A cross-national study on volunteers at the 2002 fifa world cup korea/japan: focusing on their expections and satisfaction

The role of sport volunteers has become significantly important in sport world today. However, there is a global tendency that the number of sport volunteers has been decreasing (U.K Sport Council, 1996: Yamaguchi, 1996). Furthermore, a body of knowledge on sport volunteers is limited, while there is an increasing concern on management of volunteers in sport events. The 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan is significant in the meaning that it was a first FIFA World Cup held in Asia with co-hosting countries in Korea and Japan. At the World Cup, 14,6551 formal volunteers in Japan contributed to the success.　The purpose of this study was to compare expectations and satisfaction of volunteers at the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan.
A self-administered questionnaire was constructed to examine personal attributes,
volunteer experiences, expectations and satisfaction of the activities, and sport involvement based on the previous study on sport volunteers (Yamaguchi, 1996: Ministry of Education, Sciences, Sport & Culture, 2000). The Japanese questionnaire was translated into Korean with considering equivalence of concepts and measurements
by bilingual researchers. Kobe was chosen from hosting cities in Japan, while Inchon and Daejeon were selected as a comparable size of the city. Information was obtained from 475 volunteers in Japan and 1,117 volunteers in Korea.
First, personal attributes of volunteers in Japan and Korea were described. Young people were majority in Korea, while age variation was significant in Japan. There were significant differences in the structure of expectations and satisfaction between Japan and Korea. Korean volunteers expected to experience non-daily activities and to obtain new knowledge than Japanese volunteers. Degrees of satisfaction were also different between two countries. Cross-national differences and similarities were discussed by considering cultural and historical backgrounds.