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Because, for George Herbert Mead, the “social act” is the basic unit of analysis for understanding human social existence, and thereby, his entire body of thought, it demands much more critical attention than it thus far has received from sociologists. Here, his notion of the social act will be critically examined – in terms of his definition of social action, the underlying organizing principle he uses to explain it, the different fundamental forms of social action he identifies, and the basic operating elements that he contends comprise these forms – for the purpose of developing a better conception of social action than he provided. Mead sees social action as organized on the basis of “sociality,” expressing itself in two fundamental forms – “cooperative” and “conflictive.” He also views the cooperative form as comprised of five basic elements – attitudes, roles, significant symbols, attitudinal assumption, and common social objects – while the conflictive form is comprised of only the first four elements. After a critical examination of Mead’s social act is completed, an alternative and improved conception of social action, with domination as its organizing principle, is proffered. More importantly, it is argued that this new notion of social action, termed the “collective act,” provides the grounds for the development of a novel interactionist perspective, dubbed here “radical interactionism,” which is based on the principle of domination rather sociality. Thus, this new interactionist perspective, is dramatically different from the traditional interactionist perspective Mead and Blumer developed.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the interplay between individual women’s gender role attitudes, having young children at home, as well as the country-context characterized by gender egalitarianism and public childcare support, relates to women’s working hours in 23 European countries.

This study presents results of multilevel regression analyses of data from the European Social Survey (Round 2). These micro-level data on 23 European countries were combined with country-level measures on gender traditionalism and childcare expenditure.

The authors found that the negative association between having young children at home and women’s working hours is stronger for women with traditional gender role attitudes compared to women with egalitarian attitudes. The gap in working hours between women with and without young children at home was smaller in countries in which the population holds egalitarian gender role attitudes and in countries with extensive public childcare support. Furthermore, it was found that the gap in employment hours between mothers with traditional or egalitarian attitudes was largest in countries with limited public childcare support.

Policy makers should take note that women’s employment decisions are not dependent on human capital and household-composition factors alone, but that gender role attitudes matter as well. The authors could not find evidence of the inequality in employment between women with different gender role attitudes being exacerbated in association with childcare support.

The originality of this study lies in the combined (rather than separate) analysis of how countries’ social policies (childcare services) and countries’ attitudes (gender traditionalism) interact with individual gender role attitudes to shape cross-national variation in women’s working hours.

Major demographic changes in family life occurred during the post‐World War II period in the United States. An increase in women combining traditional family roles with employment in the work force represents one of the most significant of these changes. The late 1960s and early 1970s, in particular, were heralded as a period of revolution in attitudes toward the roles of women (Ferre, 1974; Mason, Czajka and Arber, 1976; McBroom, 1986; Tallichet and Willits, 1986; Thornton and Freedman, 1979). These studies revealed that attitudes became more favourable toward the working women and toward greater opportunities and rewards for women outside the home. Several studies have documented the association of egalitarian sex‐role attitudes with higher levels of education and increased participation in the work force (Mason et.al., 1976; Smith‐Lovin and Tickamyer, 1978; Thornton and Freedman, 1979).

The aim of this paper is to examine gender role attitudes between Christian and Muslim college students towards 11 most heatedly debated cliches in Lebanon that concern equal access of men and women to political and social spheres including employment.

A three‐way MANOVA (gender by religion by class) was conducted on gender role items. Correlation of religiosity were performed between Christian and Muslim college students to explore associations between religiosity and gender role attitudes among respondents.

Main effects were found among respondents, with females consistently holding less gendered attitudes than males; hence attesting to the universality of gender role attitudinal differences. The gender by religion interaction showed that Christian respondents and Muslim females documented less “traditionally demarcated” gender roles in social and public domains than Muslim males. Furthermore, class appeared to be a weak predictor of gender beliefs compared to the impact gender and religion had on gender role attitudes. Finally, correlation results showed that religiosity was associated with traditional gender roles.

While the temptation is strong to generalize the attitudes of college students to the general public in Lebanon, the present study recognizes that its findings are only a mild reflection of gender role attitudes in Lebanon since it was exclusively limited to college students.

Comparing gender role attitudes between Lebanese Muslim and Christian college students is of particular importance to academics, public citizens and policymakers interested in the removal of gender inequalities.

Scarcely any research in the Arab World compared gender role attitudes among Arabs, particularly between Christian and Muslim samples.

This paper aims to explore how couples reflect gender role–related attitudes in their family formation process and whether these processes could be described through the lens of ambivalence. Using qualitative methods, semi-structured interviews with Estonian married and cohabiting couples were conducted (all together 24 interviewees). Analysis revealed themes of ambivalence toward gender roles among married and cohabiting couples. The present study could be classified as exploratory in identifying ambivalence, with open-ended and emergent analysis.

It is known that Estonians have adopted Western values and their family behavior resembles that of Nordic countries. However, our interviews showed that on the level of the individual, gender role–related attitudes in relationships have remained traditional. The reason for this might lie in the rapid change of values that occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Western lifestyle was seen as an ideal, and copied in behavior before the actual family or gender role values could undergo the transformation needed to support egalitarian family values.

Our study reveals that the societal context of a rapid change in values and norms might create confusion and ambivalence in attitudes. Therefore, a high proportion of cohabiting couples might not be the product of egalitarian gender role–related attitudes but a product of ambivalent couple relations where the couple has not discussed thoroughly the vision and expectations they have for each other and their relationship.

Uses data from 1994 International Social Survey Programme to examine how attitudes to maternal employment at different stages of child rearing vary across and within eight nations in the European Union, UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Considers whether a mismatch exists between belief in a women’s right to work and the “traditional” family ideology. Highlights a north/south divide in attitude and differing welfare policies and gender‐role beliefs.

Investigates the attitudes towards women held by 5,974 Kuwaiti and 7,382 Qatari professional men and women respectively, 53 men and 67 women Qatari college students, 26 Qatari college men student‐father pairs, and 36 Qatari women student‐mother pairs. Explains the predictive utility of sex, nationality, age, education, marital and parental status, and sex‐role self‐concepts (i.e. androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferentiated self‐concepts) in attitudes towards women of the professional groups. The subjects completed the short version of the Attitude toward Women Scale (AWS), Bem’s Sex Role Inventory and a demographic questionnaire. Analysis indicated that the AWS scores of the various groups were very low, suggesting very traditional attitudes towards women in both Kuwait and Qatar. Compares the findings with those reported in Western and Asian cultures, and discusses the results and implications in the context of the Arabian Gulf environment.

This exploratory study aims to investigate how the role of the CSR manager is influenced by his orientation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) responsibilities, his attitude and competency.

The study involved 112 managers of CSR-implementing companies in the Klang Valley, a highly industrialized region in Malaysia. They were chosen based on a systematic random sampling technique.

The study found that the level of role, orientation and competency of CSR managers was high, whereas that for attitude was moderate. Further, regression analysis results showed that the managers’ orientation to economic and ethical responsibilities as well as competency significantly influenced their role in CSR with an explanatory power of 20.1 per cent.

The study was cross-sectional in nature. Nevertheless, it involved a sample of company managers from a selected location in the country. The predictor variables were limited to orientation to economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities; attitude; and competency.

The study highlights the importance of personal qualities of the manager and also the manager’s role in promoting community development CSR. These findings should be capitalized on by managers and other practitioners in CSR.

The study findings contribute to research on CSR that is viewed from the perspective of corporate image being projected by the role of CSR managers, as influenced by their CSR orientation, attitude and competency. Recommendations for CSR and human resource development practice and future research on the predictors of the role of CSR managers are proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to present a research project on attitude towards electronic human resource management (E‐HRM). A research model was formulated, based on two theories from complementary research areas: Davis' technology acceptance model and Ulrich's model on HR roles.

The study used an online questionnaire, in which 99 managers and 257 employees within Philips (Electronics) Netherlands participated. Managers and employees answered questions as to their previous experiences with regard to IT systems in general, their preferred HR roles, and their attitude towards E‐HRM systems.

Differences in perceived usability of current IT systems, as well as the preferred HR roles strategic partner (high preference) and employee champion (low preference), were related to a positive attitude towards E‐HRM systems. For managers, user support was also found to be a predictor of a positive attitude towards E‐HRM.

This research suggests a multi‐factorial framework that can help organizations in understanding and solving difficulties of implementation with E‐HRM systems, as far as attitude towards these systems is concerned.

The current study examined employment rates and predictors of employment among Syrian refugees currently living in Lebanon and Jordan. This paper argues that men and women refugees have different experiences seeking out employment after resettlement due to patriarchal structures and attitudes toward women that are present in the Arab Middle East. The goals of this paper were a) to examine employment rates among Syrian refugees, b) to examine predictors of employment among male and female refugees, and c) to examine refugee status as a moderator of the relationship between attitudes toward women and employment status.

Nationally representative data from the Arab Barometer on 600 refugees and 1400 native-born individuals living in Lebanon and Jordan from 2016–2017 were used.

Native-born individuals living in Lebanon and Jordan were 2.16 times more likely to be employed than refugees. Men living in Lebanon and Jordan were 7.83 times more likely to be employed than women. Finally, refugee status moderated the relationship between attitudes toward women's rights and roles and employment. Among native-born women, a positive attitude toward women's rights and roles predicted employment status, whereas this positive relationship was not found for women refugees. Among refugee men, a positive attitude toward women's rights and roles was linked to a lower likelihood of holding a job.

These findings suggest that agencies supporting refugees should communicate realistic expectations about employment during resettlement and should address the challenges that women refugees face when seeking employment.

This study is the first study to identify attitudes toward women's rights and roles as a predictor of employment among refugee populations and highlights the unique struggles that refugee women face.