Determinants of social commitment in the young. Applying the Theory of Reasoned Action

Abstract

Framed within the Theory of Reasoned Action, the current work aims to further our knowledge of how social commitment is engendered and what volunteers' determinants are. Findings to emerge from the empirical study conducted amongst a sample of 488 youngsters aged between 16 and 18 evidence that youngsters' intention to cooperate with non-government organisations is determined directly by the attitudes they display towards these organisations and towards social issues, and by their immediate environment, and indirectly by their beliefs concerning social conflicts. We highlight the twin role played by attitudes towards nongovernment organisations (NGOs) throughout the whole process as it proves to be the major determinant of commitment, transforming part of the attitude towards problems into an intention to cooperate, making it a core variable and underscoring the power an organisation's image has to attract volunteers. Determinantes del compromiso social en los jóvenes. Una aplicación de la Teoría de la Acción RazonadaResumen El presente trabajo, al amparo de la Teoría de la Acción Razonada, quiere ahondar en el conocimiento del modo en que se genera el compromiso social de los adolescentes y de cuáles son los determinantes del voluntariado. Los resultados del estudio empírico realizado con una muestra de 488 jóvenes de entre 16 y 18 años demuestran que la intención de colaboración de los jóvenes con organizaciones no gubernamentales viene determinada directamente por las actitudes que muestran hacia las propias organizaciones y hacia la problemática social en general y por su entorno más cercano e, indirectamente, por las creencias que posean acerca de los conflictos sociales. Destacamos el doble papel que desempeña la actitud hacia las ONG en todo este proceso, ya que es el principal determinante directo del compromiso y canaliza parte *

Managing Cross-Border Conflicts Through Volunteer Commitment: A Comparative Study Between Religious and Non-profit Organizations in the San Diego–Tijuana Area

“…The statistical analysis started with the empirical identification of the variables. According to the reduced adaptation of the Zarzuela and Antón (2015) and Juaneda et al (2017) scales, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was analyzed and the item-total correlation was evaluated. The overall reliability of the scale showed an adequate coefficient alpha and the analysis of the item-total correlation for all variables ranged from 0.734 to 0.865.…”

“…The Theory of Planned Behavior is based on the hypothesis that human beings act rationally, make systematic and frequent use of information, and consider the further implications of their actions before engaging in a specific behavior; that is, the stronger a person's intention to perform a behavior, the more likely that person will perform a particular behavior. For instance, some of the specific management contexts of application related to this conceptual framework in NPOs consider the following: nurses' intentions and behaviors to care (Van Vuuren et al, 2008); preferences for pollution reduction of managers (Amos, 1982;Alatrista and Arrowsmith, 2004); younger ones' intentions and behaviors (Briggs et al, 2007;Zarzuela and Antón, 2015;Chordiya et al, 2017); unethical and fraudulent financial behavior (Van Vuuren et al, 2008;Gupta, 2017); sports events (Lee et al, 2014); knowledge-sharing perceptions, behaviors, and actions of managers (Kim and Lee, 2007); and employee decisions about using new technologies (MacMillan et al, 2005).…”

“…Additionally, drawing on the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980), several authors point out that an awareness of social conflicts, attitudes toward such problems, and NPOs' environment interact to characterize the process of social commitment (Zarzuela and Antón, 2015). From this theoretical perspective, a greater awareness of social conflicts and problems causes a positive attitude toward them and consequently it will engender a greater likelihood of volunteers in terms of a social commitment.…”

“…According to the aforementioned literature on volunteer commitment, we used a reduced adaptation of the Juaneda et al (2017) scale in terms of main dimensions for three reasons: (1) it resulted in a highly operative measure including only a very small number of attitudinal and normative features; (2) it presented appropriate psychometric properties from the literature point of view; and (3) the scope of application was very similar (religious and civil institutions as NPOs). Additionally, we included attitude toward NPOs and social problems according to Zarzuela and Antón (2015) scale. This adapted scale considered volunteer commitment composing the characteristics reported in the previous literature, i.e., attitudinal (individual's identification and internalization of the value system of the organization, attitude toward NPOs) and normative features (gratitude, moral obligations toward the NPO, and individual's attitude toward social problems: see details in the Supplementary Material).…”

“…The main challenge for NPOs is on human or community development, but Social and Nonprofit Marketing and Organizational Behavior emerged for similar reasons (Zarzuela and Antón, 2015). Both disciplines are frequently in search of actions for effective and relevant changes in organizations and institutions including NPOs.…”