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

Abstract

Purpose

This 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/approach

Variance-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.

Findings

The 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/value

This 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.

Citation

Agnihotri, S., Shiva, A. and Kalia, P. (2024), "Investigating the interplay of organizational social capital, university image and perceived employability on career satisfaction of information technology professionals", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-02-2024-0033