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in that networking and success are measured at the same time, so it is not clear what is causing what. For instance, it may be that successful people have more social contacts not because the networking produced their success but because others want to be in touch with them to obtain the benefits of their status. Thus, the study by the German academics Wolff and Moser is particularly informative because of its longitudinal design. They measured networking behavior in October 2001 and then did follow-up surveys late in 2002 and 2003 with more than 200 employees in Germany. Their measures of career success were total compensation and a career satisfaction scale. Networking affected career satisfaction, concurrent salary, and salary growth over time, with the two most important networking behaviors being “maintaining external contacts” and “building internal contacts.”5

Another longitudinal investigation considered the effect of being competent at networking on career advancement. This study, by Italian business school professor Arnaldo Camuffo and some colleagues, sought to assess the effect of MBA education by looking at what happened to people who graduated from a part-time MBA program in Venice. Competencies were assessed by the students themselves, their classroom peers, and objective observers using structured interviews. Competencies did affect career advancement as measured by both salary progress and promotions. The study showed that networking was the second most important competency, following only the use of technology in importance in explaining how well these managers did. This study plus research in Germany and Australia shows that networking is important in business contexts outside of the United States, too.

We have previously discussed at least one mechanism that makes networking important for career success—salience. You can’t select what you can’t remember, and that includes professional advisers, candidates for leadership positions, or job applicants. The effect of mere exposure on preference and choice is important and well demonstrated. Networking brings you into contact with more people and keeps you in contact with them, thereby increasing the chances that when they need advice, want to find an investment partner, or are thinking of a candidate for some position, they will remember you. Thus, effective networking creates a virtuous cycle. Networking makes you more visible; this visibility increases your power and status; and your heightened power and status then make building and maintaining social contacts easier.

NETWORK SKILLS CAN BE TAUGHT AND LEARNED

Although people have different levels of social skill and different preferences for how they spend their time, there is some evidence that people can learn how to diagnose network structures and become more effective in developing their social capital, with positive effects on their career. University of Chicago professor Ronald Burt worked with the Raytheon Company to develop an executive education program, called the Business Leadership Program, with a strong network component. Raytheon, a large electronics and defense contracting company, faced the challenge of “how to coordinate across the organization silos of its acquired companies and its many product programs.”6 BLP was offered to directors and vice presidents to enhance their ability to get things done across internal organizational boundaries.

Evaluation of training is inherently difficult, because in the real world, people are not randomly selected to attend (expensive) executive development activities. Because more senior and more highly rated and capable people are those typically chosen to participate, the fact that such people typically do better along numerous dimensions is not surprising, nor does it reflect the effects of the program. To deal with this issue, the researchers estimated an equation predicting who would be chosen to attend sessions of the BLP. They then constructed a control group of people predicted to be eligible to attend the program but who had not yet attended,