Bringing Strong Ties Back in: Indirect Ties, Network Bridges, and Job Searches in China

Bian, Yanjie

doi:10.2307/2657311

Cited by 1,012 publications

(778 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

735

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Before these reforms, under the state assignment system (tongbao tongfen zhidu), graduates could potentially be sent, regardless of their preferences, to any employer anywhere in the country. Under that system, job seekers relied extensively on contacts to go around the system and to secure a more desirable assignment (Bian 1994(Bian , 1997. In the late 1990s, the state assignment system was completely abandoned in favor of the "own responsibility for job search" system (zizhu zeye zhidu) (Sun, Geng, and Zhu 1987;Zhang 1998).…”

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, other studies find that tie strength has no effect on labor-market outcomes (e.g., Marsden and Hurlbert 1988;Korpi 2001;Völker and Flap 1999). Even more puzzling, some studies find that, under certain conditions, it is actually strong ties that are not only more likely to lead to jobs but also more likely to lead to better jobs (e.g., Murray, Rankin, and Magill 1981;Bian 1994Bian , 1997 for a review, see Lin 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The existing literature suggests that two characteristics of contacts-motivation and relevance-influence how contacts benefit a job seeker. We might expect that contacts who are motivated to help the job seeker should lead to better labor-market outcomes than search through formal methods (Bian 1994(Bian , 1997Smith 2005). For example, the strength-of-strong-ties argument implies that, because strong ties are motivated to help the job seeker, job seekers should benefit from searching through strong ties (e.g., Granovetter 1983: 209-213).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First-time job seekers are more likely than other job seekers to rely on strong ties to look for jobs (Granovetter 1974;Murray et al 1981;McDonald and Elder 2006;see also Granovetter 1983). Strong ties are often infused with an intense sense of obligation, commitment, and trust that makes them willing to spend their time, effort, and social resources in helping a job seeker find a job (Bian 1994(Bian , 1997Smith 2005), increasing the likelihood that a job search results in an offer. However, unless occupation and other work-relevant characteristics are inherited, strong ties are also likely to be heterophilous on work-relevant dimensions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Obukhova¹

2012

Social Science Research

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the idea that contacts matter in finding a job is intuitively appealing, we still do not know-after decades of research-how and why strong ties benefit job seekers. To resolve this confusion, we need to theorize how specific characteristics of ties are related to the mechanisms that make job search through contacts effective. We have reasons to expect that, while a contact's motivation influences the likelihood that a job seeker receives an offer, her homophily with the job seeker on occupation and other job-relevant attributes influences the quality of the offer. The use of strong ties among university students to find jobs in China provides a unique opportunity to empirically isolate the relationship between contact characteristics and the mechanisms through which contacts benefit the job seeker. I tested my hypotheses with data on both the successful and unsuccessful job searches of 478 graduates of China's flagship universities, who, as first-time job seekers, primarily used strong ties. Survey results are consistent with my hypotheses: Job seekers who used strong ties to look for jobs had more offers-but not better offers-than those who used only formal methods.

show abstract

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Obukhova¹

2012

Social Science Research

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Researchers have also analyzed the structure of various Chinese offline social networks and guanxi networks [21] [22] [23] [24]. Blau et al [19] find roughly the same level of educational and occupational homophily in a Chinese urban city as in the United States.…”

Section: B Analysis Of Chinese Offline Social Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of friendships in Chinese online social networks

King

2011

IJSCCPS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-We study the evolution of friendships on Douban, an online social network frequently used by the youth in China. We look at several factors that can affect the evolution of friendships, such as having memberships in the same discussion groups and sharing common interests or common friends. We compare these factors in causing the formation of online friendships. Finally, we determine how Douban users' interests are influenced by their online friends' interests.

show abstract

Weak Ties (Strength of)

Tindall

Malinick

2017

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Weak ties are relationships between individuals marked by relatively low levels of intensity and emotional closeness. By contrast, strong ties are relationships that involve high levels of intensity and emotional closeness. The importance of weak ties to a variety of sociological phenomena has been most influentially articulated by Mark Granovetter in the most cited article in sociology, “The Strength of Weak Ties” (SWT). Granovetter argues that most people intuitively expect strong ties to generally be more important than weak ties, because those to whom we are closely tied are more motivated to help us, and are also more likely to be stronger sources of social influence and social support. However, basing his argument on principles of social psychology, Granovetter argues that weak ties are – paradoxically – more important for a variety of phenomena, from helping people obtain a job, to the diffusion of ideas and innovations, to facilitating collective action. This entry describes the key theoretical underpinnings of Granovetter's SWT argument, and its application to various topics including job searches, and collective action and social movements. Also discussed are contextual issues, conceptualization and measurement, virtual networks, and related problems and future research.

show abstract

Bringing Strong Ties Back in: Indirect Ties, Network Bridges, and Job Searches in China

Cited by 1,012 publications

References 35 publications

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

The evolution of friendships in Chinese online social networks

Weak Ties (Strength of)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About