The Norm of Reciprocity: A Preliminary Statement

1960/04/01 by Alvin W. Gouldner · 158 citations
Social Sciences · #Political Economy and Marxism

paper · doi:10.2307/2092623

Abstract

The manner in which the concept of reciprocity is implicated in functional theory is explored, enabling a reanalysis of the concepts of survival and exploitation. The need to distinguish between the concepts of complementarity and reciprocity is stressed. Distinctions are also drawn between (1) reciprocity as a pattern of mutually contingent exchange of gratifications, (2) the existential or folk belief in reciprocity, and (3) the generalized moral norm of reciprocity. Reciprocity as a moral norm is analyzed; it is hypothesized that it is one of the universal principal components of moral codes. As Westermarck states, To requite a benefit, or to be grateful to him who bestows it, is probably everywhere, at least under certain circumstances, regarded as a duty. This is a subject which in the present connection calls for special consideration. Ways in which the norm of reciprocity is implicated in the maintenance of stable social systems are examined.

Cited by

• Toward a Theory of Role Accumulation
• Social Exchange and Micro Social Order
• How do callings relate to job performance? The role of organizational commitment and ideological contract fulfillment
• Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature.
• Perceived organizational support.
• Workplace harassment from the victim's perspective: A theoretical model and meta-analysis.
• Predicting employee reactions to perceived organizational wrongdoing: Demoralization, justice, proactive personality, and whistle-blowing
• Reciprocity in international relations
• The Role of Social Groups in Political Thinking
• Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: The moderating effect of social support.
• WHEN BEING GOOD IS BAD: AN EXPANSION OF NEUTRALIZATION THEORY*
• THE RELEVANCE OF PEACE TO STUDIES OF DRUG MARKET VIOLENCE*
• The Use and Effects of Incentives in Surveys
• The National Student Survey and the ‘customerization’ of university students: a qualitative study of UK higher education
• Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers
• The Bases of Power: Origins and Recent Developments
• The Role of Customer Gratitude in Relationship Marketing
• Trust, trustworthiness, and trust propensity: A meta-analytic test of their unique relationships with risk taking and job performance.
• Network Ties, Reputation, and the Financing of New Ventures
• Meta-analysis of Correlates of Provider Behavior in Medical Encounters
• Social Ties
• What you say matters: Moving beyond gossiping extent to explore the positive effects of gossip truthfulness and gossip interestingness
• Psychological Safety: A Meta‐Analytic Review and Extension
• Leaders and followers behaving badly: A meta‐analytic examination of curvilinear relationships between destructive leadership and followers’ workplace behaviors
• The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism
• “The market is about relying on each other”: The temporality of solidarity at the Fatih Çarşamba street market in Istanbul
• Who Can You Turn To? Tie Activation within Core Business Discussion Networks
• Contributor Influence in Congress: Social Ties and PAC Effects on U.S. House Policymaking
• Effects of Winery Visitor Group Size on Gratitude and Obligation
• Taking Teacher Responsibility Into Account(ability): Explicating Its Multiple Components and Theoretical Status
• Prosocial Behavior and Public Service Motivation
• Reciprocity and job mobility: The effect of effort-reward imbalance in the employer-employee relationship on turnover intentions and actual job changes
• Understanding the feasibility and value of grassroots innovation
• Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity
• Is gratitude a moral affect?
• Altruism: An examination of the concept and a review of the literature.
• How attributions of coproduction motives shape customer relationships over time
• Gift Giving in Anthropological Perspective
• Learning to Make Friends: Coaching LLM Agents toward Emergent Social Ties
• Predicting Continued Participation in Newsgroups
• Ghosting the Machine: Stop Calling Human-Agent Relations Parasocial
• Nordic Bronze Age Economies
• Geography of the Family
• Perceived Organizational Support: A Meta-Analytic Evaluation of Organizational Support Theory
• Why Neighbors Would Help: A Vignette Experiment on Reciprocity in Informal Helping
• ON USER STUDIES AND INFORMATION NEEDS
• When Algorithms Manage Humans: A Double Machine Learning Approach to Estimating Nonlinear Effects of Algorithmic Control on Gig Worker Performance and Wellbeing
• The co-evolution of informal social status and gossip in workplace social networks
• Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Relations
• Perceived Organizational Support and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Effects of Personal Sacrifice and Job Fit
• When incivility begets incivility among hotel employees: The moderating effects of trait mindfulness and negative affect
• Abusive supervision and knowledge sharing: moderating roles of Islamic work ethic and learning goal orientation
• Working in a virtual world: A meta-analytic investigation of cyber mistreatment in the workplace
• Work performance, affective commitment, and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level
• Collectivism as a moderator of responses to organizational justice: implications for leader‐member exchange and ingratiation
• The Politics of Interpersonal Trust and Reciprocity: An Experimental Approach
• The normalisation of drug supply: The socialsupplyof drugs as the “other side” of the history of normalisation
• Integrating Exchange and Heuristic Theories of Survey Nonresponse
• Robust Systems of Cooperation in the Presence of Rankings: How Displaying Prosocial Contributions Can Offset the Disruptive Effects of Performance Rankings
• Cooperation with Strangers: Spillover of Community Norms
• Social Exchange and the Reciprocity Roller Coaster: Evidence from the Life and Death of Virtual Teams
• Employee Positive Emotion and Favorable Outcomes at the Workplace
• Work–family facilitation: A theoretical explanation and model of primary antecedents and consequences
• Normative commitment in the workplace: A theoretical analysis and re-conceptualization
• Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership
• Determinants of just earnings: The importance of comparisons with similar others and social relations with supervisors and coworkers in organizations
• How ethical leadership influence employee creativity: A parallel multiple mediation model
• Rules, Conventions and Values : A Plea in Favor of Ordinary Normativity
• Social game theory: Preferences, perceptions, and choices
• Interpersonal Deception Theory
• Fostering knowledge sharing through people management practices
• Organizational members’ use of social networking sites and job performance
• The Moderating Effects of Justice on the Relationship Between Organizational Politics and Workplace Attitudes
• Beyond drug dealing: Developing and extending the concept of ‘social supply’ of illicit drugs to ‘minimally commercial supply’
• Co‐workers working from home and individual and team performance
• The challenge of increasing employees' well‐being and performance: How human resource management practices and engaging leadership work together toward reaching this goal
• Quid pro quo? The future for graduate development programmes through the lens of talent management
• Modeling the duality of content niches and user interactions on online social media platforms
• Ethical leadership: A review and future directions
• Idiosyncratic deals and individual effectiveness: The moderating role of leader-member exchange differentiation
• Comparison of Traditional, Step-Ahead, and Peer Mentoring on Protégés' Support, Satisfaction, and Perceptions of Career Success: A Social Exchange Perspective
• Fostering innovative behaviour: the importance of employee commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour
• Supervisors as good coaches: influences of coaching on employees’ in-role behaviors and proactive career behaviors
• Do cultural values predict individuals' moral attitudes? A cross‐cultural multilevel approach
• Assessing the growth of remote working and its consequences for effort, well‐being and work‐life balance
• Understanding the Trust-Control Nexus
• Mutual or Unrequited Love: Identifying Stable Clusters in Social Networks with Uni- and Bi-directional Links
• Strengthening the employment relationship: The effects of work-hours fit on key employee attitudes
• Trouble with big brother: Counterproductive consequences of electronic monitoring through the erosion of leader‐member social exchange
• Understanding trust development in negotiations: An interdependent approach
• A dynamic phase model of psychological contract processes
• Examining degree of balance and level of obligation in the employment relationship: a social exchange approach
• Employee voice behavior: A meta‐analytic test of the conservation of resources framework
• Care for thy neighbour: A study of neighbours’ caregiving intentions by likelihood of reciprocity and previous caregiving experience
• The ethics of talent management
• RETRACTED: The ripple effect of abusive supervision: A longitudinal examination of psychological contract breach, turnover intentions, and resilience among third parties
• Restoration in Nature: Beyond the Conventional Narrative
• “ Helping Faces ”: The Effect of a Robot’s Face on People’s Reciprocal Helping Behavior
• The dark side of generosity: Employees with a reputation for giving are selectively targeted for exploitation
• How the timing of texting triggers romantic interest after the first date: A curvilinear U-shaped effect and its underlying mechanisms
• Social Exchange and the Effects of Employee Stock Options
• Which Way to High Performance? Comparing Performance Effects of High-Performance Work System Components in Small- to Medium-Sized Establishments
• Social influence in investigative interviews: The effects of reciprocity
• Social Networks, Funding, and Regional Advantages in Technology Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Analysis
• Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases
• Social support at work: An integrative review
• Mit Bourdieu gegen Bourdieu empirisch denken: Habitusanalyse mittels reflexiver Fotografie
• An Influence of Positive Affect on Decision Making in Complex Situations: Theoretical Issues With Practical Implications
• Witnessing wrongdoing: The effects of observer power on incivility intervention in the workplace
• Rationality and social norms
• The relationship between organizational dehumanization and safety behaviors
• The Impact of Teleworking on Work Motivation in a U.S. Federal Government Agency
• Social Exchange Theory: An Interdisciplinary Review
• Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past, present, and future
• When negotiators with honest reputations are less (and more) likely to be deceived
• For a dollar, would you…? How (we think) money affects compliance with our requests
• A Game Theoretic Model for the Formation of Navigable Small-World Networks --- the Tradeoff between Distance and Reciprocity
• The effect of tailored reciprocity on information provision in an investigative interview
• When to Not Respond in Kind? Individuals’ Expectations of the Future and Their Support for Reciprocity in Foreign Policy
• Abusive supervision, intentions to quit, and employees’ workplace deviance: A power/dependence analysis
• Leisure Nostalgia as a Catalyst for Serious Leisure and Reciprocal Support: A Cross-Cultural Study of Korean and Chinese Youth
• Nexus of Campers’ Experiences: Family Support and Product Involvement Influence Place Dependence, Mediated by Serious Leisure and Co-Production
• Reziprozität in Eltern-Kind-Beziehungen? Theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Evidenz
• Zur Soziologie des primitiven Tauschs
• The Impact of Decoupling of Telework on Job Satisfaction in U.S. Federal Agencies
• Employer‐supported volunteering benefits: Gift exchange among employers, employees, and volunteer organizations
• Triadic Social Structure Facilitates Backing for Crowdfunding Projects
• People Overestimate How Much Gossiping Encourages Listeners’ Self-Disclosure
• A flash in the pan or a permanent change? The growth of homeworking during the pandemic and its effect on employee productivity in the UK
• Human resource management and employee well‐being: towards a new analytic framework
• Decent work and taking charge: roles of prosocial motivation and proactive personality
• An Exploratory Examination of the Relationship Between Trust and Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Willingness to Risk Their Lives for Others
• DICE: Data Influence Cascade in Decentralized Learning
• Reciprocity, culture and human cooperation: previous insights and a new cross-cultural experiment. [europepmc]
• The ties that bind: an integrative framework of physician-hospital alignment. [europepmc]
• The caregiving relationship and quality of life among partners of stroke survivors: a cross-sectional study. [europepmc]
• Improving response rate and quality of survey data with a scratch lottery ticket incentive. [europepmc]
• Calves as social hubs: dynamics of the social network within sperm whale units. [europepmc]
• Social and organizational factors affecting implementation of evidence-informed practice in a public health department in Ontario: a network modelling approach. [europepmc]
• The evolution of leader-follower reciprocity: the theory of service-for-prestige. [europepmc]
• Effects of Co-Worker and Supervisor Support on Job Stress and Presenteeism in an Aging Workforce: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach. [europepmc]
• Longitudinal study of social participation and well-being among persons with spinal cord injury and their partners (pro-WELL). [europepmc]
• Work-Family Conflict, Perceived Organizational Support and Professional Commitment: A Mediation Mechanism for Chinese Project Professionals. [europepmc]
• Relationships among Safety Climate, Safety Behavior, and Safety Outcomes for Ethnic Minority Construction Workers. [europepmc]
• Linking molar organizational climate and strategic implementation climate to clinicians' use of evidence-based psychotherapy techniques: cross-sectional and lagged analyses from a 2-year observational study. [europepmc]
• Toward Increasing Engagement in Substance Use Data Collection: Development of the Substance Abuse Research Assistant App and Protocol for a Microrandomized Trial Using Adolescents and Emerging Adults. [europepmc]
• How job stress influences job performance among Chinese healthcare workers: a cross-sectional study. [europepmc]
• Humble Leadership and Employee Resilience: Exploring the Mediating Mechanism of Work-Related Promotion Focus and Perceived Insider Identity. [europepmc]
• Employees' Perceptions of CSR, Work Engagement, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Justice. [europepmc]
• Perceived social support and presenteeism among healthcare workers in China: the mediating role of organizational commitment. [europepmc]
• Help From and Help to Neighbors Among Older Adults in Europe. [europepmc]
• The Interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility at Employee Level, Ethical Leadership, Quality of Work Life and Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Case of Healthcare Organizations. [europepmc]
• Exploring the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication through Social Media on Banking Customer E-WOM and Loyalty in Times of Crisis. [europepmc]
• Authentic Leadership and Improved Individual Performance: Affective Commitment and Individual Creativity's Sequential Mediation. [europepmc]
• A Contemporary Issue of Micro-Foundation of CSR, Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior, and Environmental Performance toward Energy Saving, Carbon Emission Reduction, and Recycling. [europepmc]
• Work-Life Balance, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance of SMEs Employees: The Moderating Role of Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors. [europepmc]
• Towards evidence-based and inclusive models of peer support for long covid: A hermeneutic systematic review. [europepmc]
• Social exchange theory: Systematic review and future directions. [europepmc]

Related

• Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity
• Reciprocity: The Supply of Public Goods Through Voluntary Contributions
• Demand Sharing: Reciprocity and the Pressure for Generosity among Foragers
• Is It Good to Cooperate? Testing the Theory of Morality-as-Cooperation in 60 Societies
• Reciprocity as the Foundational Substrate of Society: How Reciprocal Dynamics Scale into Social Systems