Table 1

Selected theories relevant to volunteer motivation and work behaviour in humanitarian organisations

Theory	Assumptions	Interventions informed by the theory
Crowding theory53	Extrinsic goals coming from outside the self, including salaries, can crowd out intrinsic motivation	Appropriate incentives: align context-specific expectations of community health workers, programme managers, and policymakers for low attrition and high performance to be achieved
Intrinsic motivation theory54	People choose humanitarian aid work not because it provides them with material extrinsic rewards, but because it creates immaterial intrinsic rewards	Compensate for humanitarian aid work with non-financial incentives
SDT17–51	Conditions supporting the individual's experience of autonomy, competence and relatedness foster the most volitional and high quality forms of motivation and engagement for activities	Match the task to the volunteer's functional motives Allow the volunteer to participate in the development of a programme Provide supportive supervision Allow interdependence among employees and identification with work groups Provide in-kind rewards, appropriate material and task support
Gift exchange and high-performance HRM theory55	Retention and performance will be higher and turnover lower in organisations with comparatively high investment in, and care for, employees	Bundles of incentives Investment in support
Consistency theory56	Practices need to be consistent for high retention and performance	Internal consistency (among different HRM practices) Contextual consistency (between HRM practices and organisational context)
Organisational commitment57	Organisational commitment contributes to better job-related attitudes, higher job satisfaction and better organisational performance. The type of organisational commitment that encompasses accepting the organisational goals, being committed to the organisation, and feeling engaged with and attached to the organisation appears to be facilitated by autonomous motivation (link with SDT theories)	Institute practices that facilitate positive psychological links between organisational and employee goals
Social exchange theory58	HRM practices influence the employees’ perceptions of organisational support, which in turn induce positive work attitudes and behaviours based on the norm of reciprocity	Practices such as career development opportunities, investment in training, etc, signal the organisation's commitment to the employees
The functional approach59	When volunteers’ important motivations for service are paired with features of the environment that allow them to actualise these motivations, then volunteers will be more satisfied and more likely to continue volunteering in the future	Appropriate incentives Match the volunteers’ functional motives to the activities that they are asked to perform

HRM, Human Resource Management; SDT, self-determination theory.