Social Capital and Organizational Commitment

Organizational scientists have been investigating the role of human relationships vis-à-vis firm productivity for some years. Recently, Social Capital has been theorized to play a central part in the reduction of organizational transaction costs. We briefly position Social Capital among several theories claiming a role for interpersonal capital, review its theoretical nuances, and test this theoretical structure using a sample of 469 sales professionals from a leading medical services firm. Our findings indicate that trust, communication, and employee focus have significant direct and moderate indirect affects on organizational commitment.     

Unravelling the dynamics and trends of social capital: Case of South Korea

Analyzing the World Values Surveys, the present study reveals how Korean people trust their fellow citizens and participate in associations in the process of democratization. It has been argued that trust and participation in voluntary associations go hand in hand. Although results revealed a remarkable growth of participation in voluntary associations since democratization, the level of trust has not increased. Instead, it declined sharply during the same period. A further analysis found no obvious connection between levels of civic activism and interpersonal trust, as suggested in the theoretical literature. Contrary to what has been argued in the literature, face-to-face interactions within voluntary associations have not occasioned these civic activists in Korea to greater trust in one another.     

Changes in Income Predict Change in Social Trust: A Longitudinal Analysis

Social trust is a psychological variable important to politics, the community, and health. Theorists have predicted that socioeconomic status determines social trust, but also that social trust determines socioeconomic status. The current study tested the viability of both causal directions using longitudinal data from representative samples of the United States and the United Kingdom. Results demonstrated that a model where increases in socioeconomic status (measured by income) predict increases in social trust is more viable than a model where increases in social trust predict increases in socioeconomic status.     

Forgiveness and Cohesion in Familial Perceptions of Alcohol Misuse

The authors examine the relationships between forgiveness, family cohesion, and alcohol. In Study 1 (N= 190), participants reported lower levels of trust and forgiveness for family members who misuse alcohol. In Study 2 (N= 141), the authors present a model demonstrating family cohesion and trait forgiveness related to state forgiveness of an alcohol‐misusing family member. State forgiveness was related to trust in that family member and, subsequently, higher levels of perceived misuser drinking refusal efficacy.     

农村老年人的社会排斥体验与健康状况:有调节的中介作用

基于社会排斥的多元动机模型、负性情绪影响健康的四通路模型,通过对一项覆盖中国31个省级行政区（不含港澳台）农村居民社会调查数据的分析,考察了1803名农村老年人社会排斥体验与健康状况的关系,以及负性情绪、人际信任、经济状况在两者中的作用。结果表明,农村老年人的社会排斥体验负向预测其健康状况;负性情绪在农村老年人社会排斥体验和健康状况之间起中介作用;人际信任、经济状况均在农村老年人社会排斥体验和负性情绪之间起调节作用;经济状况还在农村老年人负性情绪和健康状况之间起调节作用。该结果不仅验证并拓展了上述两个理论模型,还为农村的养老服务体系建设、农村老年人的健康服务工作提供了启示。     

Book Reviews

Book reviews: Robert Lerner, American Elites Richard Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff, Diversity in the Power Elite: Have Women and Minorities Reached the Top? Jean Garrison, Games Advisors Play: Foreign Policy in the Nixon and Carter Administrations     

Political Leadership as Social Capital: Governing in a Divided National Culture

Social capital is the latest conceptual attempt to account for democracy'spersistence and, when it occurs, its success. Yet that focus neglects an essential element ofdemocracy's performance, leadership capital. Leadership capital consists of thecompetence, integrity, and capacities for performance that leaders may have or bring to bear onsociety's problems. However, it is grounded and unfolds in a society's culture andpsychology. Increasing diversity and cultural conflict place strong pressures on leadership capitalaccumulation in societies like the United States, and they require different strategies ofleadership if accumulated leadership capital is not to be depleted.     

Measuring religious social capital: the scale properties of the Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) among cathedral congregations

The theoretical construct of social capital remains contested in terms of conceptualisation and measurement. The present paper follows the convention of distinguishing between trust, bonding, bridging and linking social capital, to conceptualise how religious communities promote and develop social capital within a specifically religious cohort. Developing this construct of religious social capital further, this paper proposes a measure for use specifically among religious communities to assess individual‐level social capital. The Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) provides a unidimensional construct of religious social capital taking into consideration the four elements highlighted. A sample of 720 members of six cathedral congregations in England and Wales completed a battery of items concerning social capital. Factor analysis procedures produced a 12‐item index of religious social capital. Reliability analyses demonstrated that this index achieved satisfactory levels of internal reliability consistency. Construct validity was supported by the clear association between frequency of attendance and levels of assessed religious social capital.