SBenegaL

Category: Social Exchange

  • Social Exchange and Equity Theory – 2

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on the social exchange and equity theory. We shall continue this discussion in this byte.

    Committed relationships could be seen as having a positive intensity for the parties involved, while the Calculated would typically be between low positive or low negative intensity but the alienated relationships may characterize with high negative intensity.

    Calculated involvement is based on the notion of social exchange in which each party in the relationship depends on certain things of the other and contributes accordingly to the exchange.  Business partnerships and commercial transactions are examples of this. They are found to be working well when both parties involved, this relation will have a positive orientation. When losses occur, or conflicts arise, the relationship has a negative orientation.

    This could be explained by the model developed by J P Campbell et all in their book – Managerial Behavior, Performance and Effectiveness!

  • Social Exchange and Equity Theory

    In the last byte, we looked at the positive energy and full engagement theory and attempted to understand it. In today’s byte, we will look at Social Exchange and Equity theory and attempt understanding it.

    Social exchange theory is based on a central premise: that the exchange of social and material resources is a fundamental form of human interaction. The focus of this theory is that Individuals interact for profit or the expectation of it. Power and Exchange are important considerations in understanding human behavior. Simply put, we could present the behavior of an individual as follows:

    Behavior (Profits) = Rewards of interaction – Costs of Interaction.

    The difference between the Equity and Exchange theories could be looked at as below:

    • Exchange theory is based on the principle that we enter into relationships in which we can maximize the benefits to us and minimize our costs.
    • Equity theory, a variation of exchange theory, holds that exchanges between people have to be fair and balanced so that they mutually give and receive what is needed.  
    The basic theory of extend by Amitai Etzioni who developed three categories of exchange relationships between people:
    1. Committed Involvement
    2. Calculated Involvement
    3. Alienated Involvement.
    We shall attempt to continue understanding the discussion on social exchange theory over the next few bytes.