Showing papers on "Social capital published in 1999"

TRUST AND DISTRUST IN ORGANIZATIONS: Emerging Perspectives, Enduring Questions

Abstract: Scholarly interest in the study of trust and distrust in organizations has grown dramatically over the past five years. This interest has been fueled, at least in part, by accumulating evidence that trust has a number of important benefits for organizations and their members. A primary aim of this review is to assess the state of this rapidly growing literature. The review examines recent progress in conceptualizing trust and distrust in organizational theory, and also summarizes evidence regarding the myriad benefits of trust within organizational systems. The review also describes different forms of trust found in organizations, and the antecedent conditions that produce them. Although the benefits of trust are well-documented, creating and sustaining trust is often difficult. Accordingly, the chapter concludes by examining some of the psychological, social, and institutional barriers to the production of trust. CONTENTS

Organizational Social Capital and Employment Practices

Abstract: We introduce the construct of organizational social capital and develop a model of its components and consequences Organizational social capital is defined as a resource reflecting the character of social relations within the organization It is realized through members' levels of collective goal orientation and shared trust, which create value by facilitating successful collective action We discuss employment practices as primary mechanisms by which social capital is fostered or discouraged within organizations

Social capital and self-rated health: a contextual analysis.

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: Social capital consists of features of social organization--such as trust between citizens, norms of reciprocity, and group membership--that facilitate collective action. This article reports a contextual analysis of social capital and individual self-rated health, with adjustment for individual household income, health behaviors, and other covariates. METHODS: Self-rated health ("Is your overall health excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?") was assessed among 167,259 individuals residing in 39 US states, sampled by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Social capital indicators, aggregated to the state level, were obtained from the General Social Surveys. RESULTS: Individual-level factors (e.g., low income, low education, smoking) were strongly associated with self-rated poor health. However, even after adjustment for these proximal variables, a contextual effect of low social capital on risk of self-rated poor health was found. For example, the odds ratio for fair or poor hea...

Moments of social inclusion and exclusion race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships

Abstract: This article presents a case study of parents' involvement with their third-grade children. Using interviews and classroom observations, the research revealed how some black parents, deeply concemed about the historical legacy of discrimination against blacks in schooling, approach the school with open criticisms. Since educators seek a positive and deferential role for parents in schooling, race appears to play an independent role in parents' ability to comply with educators' requests (although social class also mediates the ways in which black parents express their concerns). The results highlight the difference between possession and activation of capital and the value accorded displays of capital in particular settings. Taken together, the findings suggest the importance of focusing on moments of inclusion and exclusion in examining how individuals activate social and cultural capital

Social capital : a multifaceted perspective

Abstract: This book provides an account of the current understanding of social capital. It covers both theoretical and empirical studies, and the concept is debated throughout. Also included in this volume is the classic 1987 article by the late James Coleman, Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital, which formed the basis for the development of social capital as an organizing concept in the social sciences. The volume is divided into areas that cover the analytical foundations and institutional and statistical analyses of social capital.

Is social capital declining in the united states? a multiple indicator assessment

Abstract: Despite a great deal of interest in a possible decline of social capital in the United States, scholars have not reached a consensus on the trend. This article improves upon previous research by providing a model of social capital that has explicit links to theories of social capital and that analyzes multiple indicators of social capital over a 20‐year period. The results do not consistently support Putnam's claim of a decline in social capital, showing instead some decline in a general measure of social capital, a decline in trust in individuals, no general decline in trust in institutions, and no decline in associations.

Explaining African Economic Performance

Abstract: Africa has had slow growth and a massive exodus of capital In many respects it has been the most capital-hostile region We review and interpret the aggregate-level and microeconomic literatures to identify the key explanations for this performance There is a reasonable correspondence of the two sets of evidence, pointing to four factors as being important These are a lack of openness to international trade; a high-risk environment; a low level of social capital; and poor infrastructure These problems are to a substantial extent attributable to government behaviour and the paper includes a review of the political economy literature which addresses that behaviour

Cents and Sociability: Household Income and Social Capital in Rural Tanzania*

Abstract: In this article we show that associational relationships and social norms of villages in rural Tanzania are both capital and social. After outlining the various concepts of social capital we tell how and why we created data on social capital using a large-scale household survey in rural Tanzania that was designed to query households about their social connections and attitudes. By using the Social Capital and Poverty Survey (SCPS) and data from a different survey, which also had information on incomes, we show that a village’s social capital has an effect on the incomes of the households in that village, an effect that is empirically large, definitely social, and plausibly causal. Finally, we use the two data sets to examine a number of proximate channels through which social capital appears to operate.

Conceptualising Social Capital in Relation to the Well-Being of Children and Young People: A Critical Review:

Abstract: This exploratory article forms the background for an empirical study for the Health Education Authority on children, young people, health, well-being and social capital. In terms of morbidity, children tend not to exhibit clear health problems, but obviously engage in activities that have important implications for their health and well-being (West & Sweeting, 1996), and these activities may be influenced by, as well as impact upon, children's social capital. Social capital is an elusive concept and has been defined in various ways, and refers to sociability, social networks and social support, trust, reciprocity, and community and civic engagement. The paper contrasts three interpretations of the concept, by Coleman (1988, 1990), Putnam (1993, 1995) and Bourdieu (1986). It concludes that the concept is currently poorly specified as it relates to children, and that the use of the term is inherently problematic, and needs to be carefully critiqued and empirically grounded before it can usefully be applied in social policy formulations. One possible way forward might be to conceptualise social capital not so much as a measurable ‘thing’, rather as a set of processes and practices that are integral to the acquisition of other forms of ‘capital’ such as human capital and cultural capital (ie qualifications, skills, group memberships, etc).

Introducing Social Networks

Abstract: Introduction The Paradigm of Structural Analysis Social Relationships and Networks Personal Networks and Local Circles Graph Theory Equivalence and Cohesion Social Capital Power and Centrality Dynamics Multiple Affiliations

Social Capital in Britain

Abstract: Recent findings show an apparent erosion in the United States over the post-war years of ‘social capital’ understood as the propensity of individuals to associate together on a regular basis, to trust one another, and to engage in community affairs. This article examines the British case for similar trends, finding no equivalent erosion. It proposes explanations for the resilience of social capital in Britain, rooted in educational reform, the transformation of the class structure, and government policy. It concludes by drawing some general lessons from the British case that stress the importance of the distributive dimensions of social capital and the impact that governments can have on it.

Corporate Entrepreneurship, Knowledge, and Competence Development

Abstract: The literature highlights the importance of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) for improving a company's market and financial performance. This paper extends the literature by focusing on the knowledge-creation processes within a firm's formal and informal CE activities. This multifaceted knowledge, which encompasses organizational, technical, and social dimensions, is developed by individuals or groups and diffused throughout the organization. Whether radical or incremental, this knowledge can generate new skills, which a company can then use to reconfigure the sources of its competitive advantage. This paper also discusses the role of intrapreneurs and CE champions, particularly in the creation and use of social capital, in the development of dynamic competencies.

Social Capital and Community Effects on Population and Individual Health

Abstract: Social capital refers to those features of social relationships--such as levels of interpersonal trust and norms of reciprocity and mutual aid--that facilitate collective action for mutual benefit. Social capital is believed to play an important role in the functioning of community life across a variety of domains, ranging from the prevention of juvenile delinquency and crime, the promotion of successful youth development, and the enhancement of schooling and education to the encouragement of political participation. More recently, researchers have begun to apply the concept to explain variations in health status across geographic localities. In preliminary analyses, the higher the stocks of social capital (as indicated by measures of trust and reciprocity in social surveys), the higher appear to be the health achievement of a given area. Strengthening the social capital within communities may provide an important avenue for reducing socioeconomic disparities in health.

How Can We Trust Our Fellow Citizens

Abstract: Trust is more than just another interesting, difficult, though only recently widely studied social phenomenon. The current rise in interest in this phenomenon (as reflected in recent writings by, among others, Fukuyama, Seligman, Gambetta, Giddens, Levi, Misztal, Putnam, and Eisenstadt) as well as the closely related group of phenomena such as social capital, respect, recognition, confidence, associability, social cohesion, and civil society may have to do with a widely shared, though largely implicit, diagnosis of basic problems of public policy and the steering of social coordination, and ultimately the maintenance of social order itself. Specialists in the field of sociology of knowledge will have to reflect upon why it is that these perennial questions of social theory are widely addressed today in terms of such “soft” conceptual tools referring to informal and subinstitutional social phenomena. But there cannot be much doubt that cognitive frames and moral dispositions that prevail at the grass roots level of social life are perceived by many social theorists to be a kind of bottleneck variable upon which the viability of institutions is thought to be contingent. What I take to be the underlying intuition that conditions the current rise in the interest in trust and related phenomena can be explicated as a skeptical threestep argument. First, the social order of modern society is reproduced through a mix of three major media of coordination. Money serves to coordinate the action of market participants. Democratically constituted political authority backed by legitimate force constrains and enables the action of citizens through legal regulation and the enforcement of the law through the court system and executive state agencies. And knowledge derived from systematic observation, monitoring and research into social as well as nonsocial realities, as well as the storage and dissemination of this knowledge through the networks of bureaucratic and professional organizations, the mass media and educational institutions, generates a society-wide attention and awareness and cognitive skills concerning what the current and foreseeable future problems of actors are, what needs to be done, and how best to do it. Second, the synthetic ideal resulting from these three media of coordination, call it the ideal of an intelligently regulated market economy is still an incomplete vision of social order, as it misses, or at any rate does not assign a proper role to, informal modes of social coordination through commitments that result from life-world-based images and beliefs that members of modern societies hold about other members of such societies, and the action that

Small Firms, Social Capital and the Enhancement of Business Performance Through Innovation Programmes

Abstract: The paper explores the extent to which social capital is advantageous to small and medium enterprise (SME) growth Social capital is a communal property involving civic engagement, associational membership, high trust, reliability and reciprocity in social networks It is capable of being identified in social, political and economic contexts, often associated with strong communities However, not all strong communities exert the effects of social capital in respect of business activities This paper assesses government programmes to promote collaboration amongst SMEs for improving innovation capacity by increasing social capital through networking It shows that, for a sizeable proportion of programme-funded firms in Denmark, Ireland and Wales (UK) social capital building was associated with enhanced business, knowledge and innovation performance Of particular importance was the opportunity afforded to firms for linkage with external innovation networks, and the build-up of embeddedness, or the institutional basis for the enhancement of social capital As a consequence of discovering the advantages of social capital, over a third of respondents planned to continue to develop it in future, in many cases funding such activities privately rather than calling on the public purse

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF DEMOCRACY: A Selective Review of Research on Political Tolerance, Interpersonal Trust, and Social Capital

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This chapter explores two psychological orientations that support democratic governance. First, robust democracies require citizens to tolerate others' efforts to participate in politics, even if they promote unpopular views. Research shows that citizens' political tolerance is influenced strongly by the depth of their commitment to democratic values, by their personality, and by the degree to which they perceive others as threatening. Cross-national research generalizes many of these findings to other countries. Second, robust democracies need citizens who will participate in politics. Almond and Verba's cross-national research shows that interpersonal trust and other features of political culture enhance citizen involvement in politics. Inglehart expanded the political culture framework in his work on post-materialism, interpersonal trust, life satisfaction, and cognitive mobilization. Recent theories of social capital also emphasize the role of generalized interpersonal trust, membership in ...

The Social Capital of Opinion Leaders

Abstract: Opinion leaders are more precisely opinion brokers who carry information across the social boundaries between groups. They are not people at the top of things so much as people at the edge of things, not leaders within groups so much as brokers between groups. The familiar two-step flow of communication is a compound of two very different network mechanisms: contagion by cohesion through opinion leaders gets information into a group, and contagion by equivalence generates adoptions within the group. Opinion leaders as brokers bear a striking resemblance to network entrepreneurs in social capital research. The complementary content of diffusion and social capital research makes the analogy productive. Diffusion research describes how opinion leaders play their role of brokering information between groups, and social capital research describes the benefits that accrue to brokers.

Social capital and the quality of Government : evidence from the U.S. States

Abstract: Social capital - in the form of general trust and strong civi norms that call for cooperation when large-scale collective action is needed - can improve government performance in three ways: 1) It can broaden government accountability, making government responsive to citizens at large, rather than to narrow interests. 2) It can facilitate agreement where political preferences are polarized. 3) It is associated with greater innovation when policymakers face new challenges. Consistent with these arguments, Putnam (1993) has shown that regional governments in the more trusting, more civic-minded northern, and central parts of Italy provide public services more effectively than do those in the less trusting, less civic-minded southern regions. Using cross-country data, La Porta and others (1997), and Knack and Keefer (1997), obtained findings consistent with Putnam's evidence. For samples of about thirty nations (represented in the World Value Surveys), they found that societies with greater trust tended to have governments that performed significantly better. The authors used survey measures of citizen confidence in government as well as subjective indicators of bureaucratic inefficiency. The author further analyzes links between social capital and government performance, using data for the United States. In states with more social capital (as measured by an index of trust, volunteering, and census response), government performance is rated higher, based on ratings constructed by the Government Performance Project. This result is highly robust to including a variety of control variables, considering the possibility of influential outlying values, treating the performance ratings as ordinal, rather than cardinal, and correcting for possible endogeneity.

Parental networks, social closure, and mathematics learning : A test of Coleman's social capital explanation of school effects

Abstract: Through an analysis of gains in mathematics achievement between the tenth and twelfth grades for respondents to the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we examine Coleman's explanation for why Catholic schools apparently produce more learning than public schools. According to Coleman, Catholic schools benefit from larger endowments of social capital, generated in part through greater intergenerational social closure (i.e., dense network connections between the parents of students). Instead, we find that for public schools, social closure among parents is negatively associated with achievement gains in mathematics, net of friendship density among students. This evidence of a negative effect of parental social closure within the public school sector lends support to our alternative hypothesis that horizon-expanding schools foster more learning than do norm-enforcing schools. Moreover, this result renders social closure incapable of explaining any portion of the Catholic school effect on learning, even though within the Catholic school sector there is some evidence that social closure is positively associated with learning

Interpersonal trust, political trust and non‐institutionalised political participation in Western Europe

Abstract: Trust is a core concept in the continuing political science discourse on social capital and its meaning for democracy. In this article, the relationship between interpersonal trust, trust in political institutions and non‐institutionalised legal political participation is analysed based on data from the Eurobarometer surveys and the European/World Values Studies. The statistical relationship between interpersonal trust and political trust in nine European countries is found to be small, though generally positive. Thus, interpersonal trust cannot be regarded as an important antecedent or consequence of political trust. A different picture emerges regarding the relationship between political trust and legal non‐institutionalised participation: the lower political trust the higher the probability of engaging in direct action. Finally, a positive relationship between interpersonal trust and direct action is found, thereby pointing to trust as a precondition or consequence of non‐institutionalised political in...

The Effects of Volunteering on the Volunteer

Abstract: JOHN WILSON [*] MARC MUSICK [**] I INTRODUCTION To most people, a "volunteer" is someone who contributes time to helping others with no expectation of pay or other material benefit to herself. However, this does not mean that volunteer work is of no consequence for the volunteer. Indeed, it is widely believed that helping others is as beneficial for the donor as it is for the recipient. "Research studies show that most people do in fact hold the belief that helping others is a good way to gain fulfillment for yourself." [1] In this article, we review some of the research on the supposed benefits of volunteering and describe briefly some of the results of our own work in this area. We first examine the contribution volunteering is thought to make to a society's social capital, its supply of the generalized trust and norms of reciprocity that make democratic politics possible. Are volunteers more civic minded and more likely to take an active role in political life? Next, we examine the possible link between volunteering and "leading the good life." Are vol unteers less likely to engage in anti-social behavior? We then consider the contribution volunteering might make to both physical and mental health. Is there any evidence to suggest that volunteering can make people healthier or contribute positive feelings of well-being? Finally, we examine the contribution volunteering makes to occupational achievement. Is there any empirical evidence to support the notion that volunteering is either a direct path to good jobs or indirectly provides the self-confidence and skills needed to secure good jobs or to do well in the jobs we have? II CITIZENSHIP For a number of reasons, the possibility that volunteering is useful for building and maintaining civil society--a sphere of activity where people feel free to organize groups, engage in public debate, and in which norms of mutual respect and toleration protect the voices of majority and minority alike--has recently been undergoing fresh scrutiny. Part of this renewed interest stems from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the task faced by newly democratizing countries trying to build, or re-build, the infrastructure of participatory politics. How do people acquire the skills and aptitudes necessary for the give-and-take of democratic government? Some of this renewed interest also stems from concerns expressed in established democracies that fewer and fewer people are taking the time to vote, run for local office, or support political organizations with their time and money. Ever since de Tocqueville's mid-nineteenth-century analysis of American democracy, it has been assumed that a healthy voluntary secto r is vital to the survival of democratic politics. [2] De Tocqueville believed that voluntary associations were essential intermediary bodies between the mass of individuals and their institutions of government. [3] Active membership in a voluntary association created the generalized trust--a trust that extends beyond the boundaries of kinship and friendship--on which democratic political life depends. If the habit of "joining" were allowed to die, so too would democracy. Robert Putnam, who found substantial variation in the performance of Italian governmental institutions across different regions, has recently revived this idea. [4] His explanation for this variation centered on the concept of social capital. Putnam defined social capital as "features of social organization, such as trust, norms, and networks, that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating coordinated actions." [5] His theory, redolent of de Tocqueville, is that active membership in voluntary associations generates the trust necessary for people to organize effectively and act collectively. The associations need not be political to have this beneficial effect, although those that were organized "horizontally," where members could easily participate in running the organization, would be more likely to produce it. …

Political participation and political trust in Amsterdam: Civic communities and ethnic networks

Abstract: This article examines the political participation and political trust of four ethnic groups in Amsterdam. We explore, first, the degree to which Turks, Moroccans, Surinamese and Antilleans participate and the extent to which they trust the democratic institutions of the city. Second, we address how differences in participation and trust can be explained. For this we will turn to the civic community perspective which was reintroduced powerfully by Robert Putnam in his Making Democracy Work (Putnam 1993). In order to measure the civic community of ethnic groups we focus on ethnic organisations in Amsterdam and the links between them. Additionally, we will also report data on the use of mass media. We conclude that there is a rank correlation between the degree of civic community of the various ethnic groups in Amsterdam and the levels of political participation and political trust in local ‐ non‐ethnic ‐ political institutions. Civic engagement and social capital are the most powerful determinants ...

Social capital, household welfare, and poverty in Indonesia

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to investigate empirically the links between social capital, household welfare, and poverty in Indonesia. Specifically, the authors undertake a multivariate analysis of the role of local institutions in affecting household welfare and poverty outcomes and in determining access to services. The authors compare the impact of household memberships in local associations with the impact of human capital. They first consider six social capital dimensions: the density of associations, their internal heterogeneity, the frequency of meeting attendance, members' effective participation in decisionmaking, payment of dues, and the community orientation of associations. Second, in addition to estimating the effects on household welfare, the authors model the impact of ownership of social capital on the incidence of poverty. They also attempt to compare the returns to social capital between poor and non-poor households. Third, since the impact of social capital on household welfare is usually indirect, they attempt to measure some of these links--access to credit, asset accumulation, collective action--directly. Fourth, they revisit the question of whether social capital operates at the household level or at the village level. Fifth, the authors differentiate four types of institutions, specifically differentiating between voluntary associations and those with mandatory membership. Lastly, they revisit the question of causality.

Education and Social Capital

Abstract: Education is usually the most important predictor of political and social engagement. Over the last half century, educational levels in the United States have risen sharply, yet levels of political and social participation have not. Norman Nie, Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry (NJS-B) have offered an elegant resolution to this paradox based on a distinction between the relative education having positive effects on participation. Using a broad range of evidence, including the data used by NJS-B, this paper shows that increases in average education levels improve trust and do not reduce participation levels. The contrast with the NJS-B participation results is found to be due to the definition of the educational environment. We use a changing regional comparison group, theoretically preferable to NJS-B's static national measure. Our results point to a more optimistic conclusion about the consequences of increases in average education levels, while leaving open the puzzle of sluggish participation.

The Dark Side of Social Capital

Abstract: Research on social capital has stressed the advantages that networks can bring to managers and other economic actors The enthusiasm with this ‘bright side’ of social capital, however, neglects the fact that social bonds may at times have detrimental effects for a manager and produce social liability, rather than social capital This chapter tries to correct the optimistic bias by looking at the ‘dark side’ of social capital Continuing benefits from social capital require that managers can adapt the composition of their social networks to the shifting demands of their task environment This often implies the ability to create new ties while lessening the salience of some of the old bonds—if not severing them altogether Available evidence, however, suggests that this ability may be encumbered by the same relationships purportedly responsible for the prior success of the manager When and how this may happen is the central question we address in this chapter We argue that strong ties to cohesive contacts limit a manager’s ability keep control on the composition of his network and jeopardize his adaptability to changing task environments, which damage the corporate social capital of the organization We test our ideas with data on managers working for a special unit of a high-technology firm operating in Europe