Effects of Networking on Career Success: A Longitudinal Study

Previous research has reported effects of networking, defined as building, maintaining, and using relationships, on career success. However, empirical studies have exclusively relied upon concurrent or retrospective designs that rest upon strong assumptions on the causal direction of this relation and also depict a static snapshot of the relation at a given point in time. This study provides a dynamic perspective of the effects of networking on career success and reports results of a longitudinal study. Networking was assessed by six subscales that result from combining the facets of 1) internal vs. external networking and 2) building vs. maintaining vs. using contacts. Objective (salary) and subjective (career satisfaction) measures of career success were obtained for three consecutive years. Multilevel analyses show that networking is related to concurrent salary and moreover, that it is related to the growth rate of salary over time. Networking is also related to concurrent career satisfaction. As satisfaction remained stable over time, no effects of networking on the growth of career satisfaction were found. Copyright statement The copyright of this document has been transferred on behalf of the authors to the American Psychological Association (APA), Journal of Applied Psychology. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. This document has been posted for the purpose of discussion and rapid dissemination of preliminary research results. Author note The authors would like to thank Jeff Johnson and James LeBreton for their advice on relative weights analyses. Research reported in this paper has been supported by the Hans-Frisch-Foundation. Networking and Career Success 1 © by American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/journals/apl Running head: NETWORKING AND CAREER SUCCESS Effects of Networking on Career Success: A Longitudinal Study Draft Version June, 6th 2008 Copyright statement The copyright of this document has been transferred on behalf of the authors to the American Psychological Association (APA), Journal of Applied Psychology. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. This document has been posted for the purpose of discussion and rapid dissemination of preliminary research results. Author note. The authors would like to thank Jeff Johnson and James LeBreton for their advice on relative weights analyses. Research reported in this paper has been supported by the Hans-Frisch-Foundation. Networking and Career Success 2 Abstract Previous research has reported effects of networking, defined as building, maintaining, and using relationships, on career success. However, empirical studies have exclusively relied upon concurrent or retrospective designs that rest upon strong assumptions on the causal direction of this relation and also depict a static snapshot of the relation at a given point in time. This study provides a dynamic perspective of the effects of networking on career success and reports results of a longitudinal study. Networking was assessed by six subscales that result from combining the facets of 1) internal vs. external networking and 2) building vs. maintaining vs. using contacts. Objective (salary) and subjective (career satisfaction) measures of career success were obtained for three consecutive years. Multilevel analyses show that networking is related to concurrent salary and moreover, that it is related to the growth rate of salary over time. Networking is also related to concurrent career satisfaction. As satisfaction remained stable over time, no effects of networking on the growth of career satisfaction were found.Previous research has reported effects of networking, defined as building, maintaining, and using relationships, on career success. However, empirical studies have exclusively relied upon concurrent or retrospective designs that rest upon strong assumptions on the causal direction of this relation and also depict a static snapshot of the relation at a given point in time. This study provides a dynamic perspective of the effects of networking on career success and reports results of a longitudinal study. Networking was assessed by six subscales that result from combining the facets of 1) internal vs. external networking and 2) building vs. maintaining vs. using contacts. Objective (salary) and subjective (career satisfaction) measures of career success were obtained for three consecutive years. Multilevel analyses show that networking is related to concurrent salary and moreover, that it is related to the growth rate of salary over time. Networking is also related to concurrent career satisfaction. As satisfaction remained stable over time, no effects of networking on the growth of career satisfaction were found.