engleski

Ties that matter: Exploring the quality and meaning of social ties in managerial social networks

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the social networks that managers build in their professional life. The emphasis of the study is placed on gender differences in the meaning and career significance of managerial egocentric social networks. In order to better understand the meaning of managerial social networks as a crucial resource for managerial successful conduct of business, I first conducted an in-depth interview, qualitative study. Sequentially, I conducted a quantitative, egocentric social network survey to test the hypothesis testing how the characteristics of network ties affect managerial subjective and subjective measures of success. The paper is built around three main findings. The first finding of the qualitative study indicates differences of the role of the social networks in career development for man and women. Secondly, main findings of the quantitative study considering gender differences reinforce the results of the qualitative study: there is a difference in how the network structure and network qualities predict success for male and female managers. Third relevant finding is in the comprehension that value homophily and the presence of cognitive based trust within the social network matter significantly in predicting managerial success (where gender differences are also identified). Findings provide contributions for building the theory of professional social networks further.

meaning of social networks; social network development

nije evidentirano