The Effects of Organizational Embeddedness on Development of Social Capital and Human Capital

This article examines the effects of organizational embeddedness on employees' activities to build social capital and human capital. To test a latent growth model, we collected data from 375 managers at multiple points over an 8-month period. We found that the more embedded employees perceived themselves to be at Time I. the more likely they were to show declines in social capital development behaviors over time. In addition, declines in social capital development behavior were directly related to declines in human capital development behavior over time. These findings highlight the potential negative consequences embeddedness can have on employees' career development activity.