With the emergence of various and complicated problems due to the industrialization and urbanization of modern society, the government or public organization alone has not been able to solve all the problems, and they have limited ability to deal with them. Volunteer activity is a resource that replaces and complements governments and public organizations to solve the problems of the local community on their own. Volunteering can serve as an alternative to a social safety net for vulnerable groups outside the public service sector of the government. Although the social importance of volunteer activities is increasing, interest and research on volunteer centers, which are responsible for the recruitment, education and management of volunteers, are very scarce. In addition, there have been few studies on the operation experience of a metropolitan city volunteer center that serves as a hub function and a platform for volunteer activities.
Therefore, this study aims to identify the experience of the operation of the metropolitan city volunteer center from the internal viewpoint of the research participants by using the qualitative research method. The purpose of this study is to analyze the difficulties and the way of coping with the operation of the center heads of seven metropolitan city volunteer centers across the country according to the ground theory method.
The results of the study are as follows. The major phenomenon experienced in the operation of metropolitan city volunteer center was the difficulty of operating the volunteer center in metropolitan city, and the contents were limited in the autonomy and in the center function. The causes of difficulties were three areas: financial support pressure, poor law and system, and career support. Sociocultural factors influencing the central phenomenon were 'recognition of volunteer activities' and 'identity of metropolitan city centers'. The coping strategy to overcome the difficulties took "no action" till waiting for new career or new employees to be elected to mitigate the functioning of the center. As a strategy to solve the current problems, we used 'establishment of cooperation with the foundation center' and 'creating cooperators in the administrative institution' that share the values and ideals of volunteerism through perseverance, persuasion and communication. The factors that affected the coping strategy were cooperative partnership with related organizations and cooperation willingness of administrative staff. As a result of using the strategy to overcome the difficulties, limited autonomy was secured, in which the centers took the cooperation of the government in difficult circumstances or dissolved the conflict through the governance structure. In order to prevent the unilateral interference of the administration and the abuse of discretionary authority of the head of the organization, the financial support of the state was a solution to this problem.
Based on the results of the study, the implications of the qualitative research on the operation of metropolitan city volunteer center are as follows. First, in order to activate the autonomy and function of metropolitan city volunteer center, it is necessary to change the operational budget support which is set aside for the local government. In the current system, there is no check system that can interfere with the intervention of the local autonomous entities having the right to allocate the budget and abuse of the discretion of the mayor. The researchers emphasized the necessity of supporting the national budget in order to check the authority of the local autonomous entity and to secure the autonomy of operation. Since the volunteer center work is classified as local affairs in the current legal system, the operation cost of the volunteer center is supported by the local budget, but if the national budget is supported at a certain rate, the responsibility of the state can be secured and supervision can be achieved.
Second, it is necessary to revise relevant laws and ordinances so that the volunteer center can be operated by private citizens’being centered in the private sector for the purpose of establishment and efficiency of operation. Pure direct operation and mixed direct operation have a vertical structure in which civil servants also serve as center heads or private citizens work like public servants. This structure limits the communication with civil society. In the case of a corporation, it is considered that the autonomy of the operation is secured to a certain extent. However, since the administration is established and the facilities and the offices are also supported, and the majority of the corporation chairman also serves as the head of the corporation, the operating autonomy in actual reality is insufficient. Volunteer centers are under pressure to assist the election of chiefs, especially when the election is imminent, and a large number of cases where the change of position is determined by the result after the election is over. In order to prevent such side effects, it is necessary to supplement the legislation so that the president of the corporation is elected as a civilian, the composition of the board of directors is balanced, and the autonomy of the operation is maintained.
Third, it is necessary to promote career advancement and to improve the welfare system to prevent the turnover of career staff and the manpower circulation. The stumbling block in the operation of metropolitan city volunteer center is the transfer of career staff due to the closed workforce structure. Interchange between the metropolitan center and the foundation center can be an alternative, but it is not easy at present because the local governments that support the budget are different. There is a need for volunteer groups and the government to gather wisdom and prepare measures for the virtuous cycle of the workforce structure. One axis of the difficulty of operating a metropolitan city volunteer center is the shrinking in the function of the center due to the transfer of career staff. The researchers emphasized that the eligibility criteria should be expanded in line with the expansion of the volunteer field and that the remuneration under the average should be realized. Since the current financial situation of local governments is different from manpower and finance, government standard operation plan should be prepared so that it is kept as mandatory, not as recommendation. In addition, the introduction of volunteer managers' private certification and registration of official occupation groups should be actively reviewed and pursued.
Fourth, it is necessary to build a system and cultivate research functions to cultivate employee professionalism. An important function and role of the volunteer center is volunteer manager and leader training. It is necessary to establish specialized education system to secure alternative manpower and to perform high quality program of volunteer manager. For it, a systematic and standardized education management plan should be prepared by the government. Another important function of the metropolitan center is to support foundation centers and to survey and research to activate volunteering, and to research and develop programs to promote volunteering. Activation of research function can function as a power of civil society by linking local resources and policy, and can take the initiative to lead a culture bringing in the development of civil society.