“What's in it for us?” Six dyadic networking strategies in academia

Abstract

Networking skills have become increasingly important in the pursuit of academic success. Yet, relatively little has been published in scientific journals about networking in the academic context. To learn more about the importance of academic networking, the Young European Association for Communication Research and Education (YECREA) organized a panel entitled “Successful Networking for an Academic Career: The Importance of Interpersonal Communication”. The panel was held during the annual meeting of the Language and Social Interaction Division at the Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland) in October 2013. The present conference report elaborates on the findings from the panel discussion that emerged between senior and junior scholars. Six, seemingly paradoxical yet complementary, pairs of networking strategies are discussed: active–passive; strategic–spontaneous; vertical–horizontal; instrumental–relational; interest-driven–task-driven; what is in it for me–what is in it for us networking.