QUẢN TRỊ QUẢN LÝ Table 1: Development of Themes First order concepts Second Order Themes Aggregate Dimensions - Shared vision - Willing of helping - Contributing to the club governance
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ABSTRACT:
Thisqualitative studyis to provide abetter understanding ofthe factors affecting thedecision
of people toparticipate in a social organization.The study’s results show that the enthusiasm for community, the physically and mentallythat members gainandthe member’s trust in the organization’s managementarethe core factorsmotivating people to joina social organization The study also finds out that the factors of weak management skills, poor democracy and unreasonable membership fees hinder the organization participation of people The study’s findings support basic theories about what factors are likely toencourage people to participate
in a socialorganization Thestudy alsoprovides valuable insights which help managers better managetheirorganizations
Keywords: participation, social organizations, groups, social value, membercommitment, loyalty
1 Introduction
One of the major problems confronting all
social organizationsthat involve membership is the
apathy of members toward their organizations and
organizational activities Researchers have found
that members’ attitudes and perceptions play a
significant role inmembers’behaviour toward their
organization and also impact the performance of
such organizations (Chacko, 1985; Simmons and
Birchall, 2004) Moreover, Hakelius (1996) noted
that members are a vital part of any cooperative
organization and their active participation in and
loyalty to a cooperative’s business is integral for
the success ofthis mutual Moreover, Sexton and
Iskow (1988) concluded that one of the reasons
for cooperative failure is the lack of sufficient membership and volume; therefore, without active members’ participationand members’ commitment, cooperativescannot survive in the long run
According to Dayanandan(2013), participation is
a keydeterminant forgrowth,development and the effectiveness of community organizations Effective participation of members in their organizations ensures the vigilance, which is essentialtocreatesense
of responsibility among members The participation
of members is decisive factor in the success of the cooperative effortso thatthe participation of members low will affect the development and accomplishment
of an objective cooperative The low participation member is complex problem for involving many factors and dimensions, the interplay each other,
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as dimensions inside of human beings themselves,
from the environment, or dimensions ofan offender
organization other(Emitaand Al Rozi, 2014)
The importance of improvingtheparticipation of
members as a solution in improving the performance
of a community organization, which is still low
so far is need to be explored However, recreating
member’s participation has its ownchallenges The
aimof this study is toinvestigate which factorsplay
key role in influencing member’s participation in a
social club The key researchquestionguiding this
study is “Which factors are likely to drive member
in participating in asocial club?”
2 Literature Review
Several theoretical frameworks have been
ieveloped to explain thefactors affecting onmember
articipationin mutual organisations and enterprises,
[owever, their relevance tomember participationin
social clubs has not been well discovered For this
reason, it is essential to employ these socialtheories
t J research intomember participation in socialclubs
Il thispaper, I would like to present two theories
which are relevant to my proposed study area
They are Mutual Incentive Theory (Birchall and
Simmons, 2004),andAgency Theory (Bergeron and
Lalancette, 1993; Hansmann, 1996)
2.1 Mutual Incentive Theory
Mutual incentives theory (MIT) was postulated
by Birchall and Simmons (2004) and seeks to
explain the reasons people take part in social
organisations According to Birchall and Simmons
004), MIT wasdeveloped from the combination of
o general thoughts related to human motivation,
the “participation chain” and“existing knowledge”
The first is that ofindividualistic approach that
Live from social exchange theory (Blau, 1964,
Hcmans, 1974; Emerson, 1976; Emerson, 1987;
Knottnerus and Guan, 1997; Cook et al., 2013) It
assumes that people are motivated by individual
rewards and punishments, and provides - a set
of generalizations about how they interact For
example,all humanrelationshipsare fundamentally
driven by a cost-benefit analysis, in which the
individual anticipate the benefits of maintaining
a social relationship with others, otherwise costs
and
tw<
del
satiation may negatively influence members’
decision to participate.Thesecond isa collectivistic approach, which develop from theories of social cooperation It explains human manner very differently, it assumes that human collaboration is catalysed by sense of community, shared values, and shared goals This approach also generalizes thatthe moreeach of these three variables is absent, the less likely people willbe to participate In line with MIT, participation chain help to interpretmore
in detail of what make people participate (Birchall and Simmons, 2004) Thisparticipation chain which was postulated by Simmons and Birchall (2004) encompasses threedifferent steps namely,resources, mobilization,and motivations
2.2 Agency Theory
Agency relationships exist whenever an individualor organisation (the agent) acts on behalf
of another (the principal) Principal-agent problems arisebecause the objectives of the agent and those of the principal usually differ, and thus the agentmay not always represent the interests of the principal (Sykuta and Chaddad, 1999, Royer, 1999) Agency theory is thus very relevant to the institutional structure of the social organisations because contractedagents (managers) may not act in thebest interestsof organisation owner-members (principal) Ortmann and King (2007) believe that principal agent problems in a social organisation are likely
to give rise to members’ dissatisfaction Golovina and Nilsson (2011) argued that slow participation
in an organisation can be due to miss-alignment between objectives’ the agentand that of principle Based on literature review and these theories, the authorproposes theoretical proposition thatmember participation level depends upon motivations and inhibitions (Figure 1)
Figure 1: Postulated relationships between member participation, motivations and
inhibitions
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Figure 1 shows a simplified synthesis of the
scholarly literature as well as anecdotal evidence
related to the drivers of member’s decision to
participate in a social organisation or social club
It is assumed that a member’s participation is
influenced directly by individual motivations and
inhibitions To test this model, inductive content
analysis was applied to find out whichfactor play
key role in influencing member participation In
other word, we try to find out the factors which
drive member in remainingtheirparticipation The
motivations of participants tell US about the way
in which managers of social organisations should
shape theirmember participation strategies
3 Method
3.1 Sample selection
For the purpose of this study, we used
purposeful sampling (Belk et aL, 2012) to recruit
study participants whohave been and are currently
involved in a social club We also used snowball
sampling whereby we asked participants to
recommend individuals who they thought would
contribute information to the study Via snow
ball sampling process, six social club members
from three different clubs were initially selected
to participate in this study Due to the fact
that emerging concepts were consistent across
interviews during in-field data analysis - occurred
by the 6th interview, the research did not recruit
more participants for this reason
3.2 Data collection
To meet the purposes of the study, both
secondary and primary data were collected in order
to ensure that the findings arebased on sufficient
evidence (Yin, 2013) Secondary data was
obtained from sources such as academic literature
and past research on social clubs Primary data
gathering method that was usedis semi-structured
interviews The data collected was a combination
of retrospective information on club formation;
current experiences ofparticipation; and opinions
on the future development of the club The
interviews were conducted with each participant
inevery club.Accordingto Marshall and Rossman
(2010), in-depth interviews in qualitative research
are important to help researchers understand the meaning that participants attribute tohuman action
- their thoughts, beliefs and values The lengthof
an average interviewrangedfrom 30 minutestoup
to 45 minutes All formal interviews were digitally recorded The recordings then were transcribedfor data analysis and management
3.3 Data analysis
F orthe purposeof the study, interview transcripts were analysed using inductive content analysis method Content analysis allows the scholar to test theoretical issues to enhance understanding of the data Through content analysis, it is possible
to distil words into fewer content related themes (Belk et al., 2012) Recorded interviews were professionally transcribed verbatim Then, these transcriptsand field notes were entered into NVivo
11, a software package created to catalogue and analyses qualitative data - A computer program such as NVIVO will be employed for coding and managingdata This program helps making coding more efficient, and improving its quality (Brent and Slusarz, 2003) Each interview was coded
by author, open coding was employedto identify emergent codes These emergent codes of data were labelled, andthen they were eventually sorted into various categories Each categorywasgiven a name andsalient themes were identified withinand acrossdifferent interviews
4 Findings
Interview transcripts were initially open-coded and a total of 64 open codes were generated These codes were refined into 6 conceptual themes Two core themes were then identified
as having the greatest impact on perceptions of member’s participants These themes were finally checked interpretation and review the logic of the organisationof concepts Theinitially core themes that createthefoundationof thefactors affecting on member’s participation werelabelled: Motivational factors and Inhibitors (demotivation) illustrated Table 1
The following section will discuss each core themes in detail and demonstrate how it can be traced backthrough thedata from which it emerged
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First order concepts Second Order Themes Aggregate Dimensions
- Shared vision
- Willing of helping
- Contributing to the club
governance
Sense of commitment
Motivational Factors
- Socialising
- Enjoyment
- Knowledge acquisition
- Sense of achievement
- Health incentives
- Financial incentives
Benefit motivations
- Committed President
- Good Responsibility of the
board
- Reliable management
Trust in management board
- Lacking of communication skills
- Lacking of leadership skills
- Lacking of organisation skills
Lacking of management skills
Inhibitors
■ Ignoring of Member’ voice
• Ignoring member’s expectation
■ Unable to attend important
meeting of the club
Lacking of democracy
- Unreasonable membership fee
- Lacking of financial resource for
running the club
- Unreasonable insurance fee
Financial issues
Ta support this process, representative data pieces
have been integrated into explanations tohighlight
how themes and their properties were identified
from interpretation of the data
4.1 Theme one: Motivational Factors
inc
This factor refers to the desires and personal
:entives which motivatemembers joiningto the
clubs Based on an analysis of the data collected
in this study, it is believed that a high level of
desire for joining and participating in social
clubs has been created as the result of three key
contributing properties: Sense of commitment,
Benefit motivations, and Trust in Management
Board These key drivers emerged through their
strong connections with the first core theme
(motivational factors) which affect positively on member participation
4.1.1 Sense of commitment
Sense of commitment was defined from the collected data as the decision of club members
to continue to be actively involved in the club indefinitely, withthe expectationof potential benefits
to be increased from their participation Although all three categories and their interactions critically affect member participations, it is the category of sense of commitment that is seen as driving the process of member participation From the collected data, sense ofcommitment to theclub appearedto be the strongest contributory factor that was expressed
by most ofinterviewees despite a general feeling
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that the club hadnotmanaged asgood as expected
The following statements on this illustrate the
commitment of a member in a social club:
“ I am to see what I could contribute anything
to the club as well I try to go around to help new
members I always try to do that very, very hard
as well as working in the kitchen I have done lot
of different things in the past; I will definitely keep
contributing to the club ” (12, R3)
Data analysis showed that member commitment
was made up of three interconnected properties,
which emerged from the data: shared vision,
willingness of helping, and contributing to club
governance These factors directly impact sense of
commitmentofclub members
“Because you have something in common, it is
badminton, so I can easily talk to other members
about something to do with badminton or just enjoy
the game together and become good friends ” (13,
R5)
The property of Shared Vision highlights the
shared values and objectives that exist amongst
members, and management that increase the
commitment of membersto the club
4.1.2 Benefit motivations
This category is made up of 6 properties
which can be named as Socializing, Enjoyments,
Knowledge acquisition, Sense of achievement,
Health incentives, and financial incentives Data
from fieldwork demonstrated that respondents
strongly desire to socialise due to their loneliness
lives One oftheir desirable purposes is meeting,
talking and sharing to other members within the
club Socialising appeared, therefore, to be one
of the critical factors contributing to member
participating in the club and activates progressive
club development
“ My purpose was to meet people and I enjoy the
meeting and now I am on the committee I found it
a friendly place to be ”(14, Rl)
Most of the respondents appeared to join the
club as to satisfy their enjoyment mainly, as they
seemed tohave a wellunderstanding of what they
were looking for in their participating Moreover, the management board were well aware of the need to provide desired services to members for maintaining commitment of participation as well
as generating new interest in developing the club The following statements on this illustrate the enjoyment of a member in a social club:
“ It has given me a reason for living, a feeling of
contentment and this club has given me great joy ”
(14, R2)
Support offered by external stakeholders can have a direct impact on the early delivery of benefits to members which are crucial during the formation stages of a club as they help to secure membercommitment
4.1.3 Trust in Management Board
It is true that thedevelopmentof any social club
is relied heavily on the ability ofthe management board to overcome inhibitors (particularly management skill) and successfully convert expected benefits to realised benefits.Thus, thereis
no doubt that trustin management is the cornerstone
to getmember commitment for participation With this in mind, many respondents expectthat the top management should work in the best interest of the members This would increase the skill base
ofboardof managementand enhance the ability to provide realised benefitsto members
“He has personal interest in badminton, that why he created the club, but he is very reasonable,
he does not have selfish interest, he cares about
other people, the club is quite successful Very much, I trust all members and committee. (13, R3)
4.2 Theme two: Inhibitors
The second theme emerged from data analysis are inhibitors which identify the baưiers to member participation Dataanalysis showed that this theme
ismade up of three sub-themes which can benamed
asLackof management skills, Lack of democracy, andcosts
4.2.1 Lack of Management skills
Lack ofManagement Skill wasidentifiedby all participants as a key factor inhibiting commitment
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of member participation From data collected, it
appears that insufficient skill development has
occurred within the existing Management Board
Thus members, as well as external stakeholders,
have begun putting questionmarkon the capacity
of the Management Board to carry out the club
tasks As a resultof this, many respondentsare not
satisfied withthe club, in somecase memberseven
want toleave theclub in the comingtime
“I am committed but I find the lack of
communication from the chair to the members is
severely lacking Members are the backbone of the
club and without complete communication the club
will never grow ” (14, R2)
It is believed that lack of experience running
club business activities and underdeveloped
management skills mean that the club management
and members still depend on external assistance
financially Althoughanelection was compulsory in
setting theclub,it seems thatmembers werehaving
difficulties identifying appropriate candidates to
putforward for therole (Management Skill):
“ I went at 6 am and waited because she was late,
when she got there I was told I was not required but
a subsequent report advised that she has done all
the work ”(12, Rll)
These quotations emphasis the diverse skills
requiredby the club president board These skills
may vary as the club grow through developmental
phases Insufficient management and technical
:raining may prevent member commitment of
participation
4.2.2 Lack of Democracy
In principle, social clubs are democratic
organisations controlled by their members, who
actively participate in establishing their policies
and making decisions.Itis, therefore,expected that
members social clubs contribute equitably to, and
democratically control, in some case respondents,
iowever, complaint that they have no voice in
participating club governance due to the fact that
r o one listen to them or they are not allowed to talk
about
“ It means I don ’ t leave; 1 will participate only
at a very minor level because I have no say in how to
run things, and it is left up to the president ”(16, R7)
As the result oflacking democracy, very few people are committed to contribute to the club or they keeptheir contribution at a low level
4.2.3 Costs
This lack of capital to fund club services also impacts on member commitment of participation
As a result of this, members have to contribute higher fee for their membership which may prevent them from participating in some cases
It acknowledges that management and members are feeling dissatisfied with the current state of the club as expectations of financial benefits from involvement have notyet been fulfilled.Limitation
ofcapital and difficulty accessing capital through formalchannels is considereda major barrier to the development of club activities and services too
“About the money, I think he can make it cheaper
and cheaper for contribution, I think will be more and more people can be participated ”(II, R2)
5 Discussion
Participants’ motivations and inhibitors appear
to betransparent fromthese findings - the benefits outweigh the costs, and this makes participation more likely The data in this study appear to support anumber of majorprinciples described in Mutual Incentive Theory (Simmons and Birchall, 2004) MIT states that member participation is motivatedby individual rewards and punishments Moreover, the individualistic component of MIT weighs members’ perceptions of the costs against the benefitsof participation Below is discussionto validate theresearch results
Motivational Factors
The research finding revealed that a high level
of desire for joining and participating in social clubs has been created as the result of three core contributingproperties: Benefit motivations, Sense
of commitment, and Trust in management The following discussion of motivational properties is supported by previous studies The participants’
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account revealed that one of the most significant
reasons formembers participatingis the expected
benefits that they desire to get through their
membership Thisfindingisinline with the previous
studies Simmons and Birchall (2004), and Rankin
et al (2007) have illustrated that participation is
motivatedpositivelywithdifferentkindof benefits
These benefits can be subdivided into “external”
(tangible) and “internal” (subjectively perceived)
categories.Moreover,Birchall and Simmons (2004),
Bhuyan (2007), Osterberg andNilsson (2009), Jussila
etal (2012),and Hemandez-Espallardo etal (2013)
have demonstrated that one ofthe most significant
reasons for member participating and remaining
their membership to cooperative isbenefits that the
cooperative offers them through theirmembership
Similarly, Soderlund (2002) believed that a member’s
decision to remain a member of their co-operativeis
affected by their perception that their membership
offers value for money andfunctionalvalue such as
high-quality service
Inhibitors
These findings are consistent with the literature
on management skills (Sexton and Iskow, 1988;
Cook, 1994; Nyoro and Ngugi, 2007), financial
issues (Simmons and Birchall, 2004), and member
democracy (Machethe, 1990; Torgerson et al.,
1998; Bhuyan, 2007; Nilsson et al., 2009; Xiang
and Sumelius, 2010) Participants’ accounts
revealed that Lacking of Management Skill
was identified by all participants as a key factor
inhibiting commitment of member participation
Recent studies show that lack of adequate skills
in management has contributed to co-operative’s
failures Sexton andIskow (1988)emphasised that
the failureofco-operative enterpriseswas primary
due to low educational levelofmanagement board
which may couple with ineffective management
and passive membership Nyoro and Ngugi
(2007) identified that successful co-operative had
staff and management committee, with relatively
higher qualification than the unsuccessful ones
Management with required skills will be able to
strategize on business volume, type of product
and product quality, and for competing with
counterparts in the market Cook (1994) suggested
that successful co-operative requires more organizational,communication, resource allocation and other leadership skills, than is required by enterprise atthe sameconditions of marketplace
6 Managerial Implication and contributions
What the motivations of participants tell
us about the way in which managers of social organisations should shape their member participation strategies Hence, the results suggest that managers and directors should pay sufficient attention to members’ characteristics, perceived values, needs, satisfaction, and goals because the survival of any social club ultimately depends on the commitment and participationof its members
In addition, to overcome these inhibitors and gradually enhance participation, a need ofbetter training, which focuses on management skills, socialandpedagogical skills for theclub leaders, is
a requirement for sustainabledevelopment of these social institutions Finally, it is better to choose a highlyrespectedmanager for asocialclubbecause trust plays a crucial role in members’participation
in club management activities Moreover, club presidents should not ignore the opinions of its members as well as maintain good contact with these members Good leaders should encourage members’ participation in cooperative management
to create more value for theirmembers
7 Conclusion
The findings are supportive ofthe underlying theories of what factors likely to drive member participation in a social institution Thesefindings
of the study provide a better understanding ofthe factors likely to influence member’s decision to participate in a social club Moreover, this result also provides valuable insights into the factors which managers need to focus on to make their organisation increasingly better The first core theme of Individual motivations explainshow and why this concept of motivation is so importantto sustaining member commitment of participation
to these social clubs Although the numerous of demotivation recognised as inhibiting member commitment of participation, stakeholders remainedtheircommitment to the club«
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4 Bhuyan, s (2007) The “People” Factor in Cooperatives: An Analysis of Members’ Attitudes and Behavior
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Receiving date: April 5, 2021
Reviewing date: April 20, 2021
Accepting date: May 5, 2021
Author s information:
Lecturer, Faculty of Economics - Business Administration
An Giang University, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City Campus
CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN sự THAM GIA VÀO CÁC TỔ CHỨC XÃ HỘI CỦA HỘI VIÊN:
NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TP LONG XUYÊN, TỈNH AN GIANG
• TS PHẠM TRUNG TUẤN
Giảng viên Khoa Kinh tế - Quàn trị kinh doanh, Đạl học An Giang - Đợi học Quốc Gia TP Hồ Chí Minh
TÓM TẮT:
Nghiên cứuđịnhtínhnàynhằmnângcaosự hiểu biết về các yếu tố ảnhhưởngđến quyết định tham gia vào các tổchức xã hội củahội viên Kếtquả nghiên cứu cho thấy, sự nhiệt huyết với cộng đồng, lợiích mà hội viên nhận được(vật chấtvà tinh thần)và sự tin tưởngvào banquảntrịlà những độngcơ cốt lõiđể hội viêntham gia vàonhững tổchức này.Bêncạnh đó kỹ năngquản lý yếu, thiếu dân chủ và phí hội viên không hợp lý là những yếu tốngăncản trở sựtham gia của hội viên Các phát hiện cũng ủng hộ cáclý thuyết cơ bản về những yếu tố nàocókhảnăngthúcđẩysự tham gia của các thành viên trong mộttổchức xã hội.Hơn nữa, kếtquảnàycũng cung cấp những hiểu biết
cógiátrịvề các yếu tố, mà các nhà quản lý cần tập trung đế đưa tổchức của họ ngày càng trở nên tốt hơn
Từ khóa: sự tham gia, tổ chức xãhội, hội nhóm, giá trị xã hội, duy trì tư cách hội viên, lòng trungthành
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