사회적 네트워크 유형 별 내향 중심성이 직무 스트레스에 미치는 차별적 영향

As interdependent tasks have been increasing and the necessity of smooth communication among employees has been emphasized in organizations, scholars and practitioners are interested in the effects of social support from social relationships on job stress. Drawing on a social network perspective, we examined that social ties among organizational members influenced the level of job stress which they experience. We especially expected that the types of social networks in which employees were embedded (task-advice networks, friendship networks, and negative affect networks) were respectively linked to the provision, reception, and absence of social support, which in turn led to differently affecting individual job stress. According to the results of this study based on the survey data from employees in two organizations, the persons who occupied in-degree centrality in friendship networks were more likely to receive social support from the other employees and then their levels of job stress reduced, whereas the employees who were located in in-degree centrality in negative affect networks were less likely to receive social support from the other members, resulting in increasing the level of job stress they experienced. In addition, we hypothesized the U-shaped relationship between in-degree centrality in task-advice networks and individual job stress. In other words, we anticipated that the central persons in task-advice networks to the certain level tended to experience lower levels of job stress by the increased sense of control and self-esteem about themselves, and beyond the optimum level they were likely to experience higher levels of job stress because they were excessively granted the role of providing social support to the others. However, this hypothesis was not supported. This study suggests that the extent of centrality by the types of social networks differently influences the levels of job stress which organizational members experience.