The forms of social capital acquisition in career developments of women: A research on independent women board of directors

In recent days, it can be said that the most inclusive theory that clarifies the rise of women in business life is accepted social network approach taken from social capital and sociometry studies. It is possible to consider social capital and social networks as complementary to each other and social capital as an asset hidden in social networks and actuated by social networks. Since human relationships are not quantifiable and statistically measurable, methods of social network analysis have been developed. Human capital and social capital levels are influential for women managers to be elected board members. But recent research has emphasized that human capital alone is not enough for women to reach senior management level. It is important to understand social capital and social networking relationships that enable and facilitate women to attend senior functions such as board membership in business. In this research, the social capital acquisitions and social networking features of women in their career development and social capital and social acquisition forms of the independent women board members have been examined in order to fill the vacancy in the literature. The way in which women acquire and use social capital for their career development is different from men. This study has contributed to social capital literature what kind of activities or activities should be carried out for the increase of social capital of women and how they should be based on gender and being influenced by social norms in relation to social networking, in order to determine how the social capital is distributed in the society, to which elements the increase or decrease of the social capital level of women depends on. In this study, the data of social capital and social network relationships obtained from the secondary data of 70 independent female board members of Borsa İstanbul A.Ş. between the years 2014 and 2016 were used. Using the UCINET social network analysis program, the centrality, betweenness, structural holes, center/periphery values of each independent female board member were calculated and the positions of the internal and external group members in the network organization were determined. At the end of the study, it is expected that in the career development of women, the binding social capital they acquire by the network relationships (homogenous) of only-women is low (proposition-1). It is hoped that there is a high degree of brokerage with the intermediary values at the highest level and that these relationships are established by actors of supportive agents who make professions such as mentor, consultant, sponsor or coach (proposition-3). It is expected that there will be a large number of informal network connection in networks and tendency to be included in informal groups (proposition-5). When we look at the level of social capital that links and bridges women relationships with (heterogeneous) networking with men's networks, there is no valid result for all women (proposition-2). Finally, it has emerged that women with multiple directorships of board directors do not have a centralized and high level of external social capital in the social networks, and that the low external social capital is not the reason for having a large number of board membership (proposition-4). These results have made it clear what kind of social capital is more important for women's careers development. Key Words: Women Social Capital, Women-only Networks, Old Boys Networks,Informal Networks, External Social Capital