Measurement for improvement: a survey of current practice in Australian public hospitals

Objective:
To identify patient safety measurement tools in use in Australian public hospitals and to determine barriers to their use.

Design:
Structured survey, conducted between 4 March and 19 May 2005, designed to identify tools, and to assess current use of, levels of satisfaction with, and barriers to use of tools for measuring the domains and subdomains of: organisational capacity to provide safe health care; patient safety incidents; and clinical performance.

Participants and setting:
Hospital executives, managers and clinicians from a nationwide random sample of Australian public hospitals stratified by state and hospital peer grouping.

Main outcome measures:
Tools used by hospitals within the three domains and their subdomains; patient safety tools and processes identified by individuals at these hospitals; satisfaction with the tools; and barriers to their use.

Results:
Eighty-two of 167 invited hospitals (49%) responded. The survey ascertained a comprehensive list of patient safety measurement tools that are in current use for measuring all patient safety domains. Overall, there was a focus on use of processes rather than quantitative measurement tools. Approximately half the 182 individual respondents from participating hospitals reported satisfaction with existing tools. The main reported barriers were lack of integrated supportive systems, resource constraints and inadequate access to robust measurement tools validated in the Australian context. Measurement of organisational capacity was reported by 50 (61%), of patient safety incidents by 81 (99%) and of clinical performance by 81 (99%).

Conclusion:
Australian public hospitals are measuring the safety of their health care, with some variation in measurement of patient safety domains and their subdomains. Improved access to robust tools may support future standardisation of measurement for improvement.

The 1859 election on the Ovens

The Victorian general election of 1859 occurred during a time of social transition and electoral reformation, which extended the vote to previously unrepresented adult males. Gold discoveries, including those on the Ovens, triggered the miners’ insistent demands for access to land and participation in the political process. The thesis identifies issues, which emerged during the election campaign on the Ovens goldfields, surrounding Beechworth. The struggle centred on the two Legislative Assembly seats for the Ovens and the one Legislative Council seat for the Murray District. Though the declared election issue was land reform, it concealed a range of underlying tensions, which divided the electorate along lines of nationality and religion. Complicating these tensions within the European community was the Chinese presence throughout the Ovens. The thesis suggests the historical memory of the French Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848 and the Catholic versus Protestant revivals divided the Ovens goldfield community. The competing groups formed alliances; a Beechworth-centred grouping of traders, merchants and the Constitution’s editor, ensured the existing conservative agenda triumphed over those perceived radicals who sought reform. In the process the land hungry miners did not gain any political representation in the Legislative Assembly, while a prominent Catholic squatter who advocated limited land reform was defeated for the Legislative Council seat. Two daily Beechworth papers, Ovens and Murray Advertiser and its fierce competitor, the Constitution and Ovens Mining Intelligencer are the major primary sources for the thesis.

Investigation of the effects of microcomputers on the work of professional accountants

Information technology research over the past two decades suggests that the installation and use of computers fundamentally affects the structure and function of organisations and, m particular, the workers in these organizations. Following the release of the IBM Personal Computer in 1982, microcomputers have become an integral part of most work environments. The accounting services industry, in particular, has felt the impact of this ‘microcomputer revolution’. In Big Six accounting firms, there is almost one microcomputer for each professional accountant employed, Notwithstanding this, little research has been done on the effect of microcomputers on the work outcomes of professional accountants working in these firms. This study addresses this issue. It assesses, in an organisational setting, how accountant’ perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of microcomputers act on their computer anxieties, microcomputer attitudes and use to affect their job satisfaction and job performance. The research also examines how different types of human-computer interfaces affect the relationships between accountants' beliefs about microcomputer utility and ease of use, computer anxiety, microcomputer attitudes and microcomputer use. To attain this research objective, a conceptual model was first developed, The model indicates that work outcomes (job satisfaction and job performance) of professional accountants using microcomputers are influenced by users' perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of microcomputers via paths through (a) the level of computer anxiety experienced by users, (b) the general attitude of users toward using microcomputers, and (c) the extent to which microcomputers are used by individuals. Empirically testable propositions were derived from the model to test the postulated relationships between these constructs. The study also tested whether or not users of different human-computer interfaces reacted differently to the perceptions and anxieties they hold about microcomputers and their use in the workplace. It was argued that users of graphical interfaces, because of the characteristics of those interfaces, react differently to their perceptions and anxieties about microcomputers compared with users of command-line (or textual-based) interfaces. A passive-observational study in a field setting was used to test the model and the research propositions. Data was collected from 164 professional accountants working in a Big Six accounting firm in a metropolitan city in Australia. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test the, hypothesised causal relationships between the components comprising the general research model. Path analysis and ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate the parameters of the model and analyse the data obtained. Multisample analysis (or stacked model analysis) using EQS was used to test the fit of the model to the data of the different human-computer interface groups and to estimate the parameters for the paths in those different groups. The results show that the research model is a good description of the data. The job satisfaction of professional accountants is directly affected by their attitude toward using microcomputers and by microcomputer use itself. However, job performance appears to be only directly affected by microcomputer attitudes. Microcomputer use does not directly affect job performance. Along with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, computer anxiety is shown to be an important determinant of attitudes toward using microcomputers - higher levels of computer anxiety negatively affect attitudes toward using microcomputers. Conversely, higher levels of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness heighten individuals' positive attitudes toward using microcomputers. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness also indirectly affect microcomputer attitudes through their effect on computer anxiety. The results show that higher levels of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness result in lower levels of computer anxiety. A surprising result from the study is that while perceived ease of use is shown to directly affect the level of microcomputer usage, perceived usefulness and attitude toward using microcomputers does not. The results of the multisample analysis confirm that the research model fits the stacked model and that the stacked model is a significantly better fit if specific parameters are allowed to vary between the two human-computer interface user groups. In general, these results confirm that an interaction exists between the type of human-computer interface (the variable providing the grouping) and the other variables in the model The results show a clear difference between the two groups in the way in which perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness affect microcomputer attitude. In the case of users of command-line interfaces, these variables appear to affect microcomputer attitude via an intervening variable, computer anxiety, whereas in the graphical interface user group the effect occurs directly. Related to this, the results show that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have a significant direct effect on computer anxiety in command-line interface users, but no effect at all for graphical interface users. Of the two exogenous variables only perceived ease of use, and that in the case of the command-line interface users, has a direct significant effect on extent of use of microcomputers. In summary, the research has contributed to the development of a theory of individual adjustment to information technology in the workplace. It identifies certain perceptions, anxieties and attitudes about microcomputers and shows how they may affect work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. It also shows that microcomputer-interface types have a differential effect on some of the hypothesised relationships represented in the general model. Future replication studies could sample a broader cross-section of the microcomputer user community. Finally, the results should help Big Six accounting firms to maximise the benefits of microcomputer use by making them aware of how working with microcomputers affects job satisfaction and job performance.

Investigation of educator adoption of knowledge media

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

Marketing across cultures : an investigation into place specific dimensions of service quality in sport

Abstract The purpose of this study was to identify place-specific dimensions of service quality in spectator sport settings and determine if the importance of these dimensions differed across cultures. The study was limited to the soccer industry and involved the collection of responses from identified soccer spectators to a range of items presented in a survey instrument. The survey was distributed to respondents face-to-face on a match day of the club they supported, or mailed to their home address. Responses were obtained from spectators from two clubs from Australia (n=277), one club from the USA (n=199), one club from the Netherlands (n=245) and one federation from Malaysia (n= 100). Based on the findings of a number of authors, six categories of potential place-specific dimensions of service quality in spectator sport settings were created and the research instrument contained a number of items that could be categorised under one of these headings. These categories were Home, Religion, Social facilitation, Sensory, Uncertainty of outcome, and Personal attention. In this thesis it was assumed that place-specific service quality issues are similar for sport spectators of different cultures, although differences in degree of importance of these dimensions (etic approach) were likely to emerge. In other words, although it was expected dimensions per country to be similar, differences in degree of importance of these dimensions were expected. Given the lack of confirmatory statistical evidence pertaining to the specific country samples, it was concluded that differences per country are likely to be more than just differences in degree. Both the overall structure and structures per country could not be confirmed, and hence the conclusion was drawn that differences in nature between the countries were present. In other words, what is a dimension of place-specific service quality in one country is not necessarily a dimension in another country. The results of a content analysis of ‘core component’ structures per country compared with a (full sample) core component structure delivered six components (referred to as place-specific dimensions of service quality) that were defined as Home, Hedonist, Religious follower, Safe atmosphere, Hospitality and Personal Attention. It was found that in most cases the cultural orientation of soccer spectators reflects the cultural orientation of the country as a whole as proposed by Hofstede (1991). However, in line with Huntington (1997), it was also argued that grouping people based on their country of origin as a proxy for their cultural orientation, will increasingly lead to flawed and incomplete research findings. As noted by Yoo etal. (1999), the identification of a person's cultural orientation is likely to deliver more direct results when measured at the individual level In that regard it is concluded that it may seem prudent to view Hofstede's dimensions of culture with increased conceptual scrutiny. Although having been replicated in multiple studies, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Hofstede's dimensions cover the complete spectrum of an individual person's cultural orientation. In conclusion, this study identified that soccer spectators (from a number of clubs) from Australia, the USA, the Netherlands and to a lesser extent Malaysia, perceive a range of place-specific service quality dimensions in spectator spoil settings to be important when visiting a soccer match. Before research into satisfaction with and value of place-specific dimensions of the spectator sport service product is initiated, it is pertinent the identified dimensions are further explored and confirmed in different country (culture) settings. The confusion that still exists about the place of the value concept (in relation to quality and satisfaction), where Holbrook (1994) defines quality as a type of value and Chelladurai and Chang (2000) argue that value is a type of quality, further underpins this necessity. It needs to be clear what are the targets of service quality before this information is integrated in larger holistic research frameworks. In the final section of the thesis a conceptual model for international services marketing research in the sport industry was presented as a first attempt to integrate the findings of this research and other researchers.

Middle powers and the building of regional order : Australia and South Korea compared

This article compares how two alliance partners of the United States — Australia and the Republic of Korea — are adjusting to the transition from the Cold War order in the Asia-Pacific to a new, as yet undefined regional order. As states occupying positions of privilege in the U.S.-led Cold War order, these two middle powers have engaged with the ASEAN grouping, the putative driver of the coming order, while maintaining traditional alliance commitments to the United States. This article focuses on proposals for the building of formal institutions and also other policies which can influence the formation of regional order, such as economic integration through the pursuit of free trade agreements. In examining an Asian and a non-Asian state, the article also considers how identity shapes attitudes to region and order.

An evaluation of a project-based learning initiative in engineering education

Project-based learning (PBL) is a well-known methodology for engineering design education due to a number of benefits it is claimed to offer. This paper presents the initial offering of a first-year engineering PBL unit at Griffith University in Australia. An evaluation of student perceptions of the unit revealed that students generally enjoyed the experience, with the oral presentation aspect receiving the lowest satisfaction rating. There was no significant difference in the ratings between any demographic grouping, suggesting that all students were able to participate in, and experience, the unit in essentially the same way. The best aspects of the unit and those aspects needing improvement were similar to the findings of other investigations documented in the literature. It is proposed that future offerings of the unit will reduce the number of design projects from three to two per semester and will attempt more sophisticated individualisation of marks for group work activities.

State police in a state of change: remaking the entrepreneurial officer

We are currently at a point in time in Australia where questions concerning how to govern police have never been more pressing or more fluid. Systemic corruption has been identified in several states; a range of new accountability mechanisms have been established internal and external to police and in Victoria police corruption has been linked with a violent 'gangland war'. This thesis locates these contemporary developments within a broader analysis of the historical circumstances shaping the changing techniques for governing state police. More specifically, this thesis engages in a detailed comparative study of the changing techniques of governing police in Queensland and Victoria. The theoretical tools to conduct this analysis are drawn from 'governmentality studies'. This refers to a broad grouping of theoretical scholarship concerned with the changing ideas - or 'political rationalities' - on how to govern some thing or some activity, and the underlying reasoning, justifications and ambitions contained within the practical tools or 'techniques' used to govern. Central to the thesis is an argument that a new politics of policing has emerged recently, one that extends the dyad of the old accountability - 'police powers' and 'external accountability' - to a pluralisation of accountability processes and structures. The thesis argues that governmentality studies offer new insights into ways of analysing the techniques for governing state police, increasingly shaped by the managerialisation of governing and embodying efforts to make police innovative, risk-taking problems-solvers. This is what I refer to as an open-ended normative project for re-making the entrepreneurial officer. However, a detailed examination of the development of governmental techniques for 'making up' the entrepreneurial officer indicates that such a governmental project is not implemented unproblematically. Nonetheless, the thesis concludes that the attempts to remake the entrepreneurial officer through the managerialisation of governing presents distinct possibilities for a new 'politics of policing' that fosters deliberative, reflective police practice within a new framework of police accountabilities

Phylogeny and life histories of the 'Insectivora': controversies and consequences

The evolutionary relationships of the eutherian order Insectivora (Lipotyphla sensu stricto) are the subject of considerable debate. The difficulties in establishing insectivore phylogeny stem from their lack of many shared derived characteristics. The grouping is therefore something of a ‘wastebasket ’ taxon. Most of the older estimates of phylogeny, based on morphological evidence, assumed insectivore monophyly. More recently, molecular phylogenies argue strongly against monophyly, although they differ in the extent of polyphyly inferred for the order. I review the history of insectivore phylogenetics and systematics, focussing on the relationships between the six extant families (Erinaceidae – hedgehogs and moonrats, Talpidae – moles and desmans, Soricidae – shrews, Solenodontidae – solenodons, Tenrecidae – tenrecs and otter-shrews and Chrysochloridae – golden moles). I then examine how these various phylogenetic hypotheses influence the results of comparative analyses and our interpretation of insectivore life-history evolution. I assess which particular controversies have the greatest effect on results, and discuss the implications for comparative analyses where the phylogeny is controversial. I also explore and suggest explanations for certain insectivore life-history trends : increased gestation length and litter size in tenrecs, increased encephalization in moles, and the mixed fast and slow life-history strategies in solenodons. Finally, I consider the implications for comparative analyses of the recent strongly supported phylogenetic hypothesis of an endemic African clade of mammals that includes the insectivore families of tenrecs and golden moles.

Hyper-community detection in the blogosphere

Most existing work on learning community structure in social network is graph-based whose links among the members are often represented as an adjacency matrix, encoding direct pairwise associations between members. In this paper, we propose a method to group online communities in blogosphere based on the topics learnt from the content blogged. We then consider a different type of online community formulation - the sentiment-based grouping of online communities. The problem of sentiment-based clustering for community structure discovery is rich with many interesting open aspects to be explored. We propose a novel approach for addressing hyper-community detection based on users' sentiment. We employ a nonparametric clustering to automatically discover hidden hyper-communities and present the results obtained from a large dataset.

Consciousness-raising tasks versus deductive approach : two form-focused instruction types in teaching grammar to Iranian high school EFL learners

Consciousness-raising (CR) task is a new way of teaching grammar developed in communicative contexts although little has been written on the effectiveness of CR tasks in EFL setting. The present study is an attempt to investigate the impact of CR tasks in Iranian EFL setting by comparing them with deductive, grammar lessons common in the Iranian schools. The subjects of this study were 80 EFL pre-university male students who were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control one. The control group received three ordinary teacher-fronted, deductive lessons, a common way of teaching methodology in Iran, on three grammatical structures (adverb placement, indirect object placement and the use of relative clause). The experimental group, however, was treated with three ‘consciousness-raising’ (CR) tasks dealing with the same target structures. The results showed that in the short-run, CR tasks were as effective as deductive approach in promoting the learners’ grammatical knowledge while in the long-run, the CR group maintained their gains more effectively than the deductive group. The conclusion is that CR tasks can function more effectively than deductive approach if the following conditions are met: (a) performing the consciousness-raising tasks in learners’ L1; (b) providing the learners with feedback whenever they encounter a problem in solving the tasks; (c) grouping the learners in such a way that at least one learner in each group would be more proficient than the other members to help the less proficient ones understand and discover the rules more effectively.

Exploring in-hospital adverse drug events using ICD-10 codes

 Abstract
Objective Adverse drug events (ADEs) during hospital admissions are a widespread problem associated with adverse patient outcomes. The ‘external cause’ codes in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) provide opportunities for identifying the incidence of ADEs acquired during hospital stays that may assist in targeting interventions to decrease their occurrence. The aim of the present study was to use routine administrative data to identify ADEs acquired during hospital admissions in a suburban healthcare network in Melbourne, Australia.

Methods Thirty-nine secondary diagnosis fields of hospital discharge data for a 1-year period were reviewed for ‘diagnoses not present on admission’ and assigned to the Classification of Hospital Acquired Diagnoses (CHADx) subclasses. Discharges with one or more ADE subclass were extracted for retrospective analysis.

Results From 57 205 hospital discharges, 7891 discharges (13.8%) had at least one CHADx, and 402 discharges (0.7%) had an ADE recorded. The highest proportion of ADEs was due to administration of analgesics (27%) and systemic antibiotics (23%). Other major contributors were anticoagulation (13%), anaesthesia (9%) and medications with cardiovascular side-effects (9%).

Conclusion Hospital data coded in ICD-10 can be used to identify ADEs that occur during hospital stays and also clinical conditions, therapeutic drug classes and treating units where these occur. Using the CHADx algorithm on administrative datasets provides a consistent and economical method for such ADE monitoring.

What is known about the topic? Adverse drug events (ADEs) can result in several different physical consequences, ranging from allergic reactions to death, thereby posing a significant burden on patients and the health system. Numerous studies have compared manual, written incident reporting systems used by hospital staff with computerised automated systems to identify ADEs acquired during hospital admissions. Despite various approaches aimed at improving the detection of ADEs, they remain under-reported, as a result of which interventions to mitigate the effect of ADEs cannot be initiated effectively.

What does this paper add? This research article demonstrates major methodological advances over comparable published studies looking at the effectiveness of using routine administrative data to monitor rates of ADEs that occur during a hospital stay and reviews the type of ADEs and their frequency patterns during patient admission. It also provides an insight into the effect of ADEs that occur within different hospital treating units. The method implemented in this study is unique because it uses a grouping algorithm developed for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) to identify ADEs not present on admission from patient data coded in ICD-10. This algorithm links the coded external causes of ADEs with their consequences or manifestations. ADEs identified through the use of programmed code based on this algorithm have not been studied in the past and therefore this paper adds to previous knowledge in this subject area.

What are the implications for health professionals? Although not all ADEs can be prevented with current medical knowledge, this study can assist health professionals in targeting interventions that can efficiently reduce the rate of ADEs that occur during a hospital stay, and improve information available for future medication management decisions.

Development of play profiles : influence of disability on children's play

Occupational therapists value play as a significant occupation in a child’s life and use play both as a means and as an end in itself to support development. This thesis explores the nature of play in children with developmental disabilities, seeking to determine whether there are consistent patterns of play specific to different disability categories. An extensive literature review of play and disability was completed, and Cooper’s (2000) model of play is used to organize the literature findings. This study investigated differences in play behaviour in 50 children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Down syndrome, Developmental Delay and Physical impairments, aged 4 to 6 years 6 months who attended educational facilities in a regional centre in South East Queensland. Quantitative and qualitative play behaviour was assessed using two measures, Revised Knox Preschool Play Scale (Knox, 2008) and the Child Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (Stagnitti, 2007) with the Australian Developmental Screening Test (Burdon, 1993) used to determine developmental age to eliminate this as a potential confounding variable when statistically analyzing the results.
Cognitive, language and fine motor abilities were found to have a statistically significant impact on play ability rather than the different disability groupings. Children with Down syndrome had significantly more imitative play actions than any other disability grouping. Cooper’s (2000) model was found to be a useful tool to analyze differing play characteristics according to different disability groupings. Modifications to Cooper’s original model of play to more accurately depict play characteristics are proposed.

Security protocols for EPC class-1 Gen-2 RFID multi-tag systems

The objective of the research is to develop security protocols for EPC C1G2 RFID Passive Tags in the areas of ownership transfer and grouping proof.

Segmenting Australian online panellists based on volunteering motivations

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to seek to assess whether online commercial panel volunteering can be segmented based on their motivations, using the volunteer functions inventor. The authors also investigate whether segments exist which differ in demographic characteristics.Design/methodology/approach– The authors survey 484 Australian online panel volunteers using a adapted version of the 30 item of the volunteer function inventory (VFI) scale developed by Clary et al. (1998). Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and cluster analysis, as well as ANOVA and χ2 test comparisons of demographics between clusters.Findings– CFA verifies that the VFI scale is suitable instrument to gauge online participants’ motivations. Cluster analysis produced a five-cluster solution, where respondents with low motivations overall comprised the largest grouping. Segments are interpreted by assessing the difference between the total sample average and the segment profile. The examination also identifies that the only demographic factor that varies across the five clusters is “respondents” employment status”.Research limitations/implications– Future research could explore if differences in segments result in differences in online participation. The high number or respondents with low motivations may explain the relatively high levels of churn that take place within online panels and as a result panel operators would need to continually attract new members. Further research could also investigate whether the levels of motivation change over time and if so what effect such variation would produce on respondents’ retention.Originality/value– Research on online panel respondents’ motivation is still limited and investigating online panellists’ motivation as volunteers is very important as it unveils, as in the study herein reported, that alternative types of respondents may be driven by different factors when joining an online panel (or completing a given survey). Recruitment strategies could, therefore, be shaped to suit the motivation of the different segments. By refining the matching between volunteers’ profiles and their motivation, managers could improve how volunteers are recruited, managed and retained.