To Volunteer or Not to Volunteer:The Case of Malaysian Public Service Retirees

There are thousands of retirees from the Premier and Managerial and Professional (PMP) groupof the Malaysian Public Service who, after the mandatory retirement at the age of fifty-five orfifty-six, could contribute to the community gleaning from an improved lo ngevity index for bothmale and female Malaysians in the recent years. This article attempted to decipher the differencebetween volunteer and non-volunteer retirees as far as the ro le of psychosocial and altruisticfactors are concerned and what th is difference would imply as far as motivating other retirees toengage in the voluntary wor k for the development of the Malaysian society. The psychosocialdimension includes the environment, lifestyle, personality and resources while altruism in cludesempathy, reciprocity and spirituality. Indepe ndent sample t-test was used to determine whetherthere was a significant difference for the psychosocial variables and altruism between the volunteersand non-volunteers. Findings of the study revealed that there was a significant difference betweenthe volunteers and non-volunteers by looking at the effects of both psychosocial and altruismfurther indicating that these volunteers were more altruistic and whose psychosocial factors greatlyinfluenced the volunteers propensity to render voluntary service to the community.