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COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS’ COMPETENCE: THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS Lea Zanbar and Haya Itzhaky Bar Ilan University

This study examined the contribution of the personal and social resources to community activists’ competence. The research population included 163 activists who engage in volunteer activity in traditional communities. The findings revealed that the activists’ gender, supervision by community-organizers, sense of mastery, sense of belonging to the community, citizen participation, representation, and perceptions of leadership all contributed significantly to the activists’ competence. A comprehensive analysis of the findings is presented, as well as practical recommendations for community organization. The recommendations highlight the importance of professional supervision for community activists, which aims to develop perceptions of community leadership, community belonging, citizen participation, and representation in order to enhance the success of community activity. Finally, the examination of personal and social resources that contribute to activists’ competence can facilitate identification of potential community activists, in addition to shedding light on the content that professional supervisors should C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. incorporate in their work with activists.

Community organization focuses on providing assistance to populations with various needs and in different states of distress (Boehm, 2002; Rothman, 2007). Rubin and Rubin (2008) defined community development and community organization (macro intervention) as a political process that organizes people and promotes cohesion in efforts to solve common problems. The process takes place through empowering volunteer activists and involving them in decision making, as well as through enabling them to Please address correspondence to: Lea Zanbar, Bar Ilan University, School of Social Work, Ramat Gan, Israel 52900. E-mail: [email protected]

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 41, No. 2, 249–263 (2013 ) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jcop). C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21527

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influence decisions that affect their lives. Community organizers attempt to improve the ability of volunteer activists to cope in their communities. Thus, instead of being recipients of social services, the community activists acquire skills to become leaders of change who actively participate in solving problems in the communities (Kirk & Shutte, 2004; Pippard & Bjorklund, 2003; Smock, 2004). The present study aimed to examine the contribution of personal and social resources, which have been identified in the literature as personal and social capital, to the competence of community activists. The contribution of community development intervention to community activists’ competence have not yet been examined among low socioeconomic status (SES) populations in traditional communities. This article will focus on community activists from the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel who live in low SES neighborhoods. Research on this traditional population can enhance knowledge about traditional social contexts in general, and is important in light of the multiple needs of those populations, who are major consumers of welfare services (Leviatan, 2003). This specific population was chosen because many members of the ultraOrthodox community are actively involved in a wide variety of voluntary organizations, as well as in grassroots initiatives to assist community members in all areas of life (Stadler, 2006; Teibel, 2005). These populations are characterized by cohesion, organized selfhelp efforts, and extensive community activity in domains of life such as lending medical equipment, support for mothers giving birth, and assistance for needy families, as well as charitable organizations that provide various forms of assistance such as lending items, financial loans, and donations (Chai, 2000; Heilman, 1992; Stadler, 2006; Teibel, 2005). According to the Statistical Abstract of Israel 2010 (Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2010), the ultra-Orthodox community comprises about 9% of Israel’s population. This community is characterized by a high level of religiosity and strict adherence to religious laws and practices, and is isolated from the population at large. This isolation is evident in several domains of life, including housing and educational institutions. The ultraOrthodox community also has separate social and cultural centers, which are intended to preserve the religious character of the community and prevent exposure to secular society (Heilman, 1992; Marty & Appleby, 1993). This closure can also make it difficult for macrointervention social workers, who represent the establishment, to initiate professional interventions among the ultra-Orthodox population (Witztum, 1999). Those interventions include, among other functions, supervision of community activists. The activities that community volunteers engage in include provision of services, promotion of community issues, decision making in private and public organizations, and initiation of assistance for low SES population groups. These activities call for the development of competence among community activists (Thoits & Hewitt, 2001). In this connection, a distinction is made between two types of volunteers: those who are supervised by professionals (community organizers) and those who engage in independent activity without professional supervision.

Activists’ Competence Competence of workers and volunteers is defined as relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities that have a major effect on the activities of the worker or the volunteer (Buford & Lindner, 2002). The development of competence is essential for volunteers who fulfill

Journal of Community Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jcop

Community Activists’ Competence

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leadership functions, which require them to apply various personal and social skills in their communities (Andenoro, 2005). In the current study, we chose to examine volunteers’ competence and reveal the resources that contribute to increasing it. In so doing, we applied existing theories to the unique population of community activists. As mentioned, to the best of our knowledge, this issue has not been addressed in the literature. We will begin by presenting the theoretical framework of the study, social capital theory. This theory provided the rationale for explaining the relationships between the research variables and their specific and combined contribution to activists’ competence. Afterwards, we will elaborate on the specific relationships between the research variables. Social capital theory posits that personal and social capital can predict levels of competence among community activists (Putnam, 1996, 2000). Personal capital is defined as knowledge, characteristics, and skills that are derived from, among other sources, the individual’s culture and education (Coleman, 1988; Schultz, 1961a, b; Suwanakul, 2009; Tung-Yuang, 2007). Social capital is defined as community assets that are obtained through the exchange of resources resulting from connections between people and social networks, which contribute to the productivity and well-being of the community (Glaeser, Laibson, Scheinkonan, & Soutter, 2000; Suwanakul, 2009). In this study, personal capital is related to personal resources that reflect the positive behavior of individuals in their lives, as a precondition for integrating into the community and taking responsibility in community activity. These resources include mastery and selfesteem (Burns, Storey, & Certo, 1999; Itzhaky & York, 2003; Mendonca, 2000; Ohmer, 2004; Skaff, Abeles, & Pearlin, 2004). Mastery is defined as the extent to which people view themselves as having control over circumstances and events that affect their lives (Ben-Zur, 2003; Pearlin & Lieberman, 1981). Mastery is attained when individuals shape and influence their physical, social, and behavioral situations to fit their perceptions and desires (Ben-Zur, 2003; Rubin & Rubin, 2008). However, few studies have examined the relationship between mastery and competence among activists. Kosic (2007) argued that community activists with high levels of mastery tend to be more motivated to participate in political activity and show higher levels of competence, because they feel they have control over their lives and they believe that the political system is affected by their activities as well as by their attempts to implement change. Self-esteem is a schema that includes the perceptions that individuals have of themselves and their feelings about themselves, and encompasses the concept of “self-image” (Kernis, 2003). In the literature, self-esteem is described as an organized structure of the image that individuals have of their characteristics and their skills in relation to themselves and others (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Rogers & Dymond, 1954). The research literature has also revealed a positive relationship between self-esteem and activists’ competence (Burns et al., 1999). People with high self-esteem function effectively on the individual level and in their relationships with others. Because they are selfconfident and believe in their ability to form relationships with others, they also reach higher levels of competence as activists (Heskin, 1991; Tuttle, 1984). In this study, social capital included four main resources relating to the context of community activity: community belonging, citizen participation, representation, and perceptions of leadership. Community belonging was defined as people’s perceptions of themselves as part of a collective. These perceptions relate to the sense of mutual involvement and to the belief that one’s needs might be satisfied through commitment to the collective (Newbrough Journal of Community Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jcop

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& Chavis, 1986). Community belonging includes four components: socialization, influence, integration and satisfaction, and a shared emotional connection to the community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Socialization is characterized by the social relationships that people have in the community—a sense of emotional safety that enables members of the community to form relationships freely, have a sense of belonging, identity, personal investment, and a shared system of symbols. Influence relates to the mutual influence of individuals on the community and the community on individuals. Integration and satisfaction relate to the satisfaction of the needs of community members through the resources received as a result of socialization. The fourth component, emotional connection, is derived from the nature of the interaction among community members, the shared history of community members, and the investment that members make in the community. In the literature, it has been argued that a sense of belonging to the community is related to increased competence of community activists (Chaskin, Brown, Venkatesh, & Vidal, 2007; Itzhaky & York, 2000a). Findings have revealed that the more people feel a sense of belonging to their community, the more they tend to be involved in community organizations and in activities for the benefit of the community, resulting from a high level of competence (Prezza, Amici, Ropberti, & Tedeschi, 2001). The dimension of citizen participation derives from the individual’s membership in the community and participation in community activities. Citizen participation is a basic principle and value in community organization, which is intended to increase the involvement of citizens in planning and implementation of government policies (Braye, 2000; Lukes, 2005). This dimension begins at the basic level of participation, in which the establishment conveys knowledge to the population of citizens. The next level of participation is consultation with citizens, and at the highest level, citizens assume full responsibility for their activities (Hart, 1997; Itzhaky & York, 1991; Mizrahi, 2005). The literature has revealed that citizen participation promotes awareness and social involvement among community activists, and it entitles them to determine the character of their environment. This, in turn, increases their sense of competence (Itzhaky & York, 1991, 1994; Lukes, 2005). One dimension of citizen participation is representation, which is defined as the extent to which leaders and influential figures actually represent the communities they work for (Itzhaky, 1995; Swindell, 2000). Representation is a tool that serves to promote the idea of democracy. Activists who speak on behalf of a population participate in making decisions that affect those populations. This is based on the perception that representation promotes a value, and that it is also a mechanism for proper social management (Boehm, 2002). Swindell (2000) examined social activists in neighborhoods and made a distinction between two measures of representation. One measure relates to the similarity between the activists and the population they represent, that is, the extent to which the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the activists are similar to those of the population they represent. The second measure relates to the content of the activity, that is, the extent to which the issues that the representatives choose to deal with actually reflect the priorities of the population they represent. Researchers have found that representation is related to high competence as activists (Chaskin et al., 2007), owing to the legitimation and authority that the representatives are granted by the community. These three community resources—citizen participation, representation, and community belonging—provide a basis for characterizing the environment of activists. However, without perceptions of community leadership, these resources alone are not enough to promote high levels of competence as activists. Perceptions of community leadership are defined as the perceptions that individuals have of themselves, their ability to lead their Journal of Community Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jcop


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followers, and their ability to achieve the goals of the group (Vroom & Jago, 2007). This ability emerges from stable membership in the group and identification with the group’s main values. It can be used by the leaders to establish their influence on the group. The advantages and disadvantages of a leadership style, in which the leaders perceive themselves as part of the group and as being on an equal plane with the group members versus a detached leadership style, have been discussed in the literature in terms of the extent to which each style enables the leaders to work successfully with their followers (Antonakis & Atwater, 2002; Collinson, 2005; Hogg, 2001). The professional literature indicates that perceptions of leadership contribute to high levels of activists’ competence (Bennis & Thomas, 2002; Chaskin et al., 2007; Itzhaky & York, 2000a). That is, it has been found that individuals with positive perceptions of leadership show a greater tendency to be involved in community frameworks for the benefit of their constituencies. People’s self-perception as having the ability to lead their communities is evident in the dominance that they show in their activism as well as in their involvement in community affairs (Chaskin et al., 2007; Kosic, 2007). Besides examining the contribution of personal and social resources to activists’ competence, the study also examined the contribution of two background characteristics, as reflected in the variables type of activist (supervised vs. nonsupervised) and gender. Type of activist reflects the above-mentioned distinction between volunteers who were supervised by community organizers and those who worked independently in volunteer organizations. With regard to gender, this variable was examined in the context of a traditional society. In these contexts, researchers have found that emphasis on gender differences has implications for the competence of activists (Shilhav, 2006). On the one hand, the literature indicates that the frequency of participation in community activity is greater among women than among men (Wilson, 2000). On the other hand, with regard to activists’ competence, it has been found that men who volunteer are more actively involved with the establishment (Itzhaky & York, 2000b). Notably, in the present study, community activity is related to the type of activity that volunteers engage in and is measured by the level of the activists’ involvement as well as the dominance of their involvement in comparison with other volunteers (see the Instruments section below). As such, this variable did not measure rates of participation in community activity. Rather, it measured competence as community activists. In that connection, it is important to emphasize the nature of the ultra-Orthodox community as a traditional context, in which males play a dominant role and the presence of women is hardly felt (Shilhav, 2006). In addition, the literature indicates that in ultra-Orthodox society, men assume the dominant social and community roles. In addition, the main leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community are rabbis, a position assumed exclusively by men. Rabbis are empowered with broad leadership authority, including political power, in addition to the power to hand down religious rulings (Sivan & Kaplan, 2003). Based on the literature review presented here and in accordance with social capital theory, which was the theoretical framework for the present study, we hypothesized that the more personal and social capital the community activists had, the higher their levels of competence as activists would be. Moreover, we hypothesized that men would have higher levels of competence as activists than women. In addition, we hypothesized that participants who received professional supervision would have higher levels of competence as activists than those who were not supervised. Furthermore, we examined the specific and combined contribution of each of these variables to activists’ competence.

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METHOD Participants The sample of participants comprised 163 volunteers from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community: 59 (36.2%) were men and 104 (63.8%) were women; 62 were supervised by community organizers and 101 were not. Participants ranged in age from 17 to 79 years (mean [M] = 42.15, standard deviation [SD] = 9.80); 94 (59.5%) were employed and 64 (40.5%) were not. The mean level of education was 13 years (SD = 2.15) and the average number of children was 5.98 (SD = 3.10). Procedure Data were obtained from anonymous self-administered questionnaires completed by volunteer activists in several ultra-Orthodox Jewish localities in Israel. The study met ethical criteria for social research. Participants filled out questionnaires voluntarily and were ensured of anonymity and confidentiality. The study was conducted in accordance with ethical criteria for social research. Out of about 250 questionnaires that were distributed, about 65% completed questionnaires were returned, of which 15 (about 6%) were eliminated due to technical problems. Instruments Activists’ competence. The instrument was developed for the present study by focus groups of researchers and practitioners on the basis of theoretical knowledge in the field of macrointervention, and it aimed to examine the participants’ self-assessments of their competence. The questionnaire comprised seven items (e.g., “I have a key position in my field of work”, “In order to take action, I need others to encourage me,” and “I have considerable influence on decisions made in the group of activists”). These statements reflect aspects of the activists’ involvement in community affairs and indicate the extent to which they take active steps to promote the changes that are needed in the community setting. Responses were based on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not true at all) to 5 (very true). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the questionnaire used in this study was .85. Personal Resources Self-esteem. The instrument was developed by Rosenberg (1965). The questionnaire comprised 10 statements, which relate to the individual’s self-esteem (e.g., “I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others”). Responses were based on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency of the questionnaire used in Hobfoll and Walfisch’s (1984) study was high (.95), and the internal consistency of the questionnaire used in the present study was .74. Sense of mastery. The original instrument was developed by Pearlin and Schooler (1978). The questionnaire consisted of seven statements, which relate to the individual’s sense of mastery in life (e.g., “What happens to me in the future is largely dependent on me”). Participants in the study were asked to indicate the extent to which each statement Journal of Community Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jcop


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describes them, on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability reported by Pearlin and Schooler was .88, and the reliability of the instrument used in the present study it was .74. Social Resources Community belonging. The questionnaire was developed by Buckner (1988) and included 11 items that examined participants’ feelings about their community and place of residence (e.g., “My social contacts with others in the community are very important to me”). Responses were based on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the original questionnaire was .86, and the reliability of the questionnaire used in the present study was .84. Representation. The questionnaire was developed by Itzhaky and York (1994) and included four items that reflect the extent to which the activists represent their community (e.g., “I consider myself to be a representative of my community”). Responses were based on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability reported by Itzhaky and York was .75, and the internal consistency of the questionnaire used in the present study was .84. Citizen participation. The instrument was developed by Itzhaky and York (1994) and examined the extent to which the government enabled citizen participation. The questionnaire comprised one item, which presents six different levels of citizen participation, ranging from 1 (I don’t participate at all) to 7 (I participate fully at the levels of initiation, planning, and implementation). Participants were asked to indicate the level of their participation. The questionnaire has been validated by several researchers (Itzhaky & York, 2000a, b;). Perceptions of leadership. The instrument was developed by Zimmerman and Zahniser (1991). The original questionnaire comprised eight items which reflect individuals’ perceptions of their leadership ability (e.g., “I often feel that I am the leader of the group”). Responses were based on a 6-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability reported by Zimmerman and Zahniser was .78. After reexamining the reliability and internal consistency of that questionnaire among the ultra-Orthodox community, one item was eliminated, and the Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the instrument used in this study was .63. Personal characteristics. The questionnaire included items relating to characteristics such as the participants’ age, gender, marital status, level of education, and occupation. Another question is related to whether the activist is supervised by a macrointervention social worker. Of all the background variables, only gender and type of activist were entered in the subsequent steps of the regression, as those variables were significantly related to activists’ competence.

RESULTS In the theoretical framework presented at the beginning of this article, we examined several categories of variables that reflect personal and social capital that contribute to Journal of Community Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jcop

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Table 1. Means and standard deviations of the variables. Gender Men (N = 59) Variables Mastery Self-esteem Community belonging Citizen participation Representation Community leadership perception

Women (N = 104)

Total (N = 163)

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

3.39 4.22 4.23 4.88 3.25 4.60

1.00 .51 .74 1.37 1.24 .84

3.41 4.04 3.99 4.91 2.94 4.26

.87 .61 .74 1.05 1.11 .78

3.41 4.11 4.07 4.89 3.04 4.37

.92 .58 .75 1.17 1.17 .81

Note. M = mean; SD = standard deviation.

Table 2. Correlations between the personal and social variables Measures 1. Mastery 2. Self-esteem 3. Citizen participation 4. Community belonging 5. Representation 6. Community leadership perception 7. Activists’ competence *

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

——

.44** ——

.08 .19* ——

.01 .00 .17 ——

.08 .16 .34*** .33** ——

.33*** .31*** .43*** − .07 .29** ——

.18* .21** .44*** .35*** .46*** .41*** ——

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