How Institutional Contexts Shape the Use of Weak Ties and Online Social Networks

• In Event: 478 - Section on Economic Sociology Paper Session. Getting a Job - 40 Years Later: Advances in Labor Markets and Networks Research (co-sponsored with Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work)

Abstract

By comparing job seekers’ use of weak ties and practices of online social networking in Israel and the U.S. this paper shows that Granovetter’s canonical findings are rooted in the particular institutional context of the American white-collar labor market. Drawing on in-depth interviews with three distinct groups of white-collar job seekers: Americans searching in the U.S., Israelis searching in Israel, and Israelis searching in the U.S., this paper untangles cultural and institutional factors underlying the use of weak ties and shows how labor market institutions and processes of hiring shape systematic variations in job seekers’ utilization of weak ties and online social networks.

Author

• Ofer Sharone, Massachusetts Institute of Technology