Leader–member exchange in nonprofit sport organizations

Numerous human resource studies examining the relationship between leaders and followers have found that employees' high levels of leader–member exchange (LMX) are associated with higher job satisfaction and a greater intention to stay with their organizations. Considering the nature of voluntary work in nonprofit sport organizations, leader–member relations may be one of the most important factors influencing volunteer workers' commitment. This study examines the influences of LMX dimensions (Affect, Loyalty, Contribution, and Professional Respect) of volunteer leaders and followers on job satisfaction and assesses the influences of LMX dimensions and job satisfaction of volunteer leaders and followers on intention to stay with their organizations. The findings imply a strong value in positive reciprocal relationships between leaders and followers for enhancing job satisfaction and retention.     

Multiplexity,generalized exchange and cooperation in organizations: a case study

Cooperation in an organization can be studied empirically by examining the routine transfers or exchanges among members of various kinds of resources. We argue that local regularities in the form of these transfers and exchanges shape the structure of cooperation. Using a case study of resource networks in a corporate law firm, we model the structure of cooperation in a specific work environment, one that is characterized by multifunctional and sometimes multidisciplinary work groups in which `status competition' is argued to be a particularly strong motivation driving participation. Specific statistical tools, p* models, are used to identify local regularities in the interplay between exchanges and transfers of three types of social resource (coworkers' goodwill, advice and friendship). We propose that these regularities help to provide structural solutions for the problems of collective participation and status competition in such organizations.     

Aboriginal self-management organizations,cultural identity and the modification of exchange

In the present paper, I first discuss the lack of a truly global anthropology in the world today and consider why such a world anthropology does not exist. I then offer a more personal account, based on my experience as an editor of an international journal attempting, to some extent, to counter the hegemony of the American anthropological core. Finally, I look at the referee system and argue that, for all its benefits, it nonetheless serves to prevent the emergence of a global anthropology. The major questions raised in this paper are how, in an anthropological world riven by a huge gap between the core and periphery, as well as by different national schools of anthropology, can refereeing of journal articles take place in a fair and balanced way; and, if it cannot take place, what does this mean about the nature and future of anthropology as a discipline?     

Competing for seafaring labour: Social security and agency employment in Chinese shipping

This paper discusses one strategy that Chinese crewing agencies adopt to compete with each other in the global seafarer labour supplying market. This strategy is related to Chinese seafarers’ social insurance participation. It shows that crewing agencies utilised a dual workforce – ‘company-owned seafarers’ and ‘externally hired seafarers’. Externally hired seafarers, though in precarious employment, are offered higher salaries in place of social insurance coverage. By contrast, company-owned seafarers are paid less, though enjoy social insurance arranged by agencies. This strategy serves to segment the seafarer labour market, conceal the level playing field and help agencies recruit seafarers cost-effectively, though in violation of labour rights. This paper argues that this strategy grows out of the competitive landscape co-shaped by the national regulatory and institutional settings and the global structure of the shipping industry.     

Social policy,community service development,and religious organizations

The retrenchment policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations have made human service much more locally oriented. As a result, religious groups have become increasingly involved in providing services. This article explores some of the historical and contemporary aspects of service involvement by religious groups, focusing on the meaning this involvement has for the social work community. Recommendations are provided to aid community planners in working more effectively with the resources of religious groups.     

Social forces and decision‐making by gatekeepers in arts organizations

Gatekeepers in arts organizations have an important role to play in determining which artistic works the public gets to experience. Performing arts organizations provide a good example of how these decisions made by gatekeepers necessarily delimit the art that the audiences will experience. This article catalogs the social forces that influence individual decision‐makers. Individual level forces like social background, embeddedness in social networks, and perceptions of the organization and organizational level forces like organizational structure, funding, and size all affect what they ultimately produce. This, in turn, allows us to better understand the work these companies produce form a sociological perspective.     

Social capital exchanges in voluntary associations and work organizations: A network perspective

Organizations have been an important setting in which social capital exchanges (SCEs) occur, but little work has been done to distinguish two predominant species of organizations in the social network literature: voluntary associations and formal work organizations. Addressing this lacuna, this article comparatively examines how the two organizational species differ in (1) how two prominent types of SCEs operate (restricted and generalized exchange), as well as (2) the analytical approaches and methodological tools for studying SCEs (boundary-specification, sampling, network designs, tie-recording methods) and their adherent implications for network structure (networking conditions and homophily). This article concludes by identifying methodological and theoretical challenges for studying SCEs in organizations (conceptualizing organizations as units, underappreciating meaning-making and methodological triangulation, and examining contagion in organizational networks in an age of digitalization) and developing recommendations for overcoming them.     

Commitment and agency in social movements

Any movement that hopes to sustain commitment over a period of time must make the construction of a collective identity one of its most central tasks. Social relationships that embody values of participation and community in their concrete practices contribute to empowering people. But such arguments need additional specification before their theoretical potential can be realized. I have taken the coincidence of this talk with the anniversary of the first teach-in against the war in Vietnam and the assassination of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador as a directive for examining these two cases—with an eye toward learning more about how identity building and social relationships in social movement practice foster long-term commitment and agency.An earlier version, titled Democratic Participation in Social Movements, was presented as a presidential address to the Eastern Sociological Society, March 24, 1990.     

Social work as a bureaucratic professional labour: an empirical analysis in non-profit organizations in northern Portugal

In the last decade and a half, a new perspective on sociological analysis of professional groups has gradually emerged: professionalism and professionalization are no longer analysed as opposed to bureaucracies. In a previous article, we developed an analytical model in which we theorized a hybrid concept of Bureaucratic Professional Work (BPW), based on a theoretical hypothesis of association between various organizational forms (divisional bureaucracies, professional bureaucracies, neo-bureaucracies and post-bureaucracies) and different types of professional work in social work. Structured interviews were conducted with 63 social work professionals who work in 35 non-profit organizations of social services in northern Portugal. We questioned how these professionals perceive their own work in relation to the level of control and centralization of decisions, the routine of procedures and the predictability of results. We also study how social constraints, the tasks performed and work in multidisciplinary teams vary according to the type of BPW. This allows us to detail the modalities of the BPW and set out exploratory hypotheses for other more extensive quantitative studies as well as complementary studies of a qualitative nature.     

Government and voluntary agency relationships

The concept of "voluntary agency" is being radically but almost imperceptibly revised under the press of events in the world of social welfare organization and finance. The term now embraces traditional nonprofit social agencies, proprietary agencies offering similar services often financed by the public sector, social programs financed by industry for its employees, and the family as a primary service provider. This evolution demands a major reconsideration of the new relationship between government and the voluntary agency.     

Efficiency in religious organizations

Churches must realize that the management of their human resources is critical. The U.S. Catholic Church in recent years has been this problem take on even more significance with the apparent shortage of priests. This article considers this problem in light of a relatively new methodology, data envelopment analysis, which compares organizations to comparable best-practice units. The authors conclude that the Church would benefit from a better distribution of priests, both within and across dioceses. They also conclude that the use of deacons and priestless parishes can be effective in some circumstances.     

On agency and empowerment in a #MeToo world

In the midst of the #MeToo movement sweeping across different societies, what opportunities and challenges exist for changing extant gender structures and systems that have allowed for sexual harassment and assault to take shape? Such a discussion provokes questions around what kinds of feminisms, both as philosophical traditions and as a set of praxis/practices, enable societal and organizational change. This article focuses explicitly on different notions of agency deriving from various feminist traditions to underscore possibilities for engaging in such change. Borrowing from intersectional, decolonial, postcolonial and transnational feminist perspectives, I suggest that a collectivist approach to agency is necessary for gender system change. I coin collective feminism as a way to conceptualize agency that only becomes possible through the work of many and then discuss this mode of feminism in relation to empowerment and social change toward gender equality.     

Social media engagement with organization-generated content: Role of visuals in enhancing public engagement with organizations on Facebook and Instagram

The ubiquity of social media platforms that increasingly foreground visuals over text has led to a rise in organization-generated visual content. This study addresses an underexamined question about this phenomenon: which characteristics of organization-generated visual content are associated with higher levels of public engagement in social media? Engagement is conceptualized as indicators of first level engagement such as likes and comments that represent affiliation with and support for the organization. Employing a visual social semiotic framework, a randomly selected sample of visuals posted on Instagram and Facebook by four leading airport brands in 2019 (N = 400) was coded for representational, interactive, and compositional meanings. Findings revealed that across platforms narrativity of images, and interactive features of distance and point of view enhanced engagement, while the compositional feature of framing increased engagement on Instagram. Implications of the findings for effective organization-generated visual content on social media are discussed.