Motivations and Barriers for Seasonal Camp Employment

Authors

  • Dan Richmond University of Utah
  • Jim Sibthorp University of Utah
  • M. Deborah Bialeschki American Camp Association

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2020.822

Keywords:

summer camp, staff retention, employee motivation, staff development

Abstract

Each year, many summer camps deal with the challenges related to retaining quality seasonal staff. Retaining seasonal staff from year to year requires knowing what motivates staff to return and understanding the factors that drive voluntary turnover. While research on employee retention and turnover is abundant in management literature, few studies have focused on seasonal summer camp staff. This study used a mixed-methods design and involved a national sample of 997 returning camp staff from a variety of camp types. Respondents completed an online survey that included a 40-item questionnaire measuring staff motivations to return to camp and a series of open-ended questions on drivers of retention and turnover. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed 7 latent constructs that drive motivation. Within the whole sample, Job Impact had the highest subscale mean score followed by Camp Embeddedness, Value Alignment, Staff Development, Management, Job Fit, and Compensation. Analysis of open-ended responses confirmed that Job Impact and Camp Embeddedness were the primary motivations for seasonal camp staff to return and that Compensation, Poor Job Fit, and Other Opportunities were likely drivers of turnover. This study helps paint a picture of the key factors that bring back seasonal staff and the factors, both controllable and uncontrollable, that lead camp staff to pursue other opportunities. Findings may be especially useful to professionals in the camping industry interested in seeking out potential camp staff and retaining staff year over year.

Author Biographies

Dan Richmond, University of Utah

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation

Jim Sibthorp, University of Utah

Professor

Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation

References

Allen, D. G., Bryant, P. C., & Vardaman, J. M. (2010). Retaining talent: Replacing misconceptions with evidence-based strategies. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24(2), 48–64. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMP.2010.51827775

Allen, D. G., & Vardaman, J. M. (2017). Recruitment and retention across cultures. Annual Review of Organizational Behavior, 4, 153–181. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113100

American Camp Association. (2016). Camps sites, facilities, and program report. Bloomington, Indiana.

Brown, S., Gray, D., McHardy, J., & Taylor, K. (2015). Employee trust and workplace performance. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.05.001

DeGraff, D., & Glover, J. (2003). Long-term impacts of working at an organized camp for seasonal staff. Journal of Park & Recreation Administration, 21(1), 1–20.

Duerden, M. D., Witt, P., Garst, B. A., Bialeschki, D., Schwarzlose, T., & Norton, K. (2014). The impact of camp employment on the workforce development of emerging adults. Journal of Park & Recreation Administration, 32(1), 26–44.

Fairlie, P. (2011). Meaningful work, employee engagement, and other key employee outcomes: Implications for human resource development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13(4), 508–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422311431679

Govaerts, N., Kyndt, E., Dochy, F., & Baert, H. (2011). Influence of learning and working climate on the retention of talented employees. Journal of Workplace Learning, 23(1), 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621111097245

Hancock, J. I., Allen, D. G., Bosco, F. A., McDaniel, K. R., & Pierce, C. A. (2013). Meta-analytic review of employee turnover as a predictor of firm performance. Journal of Management, 39(3), 573–603. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311424943

Hausknecht, J. P., Rodda, J., & Howard, M. J. (2009). Targeted employee retention: Performance-based and job-related differences in reported reasons for staying. Human Resource Management, 48(2), 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20279

Henderson, K. A., Bialeschki, M. D., & James, P. A. (2007). Overview of camp research. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 16(4), 755–767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2007.05.010

Hom, P. W., Lee, T. W., Shaw, J. D., & Hausknecht, J. P. (2017). One hundred years of employee turnover theory and research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 530–545. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000103

Johnson, S. K., Goldman, J. A., Garey, A. I., Britner, P. A., & Weaver, S. E. (2011). Emerging adults’ identity exploration: Illustrations from inside the “camp bubble.” Journal of Adolescent Research, 26(2), 258–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558410376832

Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. The Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724. http://www.jstor.org/stable/256287

Kusluvan, S., Kusluvan, Z., Ilhan, I., & Buyruk, L. (2010). The human dimension: A review of human resources management issues in the tourism and hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 51(2), 171–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965510362871

Lee, T. W., Burch, T., & Mitchell, T. R. (2014). The story of why we stay: A review of job embeddedness. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091244

Lee, T. W., Hom, P., Eberly, M., & Li, J. (2018). Managing employee retention and turnover with 21st century ideas. Organizational Dynamics, 47(2), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.08.004

Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.

McCole, D., Jacobs, J., Lindley, B., & McAvoy, L. (2012). The relationship between seasonal employee retention and sense of community: The case of summer camp employment. Journal of Park & Recreation Administration, 30(2), 85–101.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C., & Lee, T. W. (2001). How to keep your best employees: Developing an effective retention policy. Academy of Management Executive, 15(4), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.5465/AME.2001.5897929

Nagaoka, J., Farrington, C. A., Ehrlich, S. B., & Heath, R. D., Johnson, D. W., Dickson, S., . . . Hayes, K. (2015). Foundations for young adult success: A development framework. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/foundations-young-adult-success-developmental-framework

Posthuma, R. A., & Campion, M. A. (2013). A high performance work practices taxonomy: Integrating the literature and directing future research. Journal of Management, 39(5), 1184–1220. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313478184

Powell, G. M., Bixler, R. D., & Switzer, D. M. (2003). Perceptions of learning among new and returning seasonal camp staff. Journal of Park & Recreation Administration, 21(1), 61–74.

Selden, S. C., & Sowa, J. E. (2015). Voluntary turnover in nonprofit human service organizations: The impact of high performance work practices. Human Service Organizations Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(3), 182–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2015.1031416

Wahl-Alexander, Z., Richards, K. A., & Washburn, N. (2017). Changes in perceived burnout among camp staff across the summer camp season. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 35(2), 74–85. https://doi.org/10.18666/jpra-2017-v35-i2-7417

Whitacre, J., & Farmer, J. (2016). How come the best job I ever had was when I worked at a summer camp?: Understanding retention among camp counselors. Journal of Youth Development, 8(2), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2013.94

Wilson, C., & Sibthorp, J. (2018). Examining the role of summer camps in developing academic and workplace readiness. Journal of Youth Development, 13(1–2), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.5195/JYD.2018.563

Yeager, D. S., Henderson, M., D’Mello, S., Paunesku, D., Walton, G., Spitzer, B., & Duckworth, A. (2017). Boring but important: A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(4), 559–580. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037637

Yeager, D. S., Romero, C., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C. S., Schneider, B., Hinojosa, C., . . . Dweck, C. S. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 374–391. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000098

Downloads

Published

2020-03-11

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2020): Special Issue on the Youth Development Workforce

Section

Special Issue Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.