Abstract
Employees' feedback-seeking networks at work are important for employees' learning and employability. Earlier studies often neglected the specific characteristics of the different relationships an individual employee has at work. We conduct social network analyses in seven samples to study inter-individual differences in feedback-seeking relationships in detail. We investigate 2,058 feedback-seeking relationships of 118 employees to study how similarity-attraction affects the composition of feedback-seeking networks at work and how the composition of these feedback-seeking networks influences employees' employability. This research study aims to contribute by taking into account both the mechanisms that shape feedback-seeking networks and the effects of this on employability. The results show that similarity-attraction affects feedback-seeking in the workplace and that having a largely homogeneous feedback-seeking network has detrimental effects on employability.
Highlights
Employees’ feedback-seeking networks at work are important for employees’ learning and employability
This information complements previous research findings on how social informal learning translates into employability (Froehlich et al, 2017) and how interactions may help to get a job after higher education (Batistic & Tymon, 2017; Chen, 2017)
We investigate the relationship between individuals’ feedback-seeking networks and their competence-based employability
Summary
Employees’ feedback-seeking networks at work are important for employees’ learning and employability. Previous research studied various forms of learning activities and how they impact employability (e.g., Froehlich et al, 2015; Van der Heijden et al, 2009; Van der Heijden & Bakker, 2011) In this literature, feedback-seeking stands out as a major contributor (Anseel et al, 2013). By building on similarityattraction theory (Byrne, 1971), we take into account both the mechanisms that shape feedback-seeking networks at work and the effects of these on employability This information complements previous research findings on how social informal learning translates into employability (Froehlich et al, 2017) and how interactions may help to get a job after higher education (Batistic & Tymon, 2017; Chen, 2017).
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