Network dynamics across the career life-cycle: Micro-mechanisms of network development

Looking at networking agency throughout the career life-cycle in a professional service firm (LegalCo) we find distinctive practices of networking agency that come with the tasks and roles of different career stages. Taking a grounded theory approach we identify in our in-depth interviews with lawyers at the junior, mid-career associate and partner level particular activities that differentiate individuals expressing high networking agency compared to other peers that express low networking agency. We then track the patterns of networking agency across the three career stages from junior associate to partner and identify three overreaching mechanisms of networking agency: The seeking out of specific organisational actors, the creation of imprinting ties and the playing on similarities account for distinctively different career experiences for high versus low networking agency professionals. Our study demonstrates that networking agency is an important concept to explain how specific ties become imprinted and thereby provide benefits across several career stages. Networking agency is also a key factor to explain how organisational actors may exploit (or not) homophily in their work context.