| Although a large portion of society is housed in rental units, much of the literature on sense of community has focused on homeowners and their role in community development activities within neighborhoods. Much less attention has been paid to the circumstances under which renters become engaged in local communities. In particular, the potential for apartment complexes to serve as locations for community development and the promotion of sense of community has not been examined. As an initial step, this study explored the factors associated with apartment complex managers engaging in community building activities within their complexes. It was hypothesized that individual characteristics of the managers (i.e., perceived importance of community building to their role, managers? personal experience with community building in their non-work life, and favorable perceptions of renters more generally) would be associated with community building activities, and that these relationships would be moderated by a contextual variable (i.e., the perceived organizational support for community building from the management company).;A sampling frame was constructed by identifying all apartment complexes in North Carolina advertised in online search engines (e.g., Apartments.com, Forrent.com, Apartmentguide.com). A random sample of 800 complexes was drawn, and letters and follow-up phone calls were employed to invite property managers to participate in an on-line survey. About 17% (N=133) provided usable data. In terms of measures, a community building scale was constructed by summing the number of community-building activities the property managers reported engaging in during their lifetime and during the past 12 months. Exploratory factor analysis showed adequate internal consistency for scales developed to assess importance of community building, perceptions of renters, personal experience with community-building, and organizational support for community-building.;At the bivariate level, there was no relationship between managers? community building activities and the following variables: average income of residents, managers? length of time in the management industry, personal experiences with community building, perceptions of renters, and a measure of social desirability. Average rent, age of complex, number of apartments, perceived importance of community-building, and organizational support were all significantly correlated with community-building at the bivariate level. Hierarchical regressions showed evidence of a significant relationship between community building and the independent variables of number of apartments, importance of community building, and organizational support. However, the analyses failed to show evidence of a moderating effect of organizational support. Such analyses clearly indicated that organizational support was the strongest predictor of community-building activities.;Successful community building initiatives often create alliances with key stakeholders within neighborhood and community settings. Property managers represent one such stakeholder (but certainly not the only one) that could be involved in efforts to promote sense of community within apartment complexes. This study suggests that property managers report being receptive to such activities, and that organizational support may be a key variable in whether such interest is turned into action. Limitations of the study include the following: use of self-report data and the possibility of inaccurate reporting; low response rate and the possibility that only more positively biased managers responded to the survey; and the challenges of developing valid measures of community-building. Future research should examine: measurement issues regarding community building, the circumstances under which renter and property managers have convergent views of property managers? activities and the impact of such activities on community-building. Practitioners could examine the possibilities of promoting sense of community within apartment complexes, and assist renters in becoming more engaged in their communities. |
