O sentido do trabalho dos voluntários de uma associação internacional

Abstract

Volunteering is a model of work that is on the rise, especially in Brazil. It encompasses institutions, organizations or companies, such as religious congregations, trade unions, condominiums, political parties, NGOs, schools, hospitals or nursing homes. In this context, this research aims to identify the meanings of voluntary work for Brazilians of an international association, following the adaptation of the Morin model (2001) proposed by Oliveira et al. (2004), in the three dimensions of the meaning of work: individual, organizational and social. The present study is exploratory and descriptive, under a qualitative approach. The data collection was done through interviews, following a semi-structured script applied to eleven volunteers. The primary data collected were treated through content analysis and operationalized in Atlas.ti 7.0 software. The results indicate that there is a sense of work under the perspective of the volunteer in two dimensions studied, evidencing: (i) the individual dimension, in which development was more representative, since all volunteers stated that the organization provides opportunities for personal and professional growth and development; (ii) the organizational dimension, with emphasis on work organization and interpersonal relationships, the challenging, dynamic and friendly environment; and (iii) the social dimension, in which voluntary work does not make sense, since, through the volunteers' perceptions, society does not value or consider their work useful because of a lack of knowledge about the organization or the presence of a certain prejudice in relation to this practice, regarding to the financial aspect. Despite this, there is an external environment favorable to interpersonal relations, perceived as an opportunity for future positive change in the social aspect as a whole. Finally, it is recommended to conduct new research, diversifying the sample to a better depth of the study, since the interviews examined here were applied in a single organization.