networking

networking, the development, maintenance, or use of social or professional contacts for the purpose of exchanging information, resources, or services. A professional network can be thought of as a web or series of interconnected webs—whereby links or ties exist between focal individuals and the individuals or entities with whom they share a connection or relationship. Networking typically occurs between two individuals but can be examined as an interaction between groups, companies, or institutions.

Industrial and organizational psychologists have been primarily concerned with how networking affects individual employment status and career mobility. For instance, in the context of searching for a job, networking refers to contacting social and professional acquaintances, or other persons to whom the job seeker has been referred, to gain information, leads, or advice. Research suggests that as many as 60–90 percent of individuals find jobs by networking, as opposed to traditional job-search methods, such as sending out lead inquiry résumés or responding to advertisements. Similarly, individuals also use networking for gaining promotion, increasing visibility, or seeking career advice or mentoring (i.e., for the purpose of upward career mobility).

Both the degree to which people engage in networking and the types of people with whom they network seem to play an important role in determining career outcomes, as well as in framing the structural characteristics of individuals’ current social and professional networks. The structural characteristics of networks include things such as the size of one’s network, the strength of ties that exist between focal individuals and other individuals or entities in their network, and the diversity that exists among and between the various individuals or entities in one’s network. In addition, the power and influence held by individuals in one’s network may play a particularly important role in whether networking will lead to upward career mobility. More specifically, the occupational status of one’s contacts (e.g., a high-ranking manager versus a low-ranking nonmanager) may determine their ability to exert influence on one’s career outcomes (e.g., hiring or suggesting that one be hired, exposing one to challenging projects that help one gain visibility in the organization), as well as the quality of information they have and are able to exchange (e.g., access to important leads, or reliable and accurate career advice).