The impact of networking behaviours and individual social capital related to work on perceived career satisfaction and its prospects: The case of Poland

Social networks are an important variable which explain career issues such as career satisfaction, success, development and employment. However, research is often conducted separately from different theoretical perspective, i.e. social capital, social network analysis or networking, such that the comparison of findings across studies is difficult. The major question posed by our research concerns how employees' networking behaviours (behavioural perspective) and the individual social capital related to work (resource-based) influence the quality of careers. The discussion draws upon a survey carried out among employees (N=373) with a usage of American and Dutch research tools adapted to Polish conditions. Explanatory factor analysis followed to appoint adequate networking behaviours. Descriptive statistical and correlation analyses were then performed between variables in order to test the formulated hypotheses. The results of the study show that networking behaviour is a good predictor of career satisfaction and prospects, while individual social capital related to work is only related to career prospects. The influence of individual social capital related to work on career prospects is weaker than the influence of networking behaviours on career prospects. Thus, the behavioural perspective provides more explanations of career issues than the resources perspective. This paper contributes to the prior literature on individual social capital, networking behaviours and career issues by explaining how two different perspectives of social network influence career satisfaction and prospects. The value of the research is the usage of independent variables representing two different theoretical perspectives to test their impact on dependent variables i.e. career satisfaction and career prospects. The paper concludes with implications for further research and provides some hints for employees and organisations focused on successful work and career.