scholarly journals Role Commitment and Role Maintenance Strategies: A Symbolic interactionist Approach to Volunteering

Author(s):  
Behnam Behnia

There are numerous reports on the rates of attrition among volunteers as a persistent challenge for organizations. In explaining volunteer attrition, researchers have predominantly: 1) provided an individualistic account of volunteering; 2) overlooked the interactional dimension of volunteer work and the crucial role of interpretation in its development; and 3) assumed commitment as a function of satisfaction with volunteering experience. Drawing on the theoretical insights of a symbolic interactionist approach, this article contends that volunteers’ role commitment hinges on their satisfaction with their interpretation of their interaction with clients, rather than the interaction itself. This perspective calls attention to the volunteer-client dyadic interaction, gives a prominent place to the social role and its definition, and draws attention to strategies used by volunteers to sustain challenging relationship with clients. RÉSUMÉIl existe de nombreux rapports sur les pourcentages de bénévoles perdus et le défi que ces pertes posent pour les organismes. Pour expliquer ces bénévoles perdus, les chercheurs ont surtout : 1) fourni des comptes rendus individualistes du bénévolat; 2) ignoré la dimension interactionnelle du bénévolat et le rôle crucial de l’interprétation dans le développement des interactions; et 3) pris pour acquis l’engagement comme indice de satisfaction des bénévoles. Se fondant sur la perspective théorique offerte par l’interactionnisme symbolique, cet article maintient que l’engagement des bénévoles dépend de la manière dont ils interprètent leurs interactions avec les clients plutôt que des interactions elles-mêmes. Cette perspective met l’accent sur l’interaction dyadique entre le bénévole et le client, donne une place de choix au rôle social et à sa définition, et attire l’attention sur les stratégies employées par les bénévoles pour gérer des rapports parfois difficiles avec leurs clients.

2018 ◽  
pp. 1060-1068
Author(s):  
Galina A. Dvoenosova ◽  

The article assesses synergetic theory of document as a new development in document science. In information society the social role of document grows, as information involves all members of society in the process of documentation. The transformation of document under the influence of modern information technologies increases its interest to representatives of different sciences. Interdisciplinary nature of document as an object of research leads to an ambiguous interpretation of its nature and social role. The article expresses and contends the author's views on this issue. In her opinion, social role of document is incidental to its being a main social tool regulating the life of civilized society. Thus, the study aims to create a scientific theory of document, explaining its nature and social role as a tool of social (goal-oriented) action and social self-organization. Substantiation of this idea is based on application of synergetics (i.e., universal theory of self-organization) to scientific study of document. In the synergetic paradigm, social and historical development is seen as the change of phases of chaos and order, and document is considered a main tool that regulates social relations. Unlike other theories of document, synergetic theory studies document not as a carrier and means of information transfer, but as a unique social phenomenon and universal social tool. For the first time, the study of document steps out of traditional frameworks of office, archive, and library. The document is placed on the scales with society as a global social system with its functional subsystems of politics, economy, culture, and personality. For the first time, the methods of social sciences and modern sociological theories are applied to scientific study of document. This methodology provided a basis for theoretical vindication of nature and social role of document as a tool of social (goal-oriented) action and social self-organization. The study frames a synergetic theory of document with methodological foundations and basic concepts, synergetic model of document, laws of development and effectiveness of document in the social continuum. At the present stage of development of science, it can be considered the highest form of theoretical knowledge of document and its scientific explanatory theory.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Manzano Moreno

This chapter addresses a very simple question: is it possible to frame coinage in the Early Middle Ages? The answer will be certainly yes, but will also acknowledge that we lack considerable amounts of relevant data potentially available through state-of-the-art methodologies. One problem is, though, that many times we do not really know the relevant questions we can pose on coins; another is that we still have not figured out the social role of coinage in the aftermath of the Roman Empire. This chapter shows a number of things that could only be known thanks to the analysis of coins. And as its title suggests it will also include some reflections on greed and generosity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 390-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
António Carlos Valera ◽  
Thomas Xaver Schuhmacher ◽  
Arun Banerjee

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. CODELL CARTER

In early-nineteenth-century medical literature, one finds an elegant symmetry between causes of disease and causes of death: both were sufficient causes of particular events. However, as I will argue, by the end of the century physicians no longer sought sufficient causes of individual disease episodes – instead almost all of medical research was organized around the quest for necessary causes that were shared by all the episodes of each particular disease. Such causes carried great practical and theoretical advantages: they enabled physicians to control and to explain disease phenomena.One might wonder why there has been no parallel change in our thinking about causes of death; to this very day, causes of death are sufficient causes of particular events. In principle there is no apparent reason why we could not identify necessary causes for classes of deaths – indeed, we sometimes do so. But, in the case of death, such causes hold little interest. Because of how they are used, sufficient causes for individual deaths are more interesting and more important to us than are necessary causes of deaths. Thus, the change in thinking about causes of disease – the change that destroyed the symmetry between causes of disease and causes of death – may not reflect simply progress within a fixed system of medical goals and values, but a profound change in the social role of physicians.


1943 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
J. E. Hulett
Keyword(s):  

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