Millions of people worldwide volunteer for nonprofit organizations (NPOs), playing a vital role in helping these organizations achieve their goals. Due to the volunteers' relevance for society, volunteer management is essential. Understanding volunteers' perceived misfit in management is crucial for boosting retention and productivity. Misalignments between volunteers' expectations, skills, and organizational roles can result in disengagement and turnover. We conducted narrative interviews (n=53) with volunteers to explore how they perceive misfit. Our findings reveal eleven perceived misfit themes along the four established misfit dimensions: (1) person-organization: insufficient organizational support, lack of recognition, and ineffective organizational structures; (2) person-job: overwhelming tasks, inadequate tasks, role ambiguity, and challenging interactions with beneficiaries; (3) person-supervisor: missing competence, dissatisfaction with leadership behavior; (4) person-group: asymmetry in group collaboration, challenging personal relationships. By addressing these specific misfit themes, organizations can lay the foundation for targeted strategies to enhance volunteer satisfaction and retention and to avoid turnover. Additionally, these insights offer a nuanced understanding of how volunteers perceive person–environment misfit and enrich volunteer research by contextualizing misfit themes for nonprofit organizations.
