The Role of Social Networks in Getting a Job

This article reviews recent research on the effect s of social networks on access to job information and getting a job in the United States. Drawing on network ties from friends, family members, acquaintances, employers, or coworkers can improve the job search because individuals gain access to and make use of their network’s social capital. While this job searching strategy can result in a successful job search for some, not all job seekers benefit from reliance on social networks. We spotlight research that documents how reliance on social networks as a means to find work can actually maintain sex and racial/ethnic inequality at work. We discuss research documenting the important role social networks play in the job acquisition process. The last half of this review focuses on several new developments in the literature that promise to further our understanding of social networks’ lasting effects on employment outcomes.     

Network diversity,contact diversity,and status attainment

We propose that diversity in social relations measured by network diversity and cross-race/cross-gender contacts affords job seekers higher contact status that in turn brings better status attainment outcomes. Controlling for traditional strength of tie measures and other confounders, the empirical study confirms that (1) network diversity in race and gender are significantly associated with actual utilization of cross-race/cross-gender contacts in job search, (2) use of cross-race/cross-gender contacts is significantly related to higher contact status for nonwhite and female job seekers, but (3) contact status (activated social capital) partially provides jobs of higher SEI scores for white job seekers. Similarly, male job seekers obtain better jobs through female contacts, but the same does not apply to female job seekers. These findings show relative return deficits of social capital experienced by racial minorities and females even when they exert extra effort to obtain heterogeneous social relations and contacts.     

MOBILIZING SOCIAL RESOURCES: Race, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Social Capital and Persisting Wage Inequalities

Drawing on a social capital theoretical framework, I examine race, ethnic, and gender wage inequalities. Specifically, I extend past research by analyzing differences in the mobilization of different types of job contacts, what these types of contacts and their level of influence "buy" job seekers in the labor market, and the extent to which differences in social resources explain between-group variations in wages. Four aspects of job contacts are implicated: the race and gender of the job contact, the strength of the relationship between the job seeker and the job contact, and the job contact's influence. Employing the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, I find that white men are more likely to mobilize weak, white, male, and influential contacts, those contacts hypothesized to positively impact employment outcomes. Moreover, their greater mobilization of male and influential ties helps to explain a substantial part of their wage advantage over white women and Lations. However, in many ways, their overall social resource advantage seems somewhat overstated. They reap no advantages over blacks, Latinos, and white women in their use of weak and white ties. Furthermore, results indicate that the benefits of social resources appear largely contingent on the social structural location of job seekers mobilizing them, less on any benefits inherent in different "types" of job contacts.     

Goal specific social capital and job satisfaction: Effects of different types of networks on instrumental and social aspects of work

This paper addresses the question “To what extent can job satisfaction be explained as the revenue of social capital?” By conceiving someone’s social network as social capital we specify conditions under which social ties do lead to job satisfaction. We inquire into the idea of goal specificity of social capital, which implies that a network with a given structure and content will have different impacts on various aspects of job satisfaction. If the content of the ties and the structure of the network at the job engender material well-being or produce social approval, satisfaction with the corresponding job aspects increases. Data were collected in 1993 using written questionnaires in two Dutch governmental agencies, one with 32 and the other with 44 employees. These workers’ networks were charted using nine name-generating questions.Social capital, it turns out, is not an all-purpose good but one that is goal specific, even within a single domain of life such as work. Three effects stand out: First, the structure of the network and the content of the ties do matter. Networks of strategic, work-related ties promote an employee’s satisfaction with instrumental aspects of the job, like income, security, and career opportunities. Second, closed networks of identity-based solidarity ties improve an employee’s satisfaction with social aspects of the job, like the general social climate at work and cooperation with management and colleagues. Third, a network with a bow–tie structure (i.e., where a focal actor is the link between two or more mutually exclusive cliques) generally has strong negative effects on satisfaction with the social side of the job; although a bow–tie type network of trusting ties does increase satisfaction with the social side. This implies that Krackhardt’s hypothesis on the unpleasant feelings produced by bow–tie type networks has to be specified for the content of the ties that constitute such a network. The most important conclusion of our analysis is that goal specificity of social capital has implications for both structure and content of social networks. Achievement of a particular goal, such as satisfaction at work, requires not only networks of a certain structure or ties with a particular content, but specifically structured networks of ties with a particular content.     

Ask and you shall receive: Social network contacts’ provision of help during the job search

Social network contacts—the people who are asked to help with others’ job searches—are key players in the job networking process. Before job seekers can become employed with the help social networks, contacts must first be able and willing to share the social resources job seekers need for their search. Little is known about the factors that affect contacts’ ability and willingness to do this. Analyses of a unique dataset of contacts show that they typically have access to resources and help job seekers by sharing them. Still, contacts are better able to help when they are male, employed, and better educated than job seekers. They are more willing to help when they perceive job seekers to be “good” workers. In identifying the conditions in which contacts provide social resources, this study illustrates how social networks are a productive job search strategy for some, but not all, job seekers.     

Moderators of Career Calling and Job-Search Behaviors Among Unemployed Individuals

We examined the relationship between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity in a cross-sectional study of Italian unemployed job seekers (N = 315). Structural equation modeling with observed variables and latent moderated structural equation models were adopted to test whether optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance moderate the relation between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity. Perceiving a calling was positively related with job-search clarity and intensity, and these relations were stronger in individuals with lower levels of optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance. This study suggests that perceiving a calling is an important personal resource that is related to a clearer job-search goal and to more intense job-search activities and can support job seekers in personal adverse conditions. These results suggest integrating job-search behaviors in the work-as-calling theory and that incorporating the construct of calling into career counselors' practices may increase the efficacy of job-search activities.     

Don’t mention it: Why people don’t share job information,when they do,and why it matters

Network-based job search is especially likely to foster workplace segregation and limit status attainment when information flows through homophilous ties. This paper takes the perspective of information holders and examines how the use of strong versus weak ties – which tend to be homophilous and heterophilous, respectively – differs with characteristics of labour markets in which jobs are located. Using in-depth interviews with entry-level white collar workers I show that information holders with opportunities to mention specific jobs to specific people do so only 27% of the time. Because they hesitate to share information if they are uncertain the information is specifically sought, information flows more commonly to strong ties, whose career goals are more likely to be known. Information is more likely to be shared with weak ties if it concerns occupations for which one may be specifically credentialed, since receiving relevant training serves as signal of interest in such jobs. These finding suggest that the homophily of referrals and their inequality-generating effects may vary across occupations.     

社会关系、初职获得方式与职业流动

关系使用者是一个高度异质性的群体,区分不同类型的关系使用者对理解社会关系的作用机制及其对劳动力市场结果变量的效应非常重要。根据初职获得的方式,本研究将劳动者分成三个群体,即通过正式渠道(不使用关系)、正式渠道与关系相结合(正式+关系)以及完全通过关系获得初职的群体。使用2009年八城市社会网络与职业经历问卷调查(JSNET2009)数据,本文探讨了这三个劳动者群体的特征以及他们在职业流动和收入分层模式方面的差异。研究发现,使用正式+关系方式获得初职的劳动者群体和完全通过关系获得初职的劳动者群体的特征及其劳动力市场经历是截然不同的。首先,前者是高社会经济地位的群体,他们有较高的人力资本以及质量最高的社会网络资本;而后者是低社会经济地位的群体,他们自身的人力资本最低,而且社会网络资本的质量也是最差的。其次,后者比前者更可能换工作(离开初职)。第三,两个群体收入获得的决定因素方面也体现出显著的差异。     

Social Resources and Occupational Status Attainment: Comparison of Japanese and American Employees' Personal Networks

Abstract: The present study compares Japan and the USA in the ways in which individuals’ personal relationships affect the social standing they achieve. The conceptual framework applied here is similar to that used in established research in Western countries, which examines the effects of both human capital and social capital. The analyses are based on the data collected from a random sample of adult residents in Tokyo, which contains information about their personal networks. This data set is compared with the social network module of the 1985 General Social Survey in the United States. The analyses supported both human capital and social capital theories in the process of status attainment in both countries. Human capital, however, seems to have a stronger influence especially in the USA sample, because certain structural characteristics are associated with one's own educational achievement, which in turn are instrumental in attaining social capital. Unlike the USA, however, the access to social capital in Japan was found primarily through homophily, showing little effect based upon the type of networks they have. The results suggest the difference between the two countries in terms of the function of social resources and the strength of ties that are instrumental in the process of status attainment.     

Moving Through Social Networks: The Case of Armenian Migrants in the Czech Republic

This paper brings attention to the role of social networks in the migration of asylum seekers and explores how the embeddedness of the migrants in social networks both facilitates and constrains their mobility in different phases of the migration process. It reconstructs the migration paths of eight Armenian migrant families who arrived in the Czech Republic as asylum seekers during the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty‐first century. By examining the narrated stories of the Armenian migrants it shows that social networks formed an important context for employing various migration strategies in all phases of the migration process, and that the meaning and character of migrants’ social networks changed over time. In the initial phase of decision‐making about migration as well as on their journey, it was mainly weak ties of random acquaintances that played a dominant role. The position of the migrants in those networks was rather insecure. They held a little control over the information they received, but in these vulnerable situations they had to rely on their weak ties, which strongly influenced their mobility. In the arrival and settlement phases the social context of the refugee camp hindered the cultivation of social ties outside the migrants’ circle on one hand, and facilitated development of bonding ties among the migrants on the other. Bonding social networks enabled inclusion of the Armenian migrants into various social spheres especially at the beginning of the settlement process. However, the bounded character of these networks was also recognized as excluding them from access to resources of the dominant society and preventing their social mobility in later phases of their settlement. Thus, bridging networks that provide access to certain resources of the dominant society were sought.     

EMPLOYERS' USE OF JOB HISTORY DATA FOR MAKING HIRING DECISIONS:

Most research on occupational assignment has concentrated on characteristics of job seekers that presumable signal positive labor market information to employers. Foremost among these have been educational credentials and years and type of work experience. In many cases, though, employers seek indicators that can provide them with negative information about a candidate's prospects for successful job performance; they frequently construct screens that enable them to easily disqualify candidates. Case studies of six Chicago organizations identified six components of "job history data' used by many employers to screen out otherwise acceptable candidates: job hopping, absences from work, latenesses to work, periods of unfilled time, reasons for leaving past employers, and past wage rates. One or more of these items are often consequential in employer hiring decisions. The implications of these findings for a more detailed understanding of status attainment and job assignment are discussed, as well as how research in this area might proceed.     

Community Connections: Social Capital and Community Success1

This article examines the impact of two types of community social capital—ties between civic organizations formed through shared members and ties between residents formed through socializing in local gathering places—on residents’ subjective appraisals of community success. Community social capital studies tend to focus on the first of these types of ties, networks of civic engagement, while the second, gathering place networks, has received relatively little scholarly attention. Studying both allows me to assess the formal and informal arenas of community sociability, providing a more thorough understanding of social capital and community life. I assess the effects of community‐level social capital networks on the individual‐level experience of residing in the community using survey data on 9,962 residents from 99 small towns in Iowa. This rich data set allows me to avoid two shortcomings common in social capital research: I construct genuine network measures of social capital (rather than infer network structure from community attributes) and conduct multi‐level analyses (rather than rely on disaggregation). My findings indicate both types of social capital are positively and significantly associated with resident ratings of community success, suggesting community networks—in both the formal and informal sectors—have important consequences for small towns and their residents.     

SOCIAL ISOLATION AND LABOR MARKET INSULATION:

This study examines the influence of neighborhood poverty and social networks on labor market experiences of less-educated urban job seekers. Data come from the Multi-City Survey of Urban Inequality and the 1990 decennial census. Results indicate that relatively small differences in job search strategies among residents of high- and low-poverty neighborhoods are magnified in the hiring process and that supply- and demand-side factors have qualitatively different effects on earnings within these residential contexts. These results refine our understanding of social isolation by clarifying the points at which "neighborhood effects" manifest themselves in the job-matching process and suggest that social isolation is often accompanied by labor market insulation characterized by an increasing reliance upon neighbors and personal contacts for securing formal employment.     

Analysing networks of networks

We consider data with multiple observations or reports on a network in the case when these networks themselves are connected through some form of network ties. We could take the example of a cognitive social structure where there is another type of tie connecting the actors that provide the reports; or the study of interpersonal spillover effects from one cultural domain to another facilitated by the social ties. Another example is when the individual semantic structures are represented as semantic networks of a group of actors and connected through these actors’ social ties to constitute knowledge of a social group. How to jointly represent the two types of networks is not trivial as the layers and not the nodes of the layers of the reported networks are coupled through a network on the reports. We propose to transform the different multiple networks using line graphs, where actors are affiliated with ties represented as nodes, and represent the totality of the different types of ties as a multilevel network. This affords studying the associations between the social network and the reports as well as the alignment of the reports to a criterion graph. We illustrate how the procedure can be applied to studying the social construction of knowledge in local flood management groups. Here we use multilevel exponential random graph models but the representation also lends itself to stochastic actor-oriented models, multilevel blockmodels, and any model capable of handling multilevel networks.     

Who Can Tell? Network Diversity,Within‐Industry Networks,and Opportunities to Share Job Information

This article examines opportunities to share job information. It adds to the growing body of research on information holders and complements existing research that explains what kinds of networks and network positions provide the greatest benefit to job seekers. Data from an exploratory study of entry‐level, white‐collar workers are used to relate opportunities to share information—defined to consist of both knowledge of a job opening and awareness of a potential applicant among one's network members—with information holders’ network composition. The data show that information holders with strong within‐industry networks have more opportunities to share information and do share more information. Information holders with diverse networks more often identify potential applicants for jobs and thus have more opportunities to share information. However, despite having more opportunities to do so, they do not share information more often than those with less diverse networks. These findings, combined with the growing literature on information holders, suggest that different aspects of network composition affect the flow of job information at different stages and thus by different mechanisms.     

THE MEANING OF RACE TO EMPLOYERS:

The unemployment problems of blacks in the United States have been the subject of considerable research in the social sciences since the 1980s. One way of studying the barriers to employment faced by blacks has been to interview employers, face to face, and directly ask them about their racial attitudes. These studies have concluded that a majority of employers believe that blacks, compared with other racial and ethnic groups, are uncooperative, unreliable, and lack sufficient skills for entry-level employment. The present study critically reexamines employer racial attitudes toward blacks and other groups through a case study of employer hiring in the electronics industry in Los Angeles. Using a different set of interview questions, employers reported (1) that blacks are reluctant to accept unskilled jobs due to a higher reservation wage, not because they lacked skills or a work ethic, (2) that employer racial attitudes varied by level of occupational skill, and (3) that affirmative action regulations modified the hiring process such that employers were less likely to rely on negative racial stereotypes in their hiring and more likely to rely on objective criteria when screening job seekers. I conclude by suggesting that employer racial attitudes are dynamic and, in large measure, shaped by institutional relationships within the workplace.     

Networks in lockdown: The consequences of COVID-19 for social relationships and feelings of loneliness

This paper studies social network changes during the COVID-19 crisis in the Netherlands and their relation to perceived loneliness for the younger and the older cohorts. Arguments from opportunity theory and social capital theory are used to formulate hypotheses on network changes during the pandemic. Core discussion networks and networks with practical helpers from two representative cohorts (18–35 years of age and 65+ years of age, n = 1342 participants in both waves) during the lockdown in May 2020 are compared with networks of the same respondents in May 2019. We find that networks became smaller and more focused on stronger ties, while weaker ties more often decayed. Feelings of loneliness incsreased on average for all respondents and in particular for those who live alone or have a disadvantaged socioeconomic position. Importantly, the decrease in the number of the practical helper network, that is, decline in relatively weaker ties, affects experiences of loneliness in both groups.     

Residential mobility and the spatial dispersion of personal networks: Effects on social support

Using a representative national sample of personal networks, this article explores how the spatial dispersion of networks, residential mobility and social support are linked. Three issues will be addressed here. Firstly, how is the spatial dispersion of personal networks related to individuals’ social characteristics, network composition and residential mobility? Secondly, how do the spatial dispersion of networks, residential mobility and their combined effect influence the number and (thirdly) the structure of emotional support ties? Results showed that the extent of the support was affected neither by the geographical distribution of the networks nor by residential mobility. Living far from one's birthplace, however, exerted two distinct, and opposite effects on the support network structure. On the one hand, mobility led to high spatial dispersion of personal contacts, which in turn favored a sparsely knit network centered around the mobile individual. On the other hand, by controlling for the effect of distance between the contacts, we found that individuals that cited long-distance ties tended to be part of more transitive support networks than those that cited local ties. We interpreted the latter effect as evidence that transitive ties may survive greater spatial distances than intransitive ones. These findings are discussed in view of spatial mobility and social network research.     

Social Closure and Educational Attainment

This article examines how network closure among parents affects adolescents’ educational attainment. First, we introduce a distinction between informal closure and school‐based closure. Second, we investigate whether and how the effect of informal and school‐based parental network closure varies across social contexts. Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and multilevel models show that parental network closure modestly impacts educational outcomes. Moreover, educational benefits of informal closure in parent networks are contingent on social context. Closure only benefits educational attainment in low‐poverty schools. In high‐poverty schools, informal closure in parent networks lowers educational attainment. The social closure generated in informal connections among parents thereby contributes to the encapsulation of disadvantage in areas of concentrated poverty, which is not the case for school‐based closure.     

Social Networks and Employment: Outcomes (Part 2)

In this second article, we continue to survey research that addresses work and employment from a social network perspective. Building on a companion article in this volume, which explores in‐depth the main network mechanisms presented in the literature, this article reviews studies addressing how social networks may shape key employment outcomes for both individuals and organizations. Network access and activation may shape individuals' selection into employment opportunities in addition to a variety of post‐hire outcomes including employee performance, promotion, rewards, job satisfaction, and termination. Organizations too may be influenced by their network position and by the activation of certain ties, ultimately affecting key outcomes such as firm performance, innovation, and learning measures. We conclude by discussing promising areas for future research on how social networks interact with employment.