Foresight Styles and Volunteerism Attitudes in Kenya

Volunteering is essential for community development and social cohesion, yet research rarely connects volunteer attitudes with individuals’ orientations toward the future. The paper addresses this gap by examining the relationship between foresight styles and attitudes toward volunteerism in Kenya, a country characterized by high levels of civic engagement and increasing use of foresight in policy and development initiatives. Building on the Foresight Styles Assessment (FSA) framework, we administered a survey to 358 respondents across multiple Kenyan counties. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability testing broadly reproduced the four foresight styles proposed in prior research, while also revealing a contextually adapted construct labeled Future-Oriented Sense-Making and Agency (FOSMA). Regression analysis shows that FOSMA and situational adaptability are significant predictors of positive attitudes toward volunteerism, whereas reactive and tester orientations are not statistically significant. These findings suggest that value-based future orientation and a sense of collective agency play a stronger role in shaping volunteer attitudes than flexibility alone.