Understanding How Gender and Social Capital Levels Associate with Employee Growth in a Developing Country Work Environment

Abstract

This paper explored and identified factors predictive of the three levels of social capital that employees in a developing country work environment bring on board to influence their growth and, to determine whether the character of each level is associated with the employees" gender. Using the quantitative approach, data was collected from workers in the three industrial sectors, and firstly analysed descriptively using the Principal Component analysis as a means of data reduction and establishment of data reliability, followed by inferential analysis using the SEM approach to determine the factor predictiveness" of the study constructs and test the relationships between them. The results showed that employees" personal, intraorganizational and external social capitals, as well as their growths in organizations are predictable by prevailing organizational and social factors, but not by their genders. Additionally, it was found that though an influencing relationship exist among the three levels of social capital, only the employees" intraorganizational social capital has a direct influence on their growth. It is concluded that the effects of employees" personal social capital and external social capital on their growth is mediated by their intraorganizational social capital.