Investigating the interplay of organizational social capital, university image and perceived employability on career satisfaction of information technology professionals

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between organizational social capital, university image, perceived employability and career satisfaction of information technology (IT) professionals. It also aims to investigate the moderating effects of diverse age groups of IT professionals on the antecedents and consequences of career satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachVariance-based partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyze a dataset of 412 responses from IT professionals. The predictive relevance of career satisfaction was estimated through PLS predict, and the relative importance of determinants was analyzed through importance-performance map analysis (IPMA). PLS Multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA) and measurement invariance of composites (MICOM) were used to estimate the moderating effects of age groups.FindingsThe findings of this study indicate that university image is perceived as the crucial factor for career satisfaction by IT professionals followed by perceived employability and organizational social capital. Gender was found to be a positive predictor of career satisfaction. PLS-MGA results indicate that organizational social capital is a prominent predictor of career satisfaction for middle-aged professionals as compared to young professionals as the latter consider university image to be more important.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine the relationship between organizational social capital, university image, perceived employability, and career satisfaction of IT professionals in a developing country context.

Guest editorial: Employability for and through career transitions

“…Article 5: insights from undergraduates in Australia Grantham and Iachizzi (2024) Article 9: insights from graduates in India Agnihotri et al (2024) investigate the relationship between organisational social capital, university image, perceived employability and career satisfaction among IT professionals in India. Utilising a cross-sectional survey of 412 graduates, the study reveals that university image is perceived as the most critical factor for career satisfaction, followed by perceived employability and organisational social capital.…”