Social Network Structure as a Moderator of the Relationship between Psychological Capital and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from China

Abstract

Although networking is reported to be a job search strategy in the literature, research on the interaction between social networking and other personal resources and its effect on job satisfaction is scarce. In the perspective of social networks, the present study explored whether the social network structure, which consists of network size and tie strength, moderates the relationship between psychological capital and job satisfaction. By using a two-wave longitudinal design, we collected the quantitative data (survey of 344 undergraduate students who were about to graduate soon) from 19 universities in Beijing city, Shandong Province, and Jiangsu Province in Eastern China. Factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were adopted to analyze the data of the survey. We found that psychological capital has a positive impact on job seekers’ job satisfaction. Furthermore, smaller networks and weaker ties in social networks both render the positive effect of psychological capital on job satisfaction even stronger.