivers of Participation: COB Clubs and Organizations During a Pandemic

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between student-expressed motivations and participation in College of Business (CoB) student organizations from a functional perspective on attitudes (Katz, 1960) utilizing the Participation Function Index (PFI), an instrument measuring motivations for volunteering. The PFI separates motives for volunteering into the 6 constructs, values, understanding, enhancement, social, career, and protective. The present study will also utilize measures of satisfaction with donated time, a factor correlated with continued volunteering and the number of hours donated to an organization (Nicholls, 2012; Nicholls, Kalamas, Schimmel, 2015). In alignment with previous research, we predict students who express high satisfaction in their specified CoB student organization will have higher levels of organizational retention, as well as a positive correlational relationship between high academic performance between 3.5 and 4.0 cumulative grade point averages and involvement in CoB student organizations. Additionally, in descending order, we predict the most common motivational constructs for participation, as measured by the PFI, will be career, understanding, social, enhancement, values, then protective. A minimum of 50 participants are required to validate findings with a desired enrollment of 200 participants. Participants must be or currently enrolled or have been enrolled in the CoB within one year. This study has implications to better understand the wants and needs of Slippery Rock University College of Business students and the motivations that drive involvement in student organizations. This information has high applicability in aiding CoB student organizations in providing programming in alignment with student desires that best reflect motivational factors for volunteering. At the time of presenting, the study may remain ongoing, however, descriptive statistics, analysis of significant motivational factors, factor structures, and Cronbach's Alpha scale evaluations will be presented utilizing most recent data available at the time.