Social Capital, Organizational Context, and the Job Market

社会资本、组织背景和就业市场美国社会学协会罗伯塔·斯佩尔特-罗斯美国社会学协会玛丽·森特中密歇根大学尽管纵向研究表明，学生们对他们在入门课程中学到的科学概念感到兴奋，但大学担心在本科专业的竞争中失利。根据该领域的文献，超过一半的求职者通过人脉和社会关系(社会资本)找到自己的职位。社会资本和社会关系的概念已经成为社会学思维的核心，本研究的理论目的是检验和提炼这一思想。然而，对于不同人群在求职过程中使用的关系类型，以及这些关系的好处，这本文献中仍然存在分歧。最近，越来越多的研究考察了了解激活社会关系的组织背景的重要性。这项研究有三个目标。首先，增进我们对不同群体在寻找和获得工作时使用的网络关系类型的理解，包括家庭、学校和其他(强或弱)关系。第二，调查学校建立联系的组织背景，以及学术部门是否提供资源帮助学生获得联系。对2011届大学生的纵向调查将提供基础，以测试不同类型的学生社会资本对他们研究生求职和就业的影响，以及组织环境在塑造这些联系中所起的作用。作为一个恰当的例子，这项研究关注的是社会学专业的学生，他们往往从事各种各样的职业。因此，这项研究的第三个目标是检查专业是否认为他们获得的工作反映了他们原来的培训领域，最后，这些工作是否可以被描述为特定的科学或应用职业领域和部门。这项研究的实践重点是，学术部门鼓励的人脉关系是否会导致专业人员在该领域找到工作。我们将测试一系列关于老年人在找工作时使用的社会资本(网络关系)类型、这些社会关系发展的背景以及关系类型如何因种族、民族和性别而异的假设。更广泛的影响这项研究对几个利益相关者具有更广泛的影响。高等教育机构对理解从学校到工作的转变有着既得利益。缺乏对学术专业学生如何寻找和稳定工作的了解，以及在这一过程中帮助毕业生的社会关系的缺乏，可能会导致文理科专业被更多面向职业的项目和机构所失去。总体而言，这样的损失对科学流水线也是一个问题。此外，考虑到今天的大学生正进入一个失业率为一代人以来最高的就业市场，并且背负着越来越多的债务，学生和他们的父母对就业前景的担忧是合理的。最终，这项拟议的纵向研究的潜在受益者包括但不限于每年毕业的大约17,000名社会学专业学生，他们直接进入劳动力市场和可能从他们的培训和技能集中受益的社会。

Social Capital, Organizational Context, and the Job MarketSES - 1054651Roberta Spalter-Roth, Olga MayorovaAmerican Sociological AssociationMary SenterCentral Michigan UniversityAbstractUniversities are concerned about losing out in the competition for undergraduate majors, even though longitudinal studies show that students are excited by scientific concepts they learn in introductory courses. According to the literature in the field, more than half of job seekers find their positions through personal ties and social connection (social capital). The concepts of social capital and social ties have become central to the core of sociological thinking, and the theoretical purpose of this study is to test and refine this thinking. However, disagreement persists within this literature about the types of ties that are used by diverse population groups in the job search process, and about the benefit of these ties. More recently, a rising number of studies have examined the importance of understanding the organizational context in which social ties are activated. This study has three goals. First, to advance our understanding of the types of network ties including family, school, and other ties (strong or weak) used by diverse groups of individuals as they search for and attain jobs. Second, to investigate the organizational context in which school ties are developed and whether academic departments provide resources to help students gain ties. A longitudinal survey of the college class of 2011 will provide the basis for testing the impact of different types of student social capital on their post-graduate job search and placement, as well as the role organizational context plays in shaping those ties. As a case in point, the study focuses on Sociology majors, who tend to be found in a wide variety of occupations. Thus, the third goal of this study is to examine whether majors perceive that the jobs they obtain reflect their original field of training and, finally, whether these jobs can be characterized into specific scientific or applied occupational fields and sectors. The practical focus of this study is whether network ties that are encouraged by academic departments lead majors to jobs in the field. We will test a series of hypotheses about the type of social capital (network ties) seniors use when searching for jobs, the context in which these social ties develop, and how types of ties vary by race, ethnicity and gender. Broader ImpactsThis study has broader implications for several stakeholders. Institutions of higher education have a vested interested in understanding the school-to-work transition. A lack of understanding about how academic majors search for and secure jobs, and the kind of social connections that help graduates in this process, can result in arts and science departments losing majors to more vocationally-oriented programs and institutions. Such loss is also problematic for the science pipeline in general. Moreover, given that today's college students are entering a job market with the highest unemployment in a generation, and are saddled with increasing debt, it is reasonable for students and their parents to be concerned about job prospects. Ultimately, potential beneficiaries of this proposed longitudinal study include but are not limited to the approximately 17,000 sociology majors that graduate each year and go directly into the labor market and the society which might benefit from their training and skill set.