Effects of Job Characteristics on Attributes of Developmental Networks in the Early Career Stage

Abstract

The aim of this article is to inspect the effect of job characteristics on attributes of "Developmental Networks (DN)" in the early career stage. Three hypotheses below based on the previous researches were verified through the questionnaire survey targeting young employees of two medium-sized shipbuilding firms.Hypothesis 1: Two job characteristics - " task variety" and "teamwork" - have a positive influence on the structure - number, diversity and strength - of DN.Hypothesis 2: Three personality factors -extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeablenesshave a positive influence on the structure - number, diversity and strength - of DN.Hypothesis 3: The structure - number, diversity and strength - of DN has a positive influence on the amount and variety of DN functions.As a result by the covariance structure analysis, hypothesis 1 was supported and hypothesis 2 and 3 was partially supported. That is, the job characteristics had indirect but significantly positive influences on the amount and variety of function of DN. In other words, two job characteristics - "task variety" and "teamwork" - stimulated DN to be both quantitatively and qualitatively rich in functions which is necessary for the development of young employees. And it was revealed that the job characteristics had more influences on the function of DN than the personality factors.Based on these findings above, it was suggested that the teamwork which is a distinctive trait of operation organizations in Japanese manufacturing companies had the effectiveness for the development of young employees. And the possibility to enrich young employees' DN by the job design was also suggested.