The social capital of corporate leaders

The concept of social capital has been linked to a variety of individual outcomes but a review of social capital and leadership literature reveals that there is no body of empirical research that links social capital to leadership.; The general thesis of this research is that the social capital of leaders can be a significant source of their ability to influence others and that the nature of the relationship between social capital and leadership influence is moderated by the leader's level of authority. I argue that social capital is a resource for leaders in much the same way that human capital is considered a resource. For example, types of social capital might serve as cues for the cognitive processes that people use to perceive and evaluate leadership. This observation, while applicable at all levels of leadership, is moderated by the organizational level at which leadership is exercised.; In order to analyze this relationship, I collected survey data on the social networks of approximately two hundred corporate leaders while collecting leadership ratings on these leaders from more than one thousand of their co-workers. The subsequent analysis provided insights of interest into the amount and type of social capital of different sets of corporate leaders.; This dissertation sought to identify and examine possible theoretical linkages between the two previously unrelated concepts of social capital and leadership. Although this research did not identify any significant support for the hypothesized relationships, it provided support for many earlier findings in the field of social capital and leadership. This research also developed theoretical insights into the contingent nature of the relationship between the concepts of social capital and leadership. The results of this analysis suggests that there is a need for relevant network measures based on the nature of contacts in individual social networks for the study of social capital and leadership. A further exploration of the role that social capital plays in the exercise of leadership could provide a more multi-dimensional perspective to a range of issues that are of importance to the field of strategic management.