Organizations need to pay more attention to personal and professional

development opportunities for volunteers that will increase their effectiveness while

maintaining personal interest (Safrit & Merrill, 2002). Volunteers who are active must

have certain abilities. Volunteers must develop the personal capacities to make critical

decisions regarding their actions on behalf of the organization as they need to learn "how

to think" rather than just "what to think" (Safrit & Jones, 2003). Volunteers demand

training from their organizations. They want responsibility and expect to participate in

making decisions that affect their work and the work of the organization as a whole.

Volunteers also expect the organization to remove non-performers who are hindering the

effectiveness of the organization (Drucker, 2001). Traditionally, training programs for

volunteers have focused on specific subject matter, organizational, or interpersonal skills.

They must also include components that challenge volunteers to develop important

thinking and processing skills (Safrit & Jones, 2003).

 There are several variables that determine the group's overall effectiveness; how

well resources are utilized (both personnel and resources), how members are motivated to

perform, and how much teamwork and cooperation there is among group members. A

deficiency in any of these variables is likely to reduce group effectiveness. The function

of leadership is maintaining an optimal level for each of these variables (Yukl, 1994).

 Current trends in organizational management and leadership are affecting the

decisions that people make in their volunteer activities. Authoritarian management styles

are being replaced by participative decision-making and teamwork and volunteers are

seeking similar management styles in the non-profit organizations they volunteer with.

Volunteers tend now to avoid authoritarian management and large bureaucratic