The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between level of social capital and the extent of participation in professional development activities for professional employees of a profit-based organization located in the Southeastern United States.
The researcher used survey methodology to determine the extent of participation in professional development activities within a 12 month period and the level of social capital within an organizational setting. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine if a model exists to explain a significant portion of the variance in the extent of participation in professional development activities from selected demographic variables and level of social capital.
One key conclusion is that the study participants engaged in more self-initiated activities than any other type of professional development activity. Self-initiated activities include such activities as searching the internet for work-related information and seeking work-related information from a mentor or colleague. A second conclusion is that social capital was found to be a significant predictor of participation in voluntary professional development activities that were in individual settings. This second conclusion addresses the recent emphasis on the need to study social networks in order to understand participation in learning activities (Hatala, 2006). In addressing this need, the conclusion helps to bridge a gap in human resource development literature by increasing the understanding of the role of social capital in participation in professional development activities. Given that individual activities include one-on-one collaborations with mentors/colleagues, it is recommended that human resource development professionals include mentoring and relationship building in employee development plans to encourage the use of one-on-one contacts to support the acquisition of work-related information.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-03262007-173132 |
| Date | 27 March 2007 |
| Creators | Melancon, Sylvia Caillier |
| Contributors | Nicholas Pedriana, Geraldine H. Johnson, John-Paul Hatala, Michael F. Burnett, Donna H. Redmann |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-03262007-173132/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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