Why do people network? Professional networking motives and their implications for networking behaviors and career success
Journal
Journal of Vocational Behavior
ISSN
0001-8791
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2023-04
Author(s)
Research Team
Mihwa Seong (Post-Doc), Eugenia Bajet Mestre (PhD student), Professor Dr. Gudrun Sander (PRIMA Host & CCDI Director) Professor Dr. Winfried Ruigrok (CCDI Director), Nicole Alonso (Former Post-Doc)
Abstract
Professional networking involves a series of goal-directed interpersonal interactions that build and maintain professional relationships and include the exchange of work and career-benefiting resources. Despite the utility of professional networking, many people eschew the activity, which has spurred interest in the question: “why do people network?” Drawing from psychological theories of personality and behavioral prediction, we offer a theoretical basis for Professional Networking Motives (PNMs) that accounts for prior explanations for why people network. We verify and elaborate upon our initial theoretical conceptualization of PNMs by drawing from a series of semi-structured interviews of industrial and organizational psychologists based in the United States to identify the domain-specific content of PNMs (Study 1). We further posit that “why” people network (i.e., their PNMs) has implications for “how” they network (i.e., networking behaviors) and their career success. In Study 2, we develop and validate a measure of PNMs based upon occupationally diverse samples based in the United States, and we use a time-separated research design to evaluate whether PNMs differentially predict networking behaviors and career success. We illustrate the value of understanding people's motives for professional networking, as certain PNMs are more important than others for promoting different types of networking behaviors and forms of career success. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our study and offer suggestions for future research to deepen the understanding of professional networking and PNMs.
Language
English
Keywords
Professional networking
Career success
Networking behaviors
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
None
Refereed
Yes
Volume
142
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
269474