本研究的宗旨在了解志工服務經驗與他們道德思考、行為發展的歷程，藉由對志工的服務生活經驗的了解，探討分析志工參與公領域服務所經歷的道德衝突與抉擇。除了重視志工個人在服務歷程中的認知、情意、責任、行為等的獨特經驗，也重視現代志工參與關懷社會工作的組織影響力。同時，本研究亦嘗試探索男女志工在服務工作中應用與表現「關懷倫理」的內涵，藉以論證「關懷倫理」作為公民道德基礎的合理性。並將女志工公領域參與經驗及公私兼顧的道德衝突放在一個更大的文化脈絡中檢視，增加對現代女志工公民參與及公民道德體現的了解。
本研究性質涉及志工長期、動態、變化的成長歷程，也涉及對志工主觀的內在知覺及外顯現象背後意義的詮釋，因此適合採用質性研究方法。由於希望經由志工親口敘述他們的觀察、體驗與感受，包括他們的成長與改變，決定以「深入訪談」作為收集資料的主要方法。訪談採非結構式的開放方式，著重創造一個自然、真誠、信任的交談氣氛。對女志工更以一種姊妹情誼的女性訪談方式，平等且親密的的進行「同理」了解。訪談過程中研究者與受訪者都可以自由的表達個人感覺，使訪談具有誠實、道德、可信任且實在的特性。
本研究在受訪志工的選取方面，採用「立意取樣」模式，也就是以個案對本研究問題可以提供豐富資料的程度為原則。本研究共訪問了9位男女志工，由於女性參與社會服務的比率遠高於男性，因此男志工不易尋訪，不過參加本研究的男志工人數雖少(2位)，提供的資料卻很豐富。依據選取標準，本研究受訪志工都至少擔任志工7年，超過10年的佔大多數(7位)。受訪志工服務領域包括消費者保護、環保、醫療、租屋、燒燙傷者、孤獨老人、及宗教慈善團體等，其中少數志工所參與的宗教團體服務工作項目呈多元化。此外，受訪志工的教育程度、籍貫、婚姻狀況等含有相當的異質性。
本研究在資料收集方面有5個方向(1)深度訪談，約3小時左右，訪談予以錄音，訪談後將錄音帶加以謄錄為逐字稿。(2)書面文獻資料的收集，即有關志工個人及服務組織之出版資料。(3)非正式談話紀錄為正式訪談外的非正式接觸或談話紀錄。(4)實地觀察筆記是關於訪談場域的環境及偶發事件的紀錄。(5)分析筆記是對訪談資料主題或故事線的架構藍圖。在資料的分析方面，本研究採詮釋循環的方法，先由對文本的開放與融合開始，接著進入對文本的深度理解，此階段包括9步驟，再進入辯證的理解及詮釋經驗的反思階段，最後以深度描寫方式呈現。
本研究在重要結果發現方面分三部份，第一部份是關於影響志工獻身服務的生活與環境條件。在重要人物影響方面，早期有關懷民主、熱心助人的父母影響很大，其次是老師及服務夥伴影響。在特殊環境方面，開放熱誠的家庭有助於培養兒童較大認同感。最一致的環境影響來自志工的服務組織，它提供志工學習、歸屬感、反思三種功能。在服務的轉捩點方面，男志工多基於生涯計劃，女志工多受特殊生命事件的影響。
第二部份為關懷倫理的道德思考與行為發展。本研究發現所有志工都具有「關懷思考」，卻不是所有志工都具有「正義思考」。多數志工呈現兩種思考並用的現象，研究結果顯示兩種思考都有助於服務工作，也都是志工服務的必要經驗。在道德衝突方面，本研究發現女志工道德衝突核心有兩類：自私與對他人的責任、和諧關係的維持與自我犧牲。女志工的成熟道德表現在於道德考慮能同時包含自己與他人的需要。男志工在解決道德衝突方面，宜加入關懷的思考，避免忽略特定對象的需求。
在人生觀價值觀方面，志工都能滿足於基本物質生活，多餘的時間用來服務助人，追求精神的價值，顯示較一般人能體認「群我」關係及人類互愛、互賴的重要性。基於服務的相互性，志工都從服務中獲得豐富回報，在個人方面獲得成長、能力增進、自我價值的提昇等。在生活方面，體驗助人的快樂與感動，且提供子女有利的楷模環境。同時也肯定自己的付出有助於社會正向發展與「正義社會」的實現。志工在服務挫折中的堅持力量來自(一)要成為「自己認為應該有的美好形象」，如做一個關懷者、助人者、愛人者。(二)自己所抱持的「道德理想」如正義社會、裡運大同、歡喜社區等，這些都是志工責任感、義務感的來源。
第三部分為志工公民自發的結合與組織力量。研究發現志工加入民間組織各有不同的動機、興趣與需求，但都出自「自主性」的抉擇。現代民間團體重視與平行團體合作，富有集合多元資源與分工的時代服務趨勢，合作方式亦具機動性及多元化。吸引女志工的組織因素有：人性化領導、成員間平等互賴、民主支持氣氛、提供多元化接觸、不計利害及重視團隊合作的組織文化。女志工的公領域參與面對家庭與服務雙重工作負擔或取捨兩難，「私領域」的兩性平權問題有待政府、社會正視。女志工認為女性社會服務表現出優質公民道德，即具有「關懷倫理」的公民道德實踐精神與效能，對社會的貢獻不可忽視。
本研究重要結論扼要分為4方面(一)培養承諾於服務的關懷公民最主要的有利條件為：周遭關懷成人的影響，及一個團體能滿足學習、歸屬感與反思三種需求。成人在這其中的責任及創造有利學習的特殊環境是重要的啟示。(二)男女志工都具有關懷思考，女志工的道德衝突與抉擇具有「感性」、「情意」的關懷倫理特性，服務行為表現植根於關懷倫理基礎上的「愛」與「責任」，說明「關懷倫理」作為主流道德之外一個重要公民道德標準的等同價值。(三)女性「關懷思考」模式影響她們參與公領域事務會尋求下列的組織特性：具有支持鼓勵的學習氣氛、採用和平方式的改善社會行動、偏愛合作而非競爭的組織效能、尋求夥伴間情感互賴與親密的互動、組織有家的感覺、不計利害重視團隊精神等。這些吸引女志工的組織特性，反映了現代民主社會所需的公民道德特質。(四)建議公民道德教育透過社區(社會)服務、實際生活中的關懷活動加以落實，設計符合合作、多元、反思、相互特性的專業服務課程與活動，使「關懷倫理」透過經驗教育紮根於生活，以期待21世紀所需要的關懷公民長成。

The purpose of study aims to gain insight into the volunteers’ volunteering experience, their moral disciplinary perspectives, and the process leading to their behavioral development in a move to examine some of the morality conflicts and choice that the volunteers undergo in partaking public endowment related volunteering services. More than focusing on the volunteers’ cognitive perception, devotion, sense of responsibility and behaviors manifested, the thesis also intends to weigh the organizational influence that draws the modern day volunteers to partake worthy social endowment work. In conjunction to which, the study also attempts to profile the implementation of volunteering work by male and female volunteers and the very essence how such an ethic of care is put to work, with which to validate the rationale of incorporating an ethic of care for developing a sound basis in civic morality. A further exploration has been to examine the experience of volunteering by female volunteer workers to certain morality conflicts arisen from their volunteer work and their private lives to a greater context of cultural implications with which to bring to light the willingness to participate in volunteering work by modern day female volunteers and a manifestation of building a sound civic morality.
The nature of the study, inferring the volunteers’ long-term, interactive and intermittent changes in their growth process, but also how the volunteers view their work through their inward cognition and how they interpret the significance of their work, has had the qualitative research method being chosen. And in support of the intended design for polling the volunteers’ observation, experience and perception through their oral narration, including their perception of growth and intermittent changes, an in-depth interview approach has been chosen as the primary means for collecting data. The interview takes the form of non-structured open mode that aims to achieve an unpretentious, integral and trusting conversational atmosphere. Particularly with female volunteers, a sorority-like interview means has been sought in search of a shared intimacy and assimilation. In the interview process, both the interviewer and the interviewee are free to express their own feelings, essential for instilling the interview with an honest, integral, trustworthy and dependable characteristic.
The study’s volunteer interviewee screening has taken to a representative sampling mode, meaning that individuals with the most level of hands-on experience to offer are chosen as a general principle. With this, the study has chosen a total of nine volunteers of a mix of male and female, yet in light that male volunteer workers are harder to come by since females are traditionally more involved in volunteer work, leaving only a small male volunteer representation of two has been recruited but not without their sharing of insightful experience. Based on the screening criteria, the volunteers chosen for interview by the study would have been in the volunteer work for at least seven years, with a majority, seven of them, exceeding a total of ten years. The domains where the selected volunteers come from consist of the realms of consumer protection, environmental protection, medical care, housing rental, burnt victim aids, solitary senior care, religious charitable groups and such, and among them, a small number of the volunteers whose religious charity organizations are found to offer a diverse range of volunteering services. Besides this, a significant disparity has also been observed in the selected volunteers’ education, ancestral origin, marital status and such.
In data collecting, the study stakes to five directions: (1) In-depth interviews with each lasting around three hours, where the interview is tape recorded and the interview tape transcribed into written text; (2) Gathering of written archival data pertaining to the volunteer workers’ individual data and data published by their respective volunteering organizations; (3) non-formal conversation records, which pertain to notes documenting informal contact and conversation notes beyond the formal interview; (4) Field observation notes that pertain to notes on the setting in which the interview takes place among other incidentals; (5) Analytical notes, which serve to map out a structural blueprint on the central theme of the interview data and the storyline. In data analysis, the study takes to an interpretive repetition method by broaching from the study’s opening and integration, followed by a nine-step process for in-depth interpretation before a reverse validation process is applied to interpret the established argument and interpret the experiences provided, and then a final in-depth summation is then concluded.
Some of the significant findings as concluded by the study can be divided into three aspects: The foremost concerns the lifestyle and economics that afford a volunteer to devote himself/herself to the volunteer work. Under which, when rated by influence of key figures, most omnipresent has been the early stage’s parental influence of care, democracy and enthusiasm, followed by that of mentors and volunteer associates. And when rated by specifics in family setting, growing up in an open and enthusiastic family has been regarded as instrumental in culminating the children to share the value perspectives. A most consistent environmental determinant has been the volunteering organization in which the volunteer works for how it provides a volunteer with three crucial functions — learning, a sense of belongingness and reflection. When rated by the turning point of their volunteer work, the male volunteers tend to attribute it to career planning, while the female volunteers tend to be influenced by specific exceptional events in their lives.
A second aspect pertains to the moral thinking and behavioral development behind the ethic of care. The study has found that all the volunteers possess a caring thinking but not necessary all volunteers profess a justice thinking. While a majority of the volunteers demonstrated the phenomenon of combining the two, the study findings do support that both types of the thinking perspectives are not only inducive of volunteer work but also an essential experience to volunteer’s volunteer work. In the area of moral conflict, the study found the core of moral conflicts in female volunteers comes in two: selfishness vs. the responsibility for others, and maintaining a harmonious relationship vs. self-sacrifice. A more mature moral manifestation among the female volunteers is seen as a plus in better addressing to the needs of their own and that of others in moral weighing. While it is recommendable that male volunteers be able to incorporate an ethic of care when assisting in conflict resolution and best avoid overlooking the needs of a specific individual.
In gauging their lifetime value perspectives, the volunteers are generally satisfied with the basic material desire with time to spare in helping out others, and have, in their pursuits of spirituality, demonstrated a higher level of awareness in group-individual relations, a greater human love and mutual trust than the general population. In their intend to volunteer, the volunteers unanimously responded with how they are rewarded in the course of volunteering for how they have benefited from personal growth, improved skills, improved self-value perspectives and so froth, and in practical living a chance to experience the joy, motion of helping others, and beneficial in setting up a good example to their offspring, taking comfort in knowing what they have contributed has in someway helped the society positively in building moral righteousness. In heeding to their perseverance to help, the strength that the volunteers derive from in sustaining their perseverance comes from, (1) the desire to attain what one regards as an ideal image of a caring, helping and loving individual; (2) a chance to realize one’s ideology for a justice society, world peace, community care and such, which all serve to fuel the volunteers with a sense of responsibility and obligation.
A third perspective pertains to the voluntary citizen solidarity and organizational strength of the volunteers. The study revealed that while there are different motives, draws and needs for volunteering in private organizations, the choice, nevertheless, has consistently been voluntary. The modern day’s private organizations are increasingly focusing on collaborating with their peer organizations and are often embellished with diverse resources by collective efforts and led by a timely volunteering trend of task sharing, with means of collaboration to be flexible and encompassing. Yet noticeably, what draws female volunteers in organizational determinants lie in humanized leadership, the mutual trust that bonds the members, a democratic support atmosphere, a chance for diverse exposure, and an organizational culture emphasizing on collective uncalculating teamwork efforts. While the female volunteers’ involvement in worthy public service faces the dilemma of having to shoulder to choose between their families and their volunteer work, while privately their having to tackle the issue sexual equality remains an issue to be confronted by the society and the government. Reaffirmed by the female volunteers is how female social volunteering showcases a preferred civic morality, except how female civic morality comes to play as a unique charter of the females or the product of a subservient cultural is something to be further scrutinized. In all, the drive and efficiency that female volunteers contribute in fulfilling their civic morality of an ethic of care is something that hardly can be ignored for its invaluable social contribution.
Some of the study’s crucial findings can be recapped into four, (1) culminating one’s commitment to become a caring citizen serves as a powerful environmental factor: In every stage of children’s development, having caring and public endowment prone adults who devote to public service can best address and a place can fulfill one’s desire to learn, reflect and realize a sense of belongingness; (2) with both the male and female volunteers all professing an ethic of care , the female volunteers’ moral conflicts and choice are dictated by the characteristics of an ethic of care in sensuality and emotions, and the manifestation of whose volunteering acts developed upon a caring premise of love and responsibility also helps to explain how the caring morality continues to dictate the criteria of civic morality with dynamic values; (3) The ethic of care mode prevailing among the female volunteers does dictate how they choose to partake communal affairs in the public domain as they tend to seek the following organizational traits — one that encourages a learning atmosphere, and has an agenda for influencing the society with peaceful means, where the organization favors cooperation rather than competition in attaining its organizational goals, identifies peer bond, confidence and offers a liberated, safe and warm feeling of a home in a greater teamwork spirit, all for a good cause; (4) civic morality education can be attained through community and social services in a series of real-life caring activities if a well-designed professional volunteering curriculum and activities offering collaboration, diversification, reflection and mutual benefits can be incorporated for deep-rooting a care morality into the daily lives through a hands-on experience education.