Social Capital Values and the Role thereof in Promoting Volunteerism among Women

A Study on Female Volunteers in Charitable Organizations in the City of Riyadh

Abstract

The study aimed at identifying social capital values (trust, participation, cooperation, and belonging) and the role thereof in promoting volunteerism by measuring the level of those values and exploring the relationship between them and the tendency towards voluntary work, and identifying the reasons (i.e., motivations) for women to participate in voluntary works. The study was conducted in accordance with the social survey approach, utilizing an electronic questionnaire to collect data from (234) female volunteers in charitable organizations in Riyadh. The findings uncovered that the level of social capital values among female volunteers was high. In general, the level reached 2.82 (out of 3). In detail, the highest value was for cooperation, then belonging, and trust. The findings also concluded that the most important reason for women to participate in voluntary works is to satisfy the religious aspect and seek Allah’s reward. In addition, the findings demonstrated that there exists a direct correlation with statistical significance at the level of (p= 0.01) between the values of social capital (trust, participation, cooperation, and belonging) and the dimensions of the tendency towards volunteerism (which are: work importance, voluntarism behavior development, and volunteer’s knowledge development). Hence, the tendency toward voluntary work can be predicted by depending on social capital values; the greater the value of social capital is, the greater the tendency towards voluntary work.