Harvard Business Review Article

Rosabeth Moss kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and she has written an article which deals with the importance of networking in the current life, and more particularly in the work place.

Indeed, she has observed a change in the organization of the companies. In the 20th century, the hierarchy was determined by the position of people and their power. Now, we can observe in the vanguard companies that the organization structure is rather horizontal than vertical. It means that the power of a company is holding by few people in order to take the decision, but more people are perceived as “integrators”, as they have a lot of connections and that may serve to the company. Before, the skills required were the technical knowledge, but now it is not enough, connections are more relevant. Of course, it implies a change in the career success: people may move faster to a better job if they get the best networking.

We may make a parallel with social media which reflects this new behavior. Indeed, more you have contacts, more you get importance in the society or in the work place. On Twitter or Facebook, you are friends with people you know but also with people you don’t know, it is the principle of “the friends of my friends are my friends”.

Every day people may meet new contacts, but all depends on how you deal with these new contacts. You might be a connector which means that people use their relationship in the same team or company in order to become a leader. By this way, it enables them to be perceived as a necessary element in a company, and they get a better job quickly.

Formal assignments are necessary for a team member or an employee in order to know what are his goal and objectives; and connectors’ skills enables him to improve his work thanks to another source of information.

I agree with the fact that nowadays connections are very important in order to evolve quickly in the work place. Moreover, it is important to keep contacts and to maintain good relationship with them because it could serve in the future.