INDIVIDUAL ADAPTABILITY AND PHILANTHROPIC BEHAVIOR OF MALAYSIAN COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS: SOCIAL NETWORK AS MEDIATOR
Siti Noormi Alias,
(Corresponding author)
Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education,
Faculty of Educational Studies,
Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang,
Selangor, Malaysia
Maimunah Ismail, , Turiman Suandi, , Zoharah Omar,
Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education,
Faculty of Educational Studies,
Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang,
Selangor, Malaysia
Stream: Comparative & Cross Cultural Dimensions of HRD
Submission type: Refereed Paper
INDIVIDUAL ADAPTABILITY AND PHILANTHROPIC BEHAVIOR OF MALAYSIAN COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS: SOCIAL NETWORK AS MEDIATOR
Abstract
Purpose - The study explored how individual adaptability factors impact philanthropic behavior among community health workers (CHWs), with social network as the mediator.
Design/methodology/approach – this study used a correlational research design involving 230 CHWs under MERCY Malaysia, a non-government organization (NGO) in the health sector. The data were analyzed using a two-step approach in structural equation modeling (SEM), combining a measurement model and a structural model.
Findings – Results showed that (1) social network fully mediated the relationship between task-oriented coping and philanthropic behavior and (2) social network partially mediated the relationship between social trust and philanthropic behavior.
Research limitations/implications – The data of the study were generated from a single NGO (MERCY Malaysia) and considered only social adaptability as the antecedent.
Originality/ value – The study is the first of its kind conducted in Malaysia. The finding that social network played a significant role as mediator in philanthropic behavior should be capitalized on by HRD practitioners to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the philanthropic work of CHWs.
Keywords: Philanthropic behavior, Social adaptability, Social coping, Social trust, Community health workers, Social network.
Introduction
Philanthropic behavior is defined as benevolent action directed towards the underprivileged in the community (Andreoni, 2000), usually in the forms of charitable giving and volunteerism (Layton and Moreno, 2014; Andronic, 2014; Schuyt, Smit, and Bekkers, 2004). Philanthropic behavior conceptually covers donating and volunteerism (Ridings, 1997). Donating involves acts of giving money, properties or any tangible goods to an individual, organization, or certain upcoming special event (Lindskold et al., 1977; Bryant et al., 2003). It is somehow not a sustained behavior. For example, individuals might contribute a certain amount of money in a particular month, but less or none in the following months. Donating also refers to the act of giving to people but not necessarily meeting them personally, i.e. it can be done without social interaction or meeting the target recipients in person. On the other hand, volunteering relates to time and effort spent to help and serve the needy (Bryant et al., 2003). Volunteering also involves interactions between the volunteers and beneficiaries. This paper operationalized philanthropic behavior from the perspective of volunteers in health care as the impact of volunteering, particularly to the volunteer himself/herself, is more reliable, personally felt in long run, and consistent in action compared to donating. Hence the focus of the study was on the adaptability of health care volunteers vis-a vis philanthropic behavior, with social network as the mediator.
Communal health and education are the principal sources of social solidarity and social cohesion among peoples in a society (Rajakumar, 2007). Unfortunately, many countries, including Malaysia, have to face the challenge of rising health care costs (Phua, 2007; Chee and Wong, 2007. The government alone cannot afford to provide satisfactory health care services for all its citizens. The situation is exacerbated by not only by the increase in the number of chronically ill patients (Kamimura et al., 2014), but also the appearance of new viral-born diseases such as H1N1. Hence there is an urgent need for support from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through their Community Health Workers (CHWs). Those from non-medical background may volunteer their services in basic education on health care (such as healthy lifestyle, personal hygiene) while CHWs with medical qualifications may focus on the diagnosis and treatment. of diseases.
Research Gap
Despite CHWs playing a critical role in the community, there has not been much rigorous and comprehensive research about the CHWs workforce in Malaysia and even abroad (Paik and Navarre-Jackson, 2011; Malaysia Country Health Plan, 2011-2015; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2007). In addition, CHWs’ potential capacity as human resources in philanthropic services is also inadequately understood (Kim, 2012; Schneider, Hlophe and van Rensburg, 2008; Chang, 2005) because most studies have been conducted without the participation of actual volunteers or CHWs as research subjects (Hallett et al., 2012; Haines et al., 2007; Norris et al., 2006; Brownstein et al., 2005). Moreover, integrated studies on philanthropic behavior itself in the human resource development (HRD) context are distinctively under-explored (Garavan and Carbery, 2012; Kim, 2012). Hence, this study responds to the need to find out what predicts philanthropic behavior in health care among CHWs who are volunteers.
When studying philanthropic behavior among CHWs, many factors should be considered, including personal predictors that lead an individual to devote part of his or her spare time to helping others (Moreno-Jimenez and Villodres, 2010). Most current literature on philanthropic behavior emphasize only philanthropic behavior by demographic factors such as religions (Carabain and Bekkers, 2012; Bekkers and Schuyt, 2008), gender (Kottasz, 2004), income (Schwartz, 1968), and the effects of education (Wei, Donthu, and Bernhardt, 2012). Yet there is little empirical evidence regarding the influence of individual adaptability factors on the philanthropic engagement of CHWs in healthcare services (Ben-Ner and Kramer, 2011; Moreno-Jimenez and Villodres, 2010). Individual adaptability factors in this study refer to the individual’s capacity of coping and social trust. Coping is divided into three sub-variables, viz. task coping, emotional coping, and avoidance coping. Coping is essential in philanthropic behavior as it shields one from stressful life events; social trust refers to relationship qualities between two groups of people. This intangible social capital entails being vulnerable to harm from others, and yet believing that these others would not do harm even though they could (Kramer, 1999). These influencing factors should be explored because such knowledge could benefit NGOs in structuring their recruitment, selection, replacement, training, motivation, and retention efforts of their CHWs, and would also help them monitor the implementation of philanthropic projects.
In addition, Carlo et al. (2005) suggest that individual adaptability factors may be indirectly related to philanthropic behavior, a multi-faceted concept. The authors further suggest the need for a mediating variable to be used to investigate the relationship between individual adaptability factors with philanthropic behavior. Since philanthropic behavior also involves a degree of social interactions among volunteers themselves as well as between volunteers and recipients, it is thus reasonable to include any of the social influences or social capital factors in the study as a potential intervening variable. Accordingly, Wymer, Riecken and Yavas (1997) indicate that friends, family members, and others who are part of an individual’s social network can exert varying degrees of influence on volunteerism. Therefore, social network is proposed as the mediating variable in this study. Brown and Ferris (2007) assert that social network would facilitate collective actions and is likely to play a crucial role in eliciting philanthropic behavior from individuals in a community. However, in previous studies that employed social network as the mediator, particularly between the relationships of individual factors and philanthropic behavior, findings had been generally inconclusive (Paik and Navarre-Jackson, 2011; Brown and Ferris, 2007), and social network was not considered as an antecedent to philanthropic behavior.
The effects of social pressure on volunteerism have been of considerable interest to social scientists (Meer, 2011). Worries among volunteers are often associated with pessimism and inactivity (Ojala, 2007). Thus, the individual’s ability to cope with changing social needs and also social pressure while carrying out his responsibility as a CHW potentially determines his continuing engagement in philanthropic activities. However, less is known about coping strategies and social trust among CHWs in volunteering (Essex and Scott, 2008; Ben-Zur and Michael, 2007) with most studies being conducted outside Malaysia. Against such a backdrop, several questions arise: How do individual adaptability factors such as coping strategies and social trust predict philanthropic behavior? How does social network mediate the relationships between adaptability factors and philanthropic behavior? This study sought to answer these research questions.
In the context of this study, it is interesting that Malaysia, with a population of 30.5 million in 2015, and expected to rise to 32.6 million by 2020 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2015) has undergone tremendous developments at the turn of the century. An investigation of philanthropic behaviour among CHWs is significant because it contributes empirically on a dimension of the workers’ expected behaviour and role in community development. The study is vital, particularly in seeing the reality of philanthropic actions conducted by one of the important NGOs (MERCY Malaysia) in the country through which it shows the response of NGOs to a government’s call for their increased involvement in community development as it falls in one of the eight Strategic Reform Initiatives (SRIs), namely re-energizing the private sector in the mainstream development (National Economic Advisory Council, 2010). This is in line with the country’s long term policy of reaching industrialized country status by 2020 as stipulated in the New Economic Model (NEM) of Malaysia.
The next section of this paper continues with the theoretical grounding of this study, followed by literature reviews on the influence of individual adaptability factors on philanthropic behavior and social network as mediator. The methodology of the study is then presented, followed by its findings. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings, a conclusion and recommendations for HRD practice and future research.
Theoretical Bases
Social Network Theory
This study uses the Social Network (SN) Theory to support the mediating role of social network. The theory posits that the quality (strength) and quantity (size) of individual social ties determine opportunities for behavioral changes (Finnigan, Daly, and Jing, 2013; Fowler and Christakis, 2010). Fowler and Christakis (2010) assert that a wide variety of behaviors, including philanthropic behavior, may spread in social networks. Individuals might have several social networks at a time (e.g. volunteering social network, labour market social network, alumni social network) but each network is typically discriminated by the content that is exchanged by the actors (Daly and Finnigan, 2010). Based on this theory, the social network would facilitate behavioral change among interacting units (Amato, 1990; Haythornthwaite, 1996). Since the philanthropic behavior of volunteers is influenced by interactions (Penner, 2002) in social networks, the individual’s capacity (i.e. coping and social trust) are expected to adapt to the social changes happening within his social network in order to absorb the philanthropic value from other group members.
Theory of Planned Behavior
The direct relationships between individual adaptability factors (viz. social coping and social trust) are based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. This theory explains that the individual’s background factors, including mood, adaptability, and past experiences, could influence his or her belief and intention to portray a certain behavior (Ajzen, 2005; 2011). According to Ajzen (2005, p.134),
“…people growing up in different social environments can acquire different information about a variety of issues, information that provides the basis for their beliefs about the consequences of a behavior, about the normative expectations of important others, and about the obstacles that may prevent them from performing a behavior.
Therefore, this theory supports the use of two individual adaptability factors, viz. social coping and social trust, as both are deeply embedded in the feeling, mood, and psychological status of the individual, particularly towards helping others through volunteer work.
Individual Adaptability Factors
Individuals’ engagement in philanthropic behavior increases in a society that supports such behavior among its members. Beatty, Kahle, and Homer (1991) propose that value acquisition results from the abstraction of essential principles from the socialization process. To be accepted in a particular group or society, each member must possess similar values as other members. Individual capacity (i.e. coping and social trust) to adapt to social changes happening within a social network is crucial in order to absorb philanthropic values from other group members.
Individual differences in social experiences lead to different ways of interaction with others (Sih et al., 2009) as well as determine their continuing efforts in a particular behavior (e.g. philanthropic behavior). The following subsections highlight the two individual adaptability factors of coping and social trust, and their relationships with philanthropic behavior, based on empirical findings from past studies.
Coping with Stressful Life Events
Lazarus (1991) refers to coping as the way an individual deals with situations which are challenging, threatening, harmful, or even benefiting him. It can also be defined as conscious attempts to manage internal or external stressors that the individual perceives as over his limitations (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2004; Folkman and Lazarus, 1991). Coping thus can be used to describe the individual’s adaptation to adverse social interaction circumstances. Brissette, Scheier, and Carver (2002) strongly believe that coping helps an individual to better adjust to stressful life events.
Coping in philanthropy occurs when people sometimes engage in such behavior under social pressure (Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub, 1989) because of repeated traumatic events experienced as part of their work as volunteers (Cicognani, Pietrantoni, Palestini, and Prati, 2009) and also because of frequent contact with victims (i.e. people with illnesses or serious social problems) who require considerable physical and emotional comfort (Moreno-Jimenez and Villodres, 2010). Moreover, an appropriate coping strategy is required because volunteering work can be complex, responsible, intrinsically important, challenging, and stressful (Lewig, Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Dollard, and Metzer, 2007). Individuals who are unable to cope with stressful social events may see their physical, social, and emotional functioning affected (Billings and Moos, 1981). Hence, adjustment competencies are required.
The most robust dimensions of coping are three constructs, namely task, emotion, and avoidance-oriented coping (Endler and Parker, 1990; McWilliams, Cox, and Enns, 2003). Endler and Parker’s (1990) study involving 298 respondents revealed that those with emotion-oriented coping ability were associated with less-adaptive persons, whereas task-oriented coping individuals were found to be more-adaptive persons. According to a study by Ebata and Moos (1991), individuals who used less avoidance coping were better adjusted. Grove and Heard (1997) found that the task-oriented strategy was associated with optimism, whereas emotion-oriented strategy was negatively associated with optimism. Another study conducted among social workers confirmed that task-oriented coping positively correlated with philanthropic engagement, whereas emotion oriented coping was negatively correlated (Ben-Zur and Michael, 2007). Thus, it is hypothesized that: