Management of Volunteer Activities among Elderly Persons

Abstract

Purpose: Volunteer activities in Japan may be expected to result in a variety of effects on health conditions and social contributions of the elderly depending on the degree of their activity participation. This study aims to identify differences in the health conditions and social contributions of the elderly in relation to the degree of volunteer activity participation, and determine what effective support can be provided for these elderly persons. Further, focusing on the differences in the level of activity of the elderly persons in volunteer activities, we discuss the effect of management through SWOT analysis from the perspectives suggested by the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), which is a performance management tool. Participants and Methods: The participants are elderly persons participating in volunteer activities, living in municipal housing owned by the Kumamoto prefecture in Japan. We classified the participants into an active group who contributed to the raising of funds for activities, and a non-active group. We conducted group interviews with the volunteers, organized interview data on the thoughts of the two groups according to the five perspectives of the balanced score card (BSC) management tool: (1) learning and development, (2) participants, (3) financial matters, (4) process of conducting activities, and (5) social contributions, and conducted a Strength-Weakness-OpportunityThreat (SWOT) analysis. In the SWOT analysis internal factors are distinguished into strengths and weaknesses, and external factors into opportunities and threats. Combining the internal and external factors, problems were extracted from the perspective of a positive strategy (S+O: strength + opportunity), a differentiation strategy (S+T: strength L threat), a stepwise strategy (W+O: weakness + opportunity), and a defensive strategy (W+T: weakness + threat). Then, we confirmed the main results by identifying the major factors in success to achieve salient aims, activity goals, and specific measures from the five perspectives provided by the BSC. Results: When comparing the
strengths of the two groups, the active group showed the following characteristics in the information collecting: more variety in the collected information (perspective of learning and development), ease of obtaining information of potential volunteers (perspective of participants), knowledge of how to raise funds (perspective of financial matters), and being physically more active and knowledgeable of the local community (perspective of social contributions).From the perspective of the process of conducting activities, both groups place importance on the relations among people. For weaknesses, and from the perspective of learning and development, the active group had difficulty in maintaining their motivation, and from the perspective of financial matters this group had difficulties in securing funds. From the perspective of social contributions, the non-active group depended on the active members. From the perspective of participants, both groups experienced a decline in physical function with age, and from the perspective of the process of activities there was a possibility that family or individual circumstances make it difficult to participate in all activities. In the SWOT analysis, combining the internal and external factors, we evaluated the directionality of volunteer activities from the five perspectives of the BSC. From the perspective of learning and development, regardless of the differences in the level of activity of the elderly persons in the volunteer activities, the volunteer members conducted a signature-collecting campaign to call for continuing volunteer activities for residents among those in their surroundings, and this made it possible to continue volunteer activities. From the perspective of the process of conducting activities, regardless of the differences in the level of activity of the elderly persons in the volunteer activities, the volunteer members became active in making remarks, and started to assume roles voluntarily. From the perspective of financial matters, the volunteer members were able to obtain donations for volunteer activities from neighboring establishments, as well as financial support from the social welfare council, by applying for subsidies for activities. From the perspective of participants, the number of new members increased through word of mouth spread by the existing membership. From the perspective of social cost, there was a remark that “I would like my schedule to be full of enjoyable events so that I become too busy to go to the hospital”, and in fact some members did reduce the frequency of hospital visits

Discussion: Participants in this study are members of a volunteer group of elderly persons voluntarily formed in a regional city in Kumamoto prefecture where the elderly population accounts for 25.7% and is expected to increase. It appears that there is a self- and mutual- help relationship between active and non-active members where non-active members rely on the active members who assist the non-active members to be in harmony with the volunteer activities led by the active members, and that this relationship helps maintain independent lives. For the strengths, active members were able to collect more information from the perspective of learning and development, and contributed more through physical activity from the perspective of social contributions. It can be inferred that physically more active elderly persons are in a situation where they remain able to use their cognitive functions to collect information. 

For the weaknesses, the active members experienced loss of motivation. This may be due to the possibility that active members feel it a burden to assist non-active members. We wish to conduct further studies to understand how to maintain and improve motivation. 

The results of the SWOT analysis from the perspectives suggested by the BSC showed that there are differences in health conditions and social contributions of the elderly depending on the participation in volunteer activities, and what types of support from health services can be expected to be effective. This study evaluated the achievements of the volunteer activity goals of elderly persons by identifying the details of volunteer activities and quantifying the goals. The elderly members began to seek for new ideas to achieve better results when they were convinced that there were favorable results of their activities. This suggests that the PDCA cycle in volunteer activities may work by effecting empowerment in the process of BSC.