The University and the Voluntary Work Culture : Reality and Perspective

To explore the present role of universities in propagating the culture of voluntary work in the Saudi community, mixed research design has been incorporated along with descriptive statistics for retrieving outcomes. The research design has been implemented in order to evaluate the concept of voluntary work culture among the university staff and students and the factors associated with it. A structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to the sample of university students and staff members of Najran University to find the present situation of the university from the perspective of staff members and students and their role in propagating voluntary work culture. Universities play a modest role in propagating the voluntary work culture. Moreover, the students and faculty agree regarding the concept of voluntary work culture. No statistically significant differences exist among the male and female staff of the university. The research participants have emphasized on spreading voluntary work culture.


Introduction
A University is an educational institution, which caters the community service and propagates proper culture on the scientific basis.It plays a vital role to lay down the voluntary work concepts as well as to propagate its culture through various programmes, means, and mechanisms.It also aims at bringing significant changes in the generalization of that culture among the community individuals.Taking into consideration the voluntary work within the context of the university, it has been viewed as an effort exerted by a university student within the charitable or social fields without expecting any financial returns (Al Thani, Al-Doos, & Al-Rubaiai, 2013).These activities should be geared towards community advantages as a whole or contributing in caring for and raising the standards of a neglected portion of the community (Kandil, 2010).The voluntary work is believed to be very advantageous not for an individual in particular, but for the entire community, as proposed by Thoits and Hewitt (2001).
Voluntary work is carried out by individuals or a group of people to achieve mutual benefits, or to help others in developing the living standards, such as the neighbours or humanity at large.Throughout various countries, the shaping and framing of voluntary work are observed to take place in cultural, historical, and institutional contexts (Anheier & Toepler, 2009).Therefore, voluntary work is recognized as physical or financial or intellectual efforts exerted by a person who is able to do it, using his experience and knowledge with a desire and intention to help in achieving an individual benefit or community benefits.
Volunteering with the organizations of local community, including the educational institutes, is likely to emerge as an important aspect of our lives, as the students and staff members in the higher education are also observed to participate in voluntary services actively.The volunteering services are observed to be potentially beneficial in the enhancement of the experience of students.Furthermore, the voluntary activities intensify the possibilities of the employment of students (Spalding, 2013).
Voluntary work culture enables the community individuals to build strong ties with each other, strengthening the citizenship, and ensuring self-integrity.The Western culture depends on various psychological and sociological theories, which interpret the concept of voluntary work.Their studies and researches revolved around this topic and others, such as Freudian Eriksonian, cognitive behavioural, humanistic personality theories, cognitive motivational and social interaction perspectives.The cognitive behavioural perspective considers human nature in the behavioural school as not selfish and not self-sacrificing for others.Thus, the socio-educational theory from this angle reflects that voluntary work is performed by the individuals because they consider their colleagues and family members as role models.The encouragement of parents helps in motivating their children to perform the voluntary work.The study of Hodgkinson on a group of American Youth revealed that the family and school encouragement, and the presence of role models are greatly associated with the performance of social services (Hodgkinson, 1995;Fletcher, Elder, & Mekos, 2000).
The humanistic perspective of Roger and Maslow regarded the experiences of human behaviour as human being directives to fight their way in life.Thus, the voluntary behaviour performance is generally observed as a sign to develop a better human.It emphasizes the issues related to higher humanistic motives and personal development (Law & Shek, 2009;Reber, 1995).The theories related to personality are found to be composed of five various categories.The personality theories emphasized that the individuals, which are characterized due to their susceptibility, a high flexibility level, and are extrovert in nature, are usually observed to serve others.These types of individuals are more motivated to participate in voluntary work (Johnson et al., 1998;McCrae & Costa, 2003).
One of the most fundamental perspectives in this area includes the theory of social interaction, which emphasizes the study of social interaction among the individuals along with voluntary service that is regarded in its essence as a direct or indirect interaction.It has been confirmed by "Durkim" when he mentioned that voluntary service helps to enhance the social coherence, social ties, and connection between middle groups such as the family, village, cult, and political groups to create the feeling of belonging and to emphasize it.Thus, whenever the degree of social integrity rises between the middle groups, the degree of unanimous agreement in the whole community rises as well.The presence of a community association generally indicates the strong personal connections and links among the members of that community, due to the fact that the members are actively involved in voluntary activities (Grootaert & Van Bastelaer, 2001).
The Islamic doctrines emphasized building the community on the basis of love, brotherhood, kindness, understanding, family ties (bonds), solidarity and such other principles, which makes it a whole body.But the cooperation in our modern world should be more deep and broad and more objective and beneficial, which leads to the integrity of the community.From an Islamic perspective, the voluntary work has been given a significant importance, and it has been encouraged among the Muslims, as it enhances the spirit of choice.Besides this, the voluntary work comprises of a comprehension of rituals, which encourages Muslims to help the needy person.Most of the people are observed to focus towards the establishment of charity-based organizations, such as microfinance banks.These financial institutions seem to play a significant role in providing the money to poor and needy persons for consumption purposes (Kaleem & Ahmed, 2009).The previous studies reviewed by the researcher tackled the voluntary work from many angles such as, the organizational principle of voluntary work, its motives, and attitudes towards it, as well as the role of the university, which has been intended to be, and the actual state of the voluntary work in life.
A study has been conducted by Van Geel (2016), in which the researcher has primarily focused on voluntary framework that is built on four fundamental cores, such as believes, intellects, social, and practised.Ruiter and Graaf (2006) questioned the impact of religion on the voluntary work.The researchers have emphasized on the extent to which the religious environment has been observed to have a significant influence on the association of voluntary work and piety.It has been evaluated through the outcomes that voluntary work as a sort of a religious act has an extended effect, where religiously oriented citizens perform the voluntary work more than others even in the secular organizations.While in the Islamic culture this is more vivid, especially in the Gulf countries, the voluntary culture spread among the religiously oriented individuals more than others through programmes, seminars, and symposia.This is due to the fact that it originates from the Islamic doctrine, which encourages the voluntary work, solidarity, and cooperation among the community subjects (Korany & El-Mahdi, 2012).
The volunteering activities performed by students are generally considered to be of high importance by the governments, as they are beneficial in supporting an engaged civil society.On the contrary, students are usually observed to face various obstacles in volunteering services, which include the rising education-related expenses, as well as the requirement to undertake more paid work (Cnaan et al., 2010).Moreover, it has been stated by the researchers in project prepared for the Skill Promotion Centre in Hull University that members of the Student Unions have more self-awareness and understanding of the importance of promotion of skills.Besides this, they also understand the importance of setting an example for the rest of university students to get training on voluntary services.Thus, Salamon and Sokolwski (2001) confirmed that the voluntary service and the communal participation, which seeks to achieve mutual benefits for the individuals, is not just mere services that emerge by exerting great efforts and purgation concepts among individuals and societies.However, the voluntary work is a result of social policies that depends on a justified plan of a country's development, which verifies the presence of mental awareness.
The outcomes of Almaliki (2010) demonstrated that the main motive towards voluntary service from the perspective of postgraduate students was to acquire new experiences and skills as well as the desire to help others, gain self-confidence, and develop the social personality.In the Arab region, the voluntary services are observed to gain high prominence among the students.Some of the examples related to voluntary work include programs regarding service-learning at the university level, and other local programs (Kandil, 2004).The volunteerism among the university and school students has been observed to become very significant.Students are more devoted towards taking part in volunteering the community activities (Al-Maamari, 2009).All these aspects are found to be associated with the development of mental ability towards the voluntary work culture.This could be achieved through proper scientific means and providing researchers with highly specialized qualification, who would be able to set plans and the required research programmes, and contribute to its implementation through various activities, programmes, and educational projects (Ghanem, 2003).
The university should also permit students to develop the student unions, enabling them to serve as a model to promote voluntary work, facilitate learning, and present a constructive work for the participation of university students (Holmes, 2002).The naive awareness of the importance of voluntary work and its role in various sectors of the population in the states of Council creates a major problem for the development and enforcement of voluntary work.Aref (2002) confirmed the naive awareness of university students regarding voluntary activities and its importance.It has been observed that the students had a negative attitude towards the values, social responsibility, and voluntary work nature.The outcomes of the study of Alzubaidi (2006) showed that 63.7% students of the Jordan University were found not to take part in voluntary work during studying in the university.On the contrary, Almaliky (2010) conducted a study on post-graduate female students, in which the attitude of students towards the voluntary work was observed to be positive.
The performance of Saudi universities regarding the propagation of voluntary work is observed to be limited, as the universities are only restricted to some particular scientific activities in a few celebrated universities.This is exemplified by convening conferences, gatherings, symposia, and some other activities, which do not match the role assigned to the University.For example, the National Centre of the Youth in King Saud University ( 2008) arranged for only one symposium entitled as the Voluntary Work Culture among the Youth, application fields.This centre generally aims to organize voluntary work among the university students, as well as to propagate the voluntary work culture within the community.Another symposium has been organized in 2009 by this university, which was represented by Arts College for females, and entitled as, 'Towards propagating the voluntary culture.'The first conference regarding the voluntary work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been convened during the time of 1997 by Umm Al-Qura University (2012).After the fourteen years passed, an annual symposium entitled as, 'Voluntary work symposium, future horizons' has been convened (2010), in which many researches and work papers were presented.The second symposium was convened in 2011.During the time span of 2010, the 'Voluntary Club' has been developed by King Abdulaziz University, which aims at establishing a liaison link among all national and governmental bodies to contribute towards facilitating the role of the university to perform the voluntary work (King Abdulaziz University, 2010).
It has been determined that very few efforts were made by Saudi universities for voluntary culture, which does not match their position in Saudi community, or the responsibility they are entrusted, nor to the amount of financial support given to them by the government.It also does not surpass the symposia and seminars, which are intended for propaganda in public media rather than a real desire to spread voluntary culture.This situation necessitates a study to discriminate the dimensions of this problem in order to realize the positive aspects of universities in propagating voluntary work culture and how to enforce it.

Questions of the Study
The primary question was to examine the role played by the university in spreading voluntary work culture in the community of Saudi Arabia.The sub-questions of the study includes

•
What are the concepts and factors that motivate staff and students to promote voluntary work?
• What is the present situation in the Najran University from the perspective of staff members and students in propagating voluntary work culture?
• What were the significant difference exist between the responses of males and females regarding four cores?

Aims of the Study
The aim of the study was to understand the concept of voluntary work culture among the staff and students.Also to understand the present situation and the incentives donated by the Najran University in propagating voluntary work culture in the community.It has also been focused to identify the perspective of students and staff members of Najran University about an educational role in spreading voluntary work culture.

Methodology
A mixed research methodology has been incorporated to explain the educational role of university in spreading voluntary work culture.The data collection has been done through structured questionnaire, which has been designed on a Likert Scale.The designed questionnaire has been used to investigate the voluntary work culture in Najran University.The range method has been used to know the degree of agreement.Table 1 demonstrates that the sample of staff members comprised of around 58% of male and 66% of female staff members.The sample of students comprised of 15% of a total number of male students and nearly 5.2% of total number of female students.Hence, it mainly constitutes 7.5% of the total population of students, which is considered statistically suitable (Mills & Gay, 2015).

Results
The concept of voluntary work as understood by the staff members and students of Najran University has been evaluated by computing the averages, standard deviations, and ranking.The total average of the responses of staff members of this core is 4.54, which emphasize their high agreement that the statements of this core confirm their concept of voluntary work.It also reflects that the averages of all statements are above 4.29, which demonstrates a very high degree of agreement.However, in the analysis of sample responses of students, it has been observed that the total average reached 4.43, where they agreed to a greater extent to all statements of this core.Thus, the students agreed with their teachers that the statements of this core constitute the concept of voluntary work.
In the second question, the factors which motivate the staff members and students to participate in the voluntary work in the Najran University have been investigated.The total average of staff member responses regarding the statements of this core is 4.26, which means that they have very high level of agreement that most of its statements motivate them towards the voluntary work.On the other hand, the fourteenth and fifteenth statements have a high level of agreement, and the statement number sixteen has a low level of agreement.The responses of students' sample regarding the statements of this core reached to an average of 4.21, which is regarded as a very high level of agreement.Hence, it has been observed that most of the statements of this core motivate them towards voluntary work, and they agreed greatly with their teachers.This agreement could also be noticed in other statements, upon which the staff members have less agreed includes the 14, 15, and 16 statements.
The third question asked regarding the actual situation of the educational role of the university in spreading voluntary work culture from staff members' and students' perspective.The averages, standard deviations, and ranking have been calculated for each statement of this question, as shown in Table 4.The total average of the responses of staff members is observed to be 1.80, which means that the staff members of university examined the weak role of the university in propagating voluntary work culture.The averages of statements (1, 6, 4, 3, 11, 12, 13, 15, 14, and 17) ranged from 1.80 to 2.60, which demonstrate the weak role played by the university.The responses of the students' sample reached an average of 1.85, which means that students agreed regarding the poor performance of university in voluntary work.This outcome pointed towards the fact that the role of the university in inviting experts or asking for participation in outside symposia and conferences concerning voluntary work or publicizing it has been weakly performed as part of the university activities according to the perspective of students.
In the fourth question, the viewpoint of students and staff members regarding the educational role of the university in the propagation of the voluntary work culture has been determined.The result of this question has been obtained from carrying out the statistical analysis to the statements (15) of the fourth core.The total average for responses of staff members of the sample reached 4.09, which means they agree that their university adopts the roles mentioned in 15 statements of this core, for the improvement and development of its role in propagating the voluntary work culture.However, the staff members supported statement number 14, which has shown the value of 3.25.The staff members of University look forward to seeing that university plays an effective role in implanting voluntary work culture through establishing various programmes.Thus, it has been projected by their high support to the statements of this core.The students have agreed with statements of this core to a greater extent, which are concerned with the educational role of the university in advocating the voluntary work culture.The total average of their responses is observed to be 4.05.The answers of students to all the suggestions mentioned in this core ranged from 3.71-4.18(very high).
The fifth question asks about the differences among responses of male and female staff members towards all 4 cores.The T-test has been carried out to determine the statistical differences.It has been observed through outcomes that there is no statistical difference among responses of staff members.Hence, it can be said that staff members have assured the role of university towards voluntary work culture.The sixth question examines statistical differences among the responses of male and female students regarding four cores.The outcomes revealed that the third core had been found in favour of male students because they perceive that university plays a vital role in propagating voluntary work culture.With respect to the favour of females, a statistical difference has been observed among the responses of male and female students.

Discussion
According to the outcomes, it is quite obvious that participants have a comprehensive understanding of voluntary work, which is composed of social components, such as participation, cooperation, solidarity, social cooperation, and community development.The voluntary work also constitutes some religious components, which include self-denial, sacrifices, and charity work without any financial return, and also some personal components, such as acquiring self-confidence, happiness, initiative, problem solving, and capability to face responsibilities.Women in Saudi Arabia are more devoted towards active participation in charity works, as demonstrated by the study of Van Geel (2016).The volunteering fortunes are observed to be changing due to political and cultural contexts (Anheier & Salamon, 1999).
When the factors behind voluntary work have been examined, it demonstrates that those who are having voluntary work concept emphasized religious factors.The most important are expecting rewards from God.This result agrees with the outcomes of Al-Maamari (2009).Moreover, the scholars also considered social factors, which are exemplified by the individual sense of responsibility towards the community and their contribution to its development.Therefore, there are many motives towards voluntary work, which are not restricted to exerting efforts, as cited in the study of Salamon and Sokolwski (2001).
The actual situation of Najran University in performing voluntary work and introducing its culture observed to be weak.Saudi females are observed to be more involved towards volunteering activities, particularly school, and college students, as evidenced from Alaish (2015).It has been determined through outcomes that there is a distinction among the viewpoint of male and female students, despite their unanimous agreement about the weak role of the university.On the contrary, the evaluation of female students has been observed to be lower as compared to male students.It may be due to the modest activities of students, which have been assigned to female students because the activities designed by Students Affairs Deanship gain more significance among the male students.
The respondents emphasized towards their perspective about the promotion of the educational role of the university to develop a well-designed system by the university to spread the voluntary work culture.This could be done through training, encouragement, offering incentives, and promotion of voluntary work values by including them in the curriculum.Some other ways to spread voluntary work culture include organizing the conferences, symposia, supporting researches, arranging competitions.It agrees with many other studies in the field such as Holmes (2002( ), Bravent (2000)), which are observed to be referred to by Salamon andSokolwski (2001), Al-Maamari (2009) and Elharthy (2010).A university staff member emphasized the importance of instituting organizational by-laws, which is beneficial to attract students and staff members to freely participate in voluntary work without imposing anything on them, as well as without strict bureaucracy and surveillance.
The universities as well as other educational institutions should emphasize on the development of a well-designed system, which is advantageous for spreading the voluntary work culture among the students and staff members.Thus, the university has been found to play a significant role in promoting voluntary work culture.

Recommendations and Suggestions
The university is required to perform an active educational role to introduce the culture of voluntary work.The university should emphasize on the promotion of the values of voluntary work.This promotion can be accomplished through instilling a number of values, which constitute a fundamental base for individuals that contribute in establishing the spirit of initiation of voluntary work.It is of fundamental significance to take care of tributaries that enforce the voluntary work such as, religion, community, cultural, social, personal, and political factors.The university should focus on the elimination of obstacles such as negative believes, which impedes the promotion of voluntary work.The organizational by-law should be established for voluntary work, which should be effective and flexible to contribute in spreading voluntary work culture.The organization by-law should also be responsible for organizing the conferences, seminars, and competitions regarding voluntary work.A strategy should be developed for scientific research to promote the attitudes of students, staff members, and all employees of the university towards voluntary work and support them financially and spiritually.The universities should also focus on organizing voluntary work of students to include the needs of their colleagues in various places, such as the public library, museums, exhibition, and the public entertainment sites (Najdi, 2004).
The conferences, seminars, and training sessions should be organized to promote voluntary work culture in the local community.All community institutes should be invited to attend the conferences and training sessions, which enable them to participate in voluntary work actively.The participation of interested scholars from staff members and students in conferences and seminars concerning the voluntary work outside the university should be facilitated.This participation will be beneficial for participants to acquire experience and culture in this field.Moreover, they should also be encouraged by all available means to share their experiences through discussions, workshops, and scientific researches.The activities of students in propagating voluntary work culture should be enhanced through participation in religious, cultural, scientific, social, and sports occasions.The participation should also be required to improve in voluntary medical service and other activities, such as participation of boy-scouts from different universities in the seasons of Pilgrimage and Umrah.The university should spread organized freedom to properly refine the characters of university employees, enabling them to actively participate in voluntary work.Furthermore, it also empowers them to take the initiative to help others by suitable and available means of social organizations, without restricting the university staff freedom by bureaucracy, as exercised by some institutions towards their employees.
The universities should focus on voluntary work propagation among female communities inside and outside the university by enlightening ethical concepts, fields, proper and effective means, encouraging them to participate in voluntary work.The women constitute the fundamental base of the community, in addition, that there are so many fields which are appropriate for their nature.It is also recommended that the university should establish a Voluntary Work Culture Centre to contribute in providing the humanistic services to community inside and outside the university by utilizing university facilities along with its human and financial capabilities.This centre would participate in the capacity enhancement of university students, which will help them in providing voluntary work, such as problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills.

Table 1 .
The reliability and validity of the questionnaire have been tested through Cronbach's Alpha, which showed a value of 0.84 for students and 0.88 for staff members.Frequencies, Means, and Standard Deviations have been carried out to examine the responses of students and staff members.The statistical technique of t-tests used for computation of significant differences.The sample of this research comprised of students and staff members of Najran University.The students enrolled in the 2nd semester of 2014 academic year have been considered.The respondents have been chosen through random sampling technique.The distribution of the population and sample of the study

Table 2 .
Averages and standard deviations of the first core: students and staff members' viewpoint on the concepts of voluntary work

Table 3 .
Averages and standard deviations of the second core: factors motivating students and staff members towards voluntary work

Table 4 .
Averages and standard deviations of the third core: role of university in spreading voluntary work culture

Table 5 .
Averages and standard deviations of the fourth core: viewpoint of students and staff members in propagating voluntary work culture

Table 6 .
T-test results of averages between the two samples of the staff members (males and females) Najran university

Table 7 .
Results of T-test of the responses of students (Males and Females)