Dispositional antecedents of career success: a social network perspective

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] The purpose of this study is to investigate the interrelationships between personality traits (i.e., the five-factor model of personality, core self-evaluations, and proactive personality), social networking behavior, social network structure (i.e., weak ties, structural holes, and network diversity), network benefits, and career success. Participants were 216 business college alumni from a large Midwestern state university who graduated between 1985 and 2002. Results suggested that extraversion, agreeableness, and proactive personality were predictive of social networking behavior but not of network structure. Socializing was related to network structure. Personality traits (i.e., core self-evaluation, proactive personality, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience), social networking behavior (i.e., increasing internal visibility and cultivating goodwill), network structure (i.e., weak ties and organization affiliation diversity), and work-related network benefits were significant predictors of career success. However, the mediation hypotheses were not supported. Although some hypotheses received limited support, the results of this study provides some replication and extension of the current literature on personality, social network, and careers. Research limitations, implications of the findings, and future research directions are proposed.