Synchronous and asynchronous activations

You can cause an activity or process to be activated in one of two ways, synchronously or asynchronously.

Synchronously
The activity or process is executed synchronously with the requestor. Exactly how it is run varies, depending on which command is used to activate it:
LINK
The activity is included as part of the current unit of work; all locks and resources are shared with the requestor. The activity runs with the transaction attributes of the requestor; any transaction attributes (transaction ID or user ID) specified on its resource definition are ignored. In other words, there is no context-switch.
RUN SYNCHRONOUS
The activity is run in a separate unit of work from the unit of work of the requestor, and with the transaction attributes (transaction ID or user ID) specified on its resource definition . In other words, a context-switch takes place.

The two units of work are linked; if the requestor backs out, the activity is backed out also.

Asynchronously
The activity or process is executed asynchronously with the requestor, following a RUN ASYNCHRONOUS command.

The activity is run in a separate unit of work from the unit of work of the requestor, and with the transaction attributes (transaction ID or user ID) specified on its resource definition - that is, a context-switch takes place.