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Exchange Relationship

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Exchange Relationship
1. Introduction

Sociologists have long accepted that exchange relationship is a preliminary part of human interaction (Homans 1958; Emerson 1972; Blau 1986). In general, it is accepted by people that who have treated them well should be rewarded and those who have treated them unfriendly or bad should be punished (Gouldner, 1960; Perugini, Gallucci, Presaghi, & Ercolani, 2003; Eisenberger, Lynch, Aselage, & Rohdieck, 2004). The concept of exchange relationship is a joint activity of two or more people in which individual has something the other values. The specific task in exchange relationship is to bring benefit for people by exchanging behaviors or goods that many people cannot achieve alone (Thibaut & Kelley 1959; Homans 1961; Emerson 1972).

Exchange relationship originally formulated by Thibaut and Kelley (1959) and Emerson (1972). It is developed and extended by Emerson and Cook (1978) and Molm (1989). Exchange relationship between two people, who exchange resources with each other. People could be individuals or groups. Each individual resource in the exchange relationship are items in that people's behavior that produce consequences of value for the other people (Emerson, 1972). Firstly, the valued consequences of among people may be tangible objects like money or goods, social rewards such as status or approval, or psychological states such as happiness or self-esteem. The exchange relationship provides people with opportunities to exchange resources, the relations changing in the frequency with opportunities are used after a period of time and the value and distribution of exchange.

Since people provide valued benefits for one another, they are depends on each other or interdependence. Interdependence between people varies directly with the value of the benefit other people can provide, or conversely with the availability of the benefit to themselves from alternative sources (Emerson, 1972). These alternatives are other exchange

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