This simple sentence clarifies the use of networking to me, how a stimulus causes response. I think it's important to note when its co/operative and when its selfish as slowly but surely one way or another it'll effect our professional reputations for the good or bad.
I am hugely interested in the way in which we co-operate, our behaviour in public and when communicating is it strategic rather than genetic?
Why and how do we form close relationships?
These questions lead to 'Affiliation'
- to affiliate
1. (tr; foll by to or with) to receive into close connection or association (with a larger body, group, organization, etc.); adopt as a member, branch, etc.
2. (foll by with) to associate (oneself) or be associated, esp as a subordinate or subsidiary; bring or come into close connection he affiliated himself with the Union
n [əˈfɪlɪɪt -ˌeɪt]
a. a person or organization that is affiliated with another
b. (as modifier) an affiliate member
affiliation n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
A few months ago I was lucky enough to land a part in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' along side friend that I'd recently graduated with.
Just from the 'meet and greet' session you could get a jist of where 'introvert' and 'extrovert' personalities lay in the cast. At first some professionals kept themselves at distant with fellow cast members they didn't know or hadn't heard of. "...introverts are likely to steer clear of social interaction to avoid their arousal from reaching uncomfortable levels. In contrast, extroverts, who have low levels of arousal seek out social situations to stimulate a desirable level of arousal (Johnson and colleagues (1999)" I can relate to this theory just from reflecting back on how the cast members had different levels of desire to affiliate.
After the shows each night everyone would gather in bar for drinks and "chat" this was one of my favourite parts of having this job as there was also a piano in there so one could often have a sing song which led to other gigs, during this period I met alot of interesting people and 'networks' who I'm still in contact with on a regular basis today. On the train home one night my friend/colleague said "Why and how do you find it so easy to talk to V.I.P's?" this question shocked me as I hadn't realised she'd been struggling and it had obviously been an issue, her low esteem stopped her from thinking she had the 'right' to start a conversation with a stranger in that atmosphere. This confused me as she didn't come across as having a 'Introvert' personality at college.
This leads me to "The privacy regulation theory...our desire for privacy (versus affiliation) can vary from being open to others or closed off to others, even in the space of a few hours"(Altman, 1975) Why? well to put it in simple language, we judge how much interaction with others we want depending on how we feel, on our desired level of contact at given time.
With my friend I think her ability to affiliate is not only down to how she feels as I know she would prefer to be talking to someone than not. She said she can't think of the conversations to make in the first place, this is down to confidence. This could have been effected by many different factors some being her home life(family) college (friends or teachers) workplace, childhood and so on.
Could this affect her professional practice?
The casting director from this job helped me land my next contract, this also leads me to the question.
Do you we need to affiliate for survival as professionals?
Hi Jo - in my case most definitely yes to the question you pose. Affiliation is necessary for me in order to achieve validation on my professional practice as well as to learn from the affiliation. Thanks for your post
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