An Empirical Investigation of a Small Voluntary Association Employing a Socio-Psychological Formulation Within An Open System Perspective: The Case of a Local Committee on Aging
Selzer, Uzi
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69111
Description
Title
An Empirical Investigation of a Small Voluntary Association Employing a Socio-Psychological Formulation Within An Open System Perspective: The Case of a Local Committee on Aging
Author(s)
Selzer, Uzi
Issue Date
1987
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Educational Psychology
Abstract
The study of human behavior within the context of voluntary associations has received little attention from academic psychologists. This present study has researched elemental organizational behavior issues, using a nomological-net consisting of 11 principal organizational behavior constructs, within the context of a small midwestern voluntary association. The survey sample consisted of 58 participants. Questionnaires' rate of return reached 95%. The variable-net was preordainly split into predictor and predicted sets. The predictor set consisted of 8 measures. Styles of organizational leadership were represented by the Consideration (C) and Initiation of Structure (IS) followed by: Psychological Climate (PC), Associational Commitment (AC), Associational Effectiveness (AE), Satisfaction with Activities (S(,act)), Satisfaction with Co-members (S(,Co-m)), and Perceived Personal Health (PPH). The predicted set consisted of Overall Associational Satisfaction (OAS), Attendance (Att), and Associational Participation/Involvement (AP/I). The study aimed at unmasking the nature of the empirical associations and predictive relationships within and between the two sets of variables. Several interesting findings emerged. Predictor variables generally correlated highly with each other, yielding an average r = .52. A consistent pattern of inverse correlations was noted only with respect to PPH, yielding high correlations with AC, r = -.33, and with AE, r = -.42. Within the predicted set only Att and AP/I correlated highly, r = .35. Across sets, OAS correlated highly with 6 out of 8 predictors, resulting in an average r = .60, and PC correlated highly with Att, r = .49. Overall Associational Satisfaction was best predicted by AC and S(,act), accounting for 59.8% of the OAS's variance. Psychological Climate and AC best predicted Att, accounting for 28.8% of the variance. Attendance accounted for 12.7% of the AP/I variance. Three fundamental organizational behavior questions were examined here. The scientific import of this study is grounded in the effort to empirically examine these questions with reference to the social-psychology phenomena as found in a small voluntary association, rather than a conventional work setting. The scientific knowledge concerning the social-psychology of organizations can be vastly enriched, provided the present line of research is systematically pursued.
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