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This article assesses how the human management practices of recruitment, selection, orientation, training and recognition enacted by the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games impacted volunteers' experiences and their likelihood of volunteering in the future.

Qualitative data from 30 volunteers, involved in various stages (including selected and not selected) of the selection process for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, was collected through focus group interviews.

The findings offer important insights for mega sport event managers and their organisations around utilising a traditional human resource management approach for their volunteer workforce.

The findings of the study point to a number of important opportunities for mega event organisers: ensuring there is a personal and consistent approach for all volunteers (even volunteers who are not successful in the application), flexibility in the way volunteers are provided training and support (online, self-paced and tailored to specific roles) and ensuring that organising committees have a strong strategy and direction for host cities to engage in a volunteer legacy.

Despite considerable evidence of the benefits of organizational transparency, policies to enhance transparency often fail or are met with resistance and unexpected results. In part, this is due to a lack of knowledge about the drivers of organizational transparency and their interrelationships. This study examines the interplay among the forces that influence organizational transparency, and thus answers numerous calls for developing a deeper theoretical understanding of the determinants of organizational transparency. We propose three forces that influence organizational transparency and theorize how they combine in nonlinear ways to form five archetypical transparency regimes that organizations operate within. We then discuss contingencies to organizational transparency within each regime.

We employ configurational theorizing to capture the complexity of transparency and the nonlinear relationships among the forces of transparency.

We propose three forces that influence organizational transparency: institutional, societal, and leadership. We identify configurations of the three forces that yield five archetypical transparency regimes. We then discuss contingencies for cultivating organizational transparency within each regime. Vanguard transparency and pioneering transparency represent the desired regimes for fostering organizational transparency. In contrast, hollow transparency and deceptive transparency reveal a combination of determinants that cultivate less desirable forms of organizational transparency. Paradoxical transparency represents a regime in which socially desirable outcomes are associated with undesirable consequences for an organization.

This paper is among the first to theorize the drivers of organizational transparency and to discuss the limits and boundaries of organizational responses to transparency determinants.

Despite the many benefits of transparency, we explain why efforts to enhance organizational transparency often fail or are met with mixed results. By considering the three forces, managers and policymakers can avoid unexpected and undesired organizational responses to transparency regimes.

We propose five transparency regimes that place a spotlight on social contingencies to enhance transparency.

This study offers an integrative theory of organizational responses to transparency determinants and develops its theoretical foundations. The model integrates the fragmented empirical findings from previous studies on the determinants of transparency and draws attention to overlooked institutional, societal, and leadership forces that influence organizational transparency.

The present study explored the extent to which home–school interactions for students with disability are addressed within Australian Federal, and State and Territory government and Catholic education department policies and guidelines.

Utilising a framework adapted from Trezona et al.’s (2018a, b) Organisational Health Literacy Responsiveness self-assessment tool, a document analysis of pertinent policies and guidelines provided an opportunity to understand the prominence of home–school interactions within these guiding documents, the prioritisation of home–school interactions, as well as stipulated actions, implementation resources and monitoring processes.

The findings of this analysis indicate that there are varying approaches to identifying and articulating home–school interactions and associated processes, as well as the roles and responsibilities assigned to stakeholders across the education system(s). Recommendations for increasing in-school and in-classroom translation of documented priorities and objectives are presented.

The article concludes with a broad conceptualisation of home–school interactions for students with disability as established within the analysed documents, as well as considerations for policymakers and researchers involved in policy and guideline development and implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practical and future research implications for the field of governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in sports to strengthen the depth of knowledge in this area.

This paper reviews parts of the existing international literature and draws on literature from general business, management and governance to widen the scope and open spaces of opportunities for interested researchers.

The authors find six themes that are of particular relevance and cluster them along context, content and process to map out critical and promising aspects that we believe will progress our understanding of and contribution to CSR and governance in sport: features and idiosyncrasies of sport in relation to governance and CSR; the relevance and impact of regional and cultural context; reflections on “content” of CSR in sport in difference to CSR through sport; the quest for the business case for CSR in sport and consumer reactions; the potential for interdisciplinary, multilevel and longitudinal research; and finding a critical voice and relating research (back) to industry and practice.

The paper reviews and interlinks the topic of CSR and governance in sport in new ways and with an established, wider body of knowledge, and provides new inspiration and starting points for research from both a broader management angle and a sport-specific angle.

Using the inaugural Edinburgh International Magic Festival (EIMF) as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivational factors prevalent in a group of young event and festival volunteers.

This paper will first review the extent of volunteering and, thereafter, will discuss volunteering in the festival and events industry. Focussing on motivations to volunteer, this paper will also identify key research that has examined volunteer motivation in the festival and event sector. Within the context of the festivals and events sector, the paper highlights the benefits of volunteering to the volunteer, the organisation and the community as a whole. The paper discusses volunteering as a means of developing specific skills and knowledge that improve volunteers' CVs and potentially has a positive impact on career opportunities and careers in the festival and event industries. Using the inaugural EIMF as a case study, the authors conducted semi‐structured interviews with volunteers as a means of more fully understanding motivations to volunteer.

The paper argues that volunteers in contemporary society approach a volunteering activity from a utilitarian perspective. The aim of such an episode is to improve industry‐specific skills and knowledge and positively impact on future career opportunities.

Festival and event organisers need to fully understand the motivations of their volunteers, in order to not only fully utilise existing skills, but also assist in the development of individually required skills and knowledge.

This paper argues for the development of specific training and development programmes for festival and event volunteers as a means of developing skills and enhancing career opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to complement and test prescriptive volunteer management proposals by examining how volunteers are actually managed and exploring factors other than prescribed best practice to assess volunteer management effectiveness.

The authors use qualitative methods to study five Portuguese non-profit organisations, selected for having active volunteer programmes while presenting diverse sizes, organisation styles and levels of reliance upon volunteers. Interviews were conducted between February and August 2011 with board representatives, volunteer managers and volunteers.

This paper assesses volunteer management practices in these organisations, and further identifies a number of interrelated dimensions affecting volunteer programme success, namely: centrality, formalisation, professional support, sustainability and a minimum set of practices. It also uncovers weakness points that inhibit further development, including lack of a strategic approach and limited capacity to diversify sources of financing.

This is an exploratory study, with a limited number of cases and interviews.

This study may help volunteer managers focus their attention in aspects other than prescribed management practice. Although a minimum set of identified practices are vital, the dimensions it uncovers have a pivotal role in the success of volunteer programmes.

This set of intertwined dimensions has not been specifically addressed in the literature. They go beyond the more conventionally prescribed volunteer management practices, and provide a promising framework for analysing the effectiveness and sustainability of volunteer management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the beliefs and attitudes toward the use of information and communication technology (ICT). The study examines the challenges of implementing ICT-based training and provides insights for promoting the acceptance of online training in volunteer sports communities.

The study uses an action design research methodology that combines the implementation of ICT-based training, interviews, and a survey of 523 participants to examine the influence of online training on beliefs and attitudes.

The study shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, soccer referees had negative beliefs about the use of ICT for learning. However, the experience of being forced to use ICT for training during the pandemic led to a positive shift in their beliefs about ICT.

The study offers four lessons learned for promoting the use of ICT-based training in voluntary sports. Future research should investigate the influence of blended learning approaches on affective, cognitive, and skill-based learning outcomes.

The study has practical implications for those responsible for implementing ICT-based training in voluntary sport. The findings suggest that design features such as usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment should be emphasized to increase the acceptance of online training.

The study contributes to the literature by providing insights into the challenges of implementing ICT-based training in voluntary sport contexts. The findings suggest that the experience of being forced to use ICT can promote the acceptance of online training in volunteer sports communities.

The purpose of this paper is to offer insights into the processes associated with promoting volunteer engagement adopted by a large UK heritage attraction during a period of significant change. Engaged volunteers were regarded as essential to sustain, and where appropriate, to enhance the customer experience.

A case study approach was adopted. This involved review of relevant documentation and interviews and focus groups between researchers, managers and volunteers.

Working from the philosophical stance that information and involvement are strong predecessors to “buy-in”, the managers of the attraction used a series of initiatives that kept volunteers both informed and involved. These initiatives include a values-based induction programme, information and communication, training and development, and creating new narratives.

Volunteer engagement influences volunteer commitment to the organisation. This case study offers some insights into initiatives adopted in one heritage organisation to promote volunteer engagement, and thereby provides a basis for other organisations to reflect on their practices in this area.

Findings from a comparative qualitative study with parents in the USA and China increase the understanding of experiences of adults with autism in both countries.

Semi-Structured interviews were conducted with families in the USA and in China. In total, 18 families participated in the study – 7 in the USA, 11 in China.

Analysis of the comparative data led to the emergence of three overarching themes, expressing both similarities and differences in experiences: 1) transition to adult services plays out differently in the two nations, 2) parent advocacy and efforts in supporting and securing services for their children are strong in both countries but are also defined by the variability in access to services and 3) due to the scarcity of adult services in their country, Chinese parents express significantly more worries about their own aging and mortality as compared with USA parents.

Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

By examining the experiences of families of adults with autism in the USA and China, the research reveals themes that would not be visible in a single-nation study.