David Cameron’s pledge to create a “Big Society” of empowered volunteers and vibrant communities generated some of the positive headlines that helped his Conservative party scrape to victory in 2010. 

With the UK again in election mode, the role of its large charitable and voluntary sector in stepping up when the state falls away is set to be debated afresh. 

From school governors and youth sports coaches to the well-spoken retirees that staff National Trust properties, the British were a nation of volunteers long before Mr Cameron coined the Big Society. Nearly 30 per cent of UK adults formally offer their services for nothing (through a group, club or organisation) at least once a month, according to the 2013 Citizenship Survey. 

Moreover, the roughly 20m volunteers working within the charitable sector dwarf its paid workforce of about 750,000, making effective volunteer recruitment and management critical to many important organisations. 

Professionals have been among those to respond to the prime minister’s call to arms, but even these well briefed individuals are frequently surprised at the complexities of working with and within an unpaid workforce.

Newcomers Julie Hopes, chief executive of The Conservation Volunteers (see below), and Caroline Davis, a former City lawyer who volunteers at a local hospice, both use the word “shocked”......

Questions 

1. What do you think are the main problems in using performance management when working in an organisation where many of the workers are volunteers? 

2. What approach would you use as a way of ensuring good performance which is consistent with the ethos of the organisation among these volunteers?