Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • December 2020
  • Article
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Why Connect? Moral Consequences of Networking with a Promotion or Prevention Focus

By: F. Gino, T. Casciaro and M. Kouchaki
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Networks are a key source of social capital for achieving goals in professional and personal settings. Yet, despite the clear benefits of having an extensive network, individuals often shy away from the opportunity to create new connections because engaging in instrumental networking can make them feel morally impure. In this paper, we explore how the motives people have when engaging in networking impact these feelings and, as a result, change how frequently they engage in networking and their job performance. Across a correlational survey study, a laboratory experiment (with samples from the United States and Italy), two online studies, an organizational network survey study, and a field experiment with professionals (total N = 2,522), we examine how self-regulatory focus, whether promotion or prevention, affects people’s experience of and outcomes from networking. We find that a promotion focus, as compared to a prevention focus or a control condition, is beneficial to professional networking as it lowers feelings of moral impurity from instrumental networking. As such, networking with a promotion focus increases the frequency of instrumental networking as compared to a control condition, while networking with a prevention focus decreases frequency of instrumental networking as compared to a control condition.

Keywords

Networking; Impurity; Morality; Motivation; Regulatory Focus; Networks; Attitudes; Moral Sensibility

Citation

Gino, F., T. Casciaro, and M. Kouchaki. "Why Connect? Moral Consequences of Networking with a Promotion or Prevention Focus." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 119, no. 6 (December 2020).
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Francesca Gino

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • Harvard Business Review

    Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust

    By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino
    • January 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Institutionalized Entrepreneurship: Flagship Pioneering

    By: Gary Pisano and Francesca Gino
    • January 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Strategic Agility: Lessons from the Game of Poker

    By: Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano
More from the Authors
  • Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino
  • Institutionalized Entrepreneurship: Flagship Pioneering By: Gary Pisano and Francesca Gino
  • Strategic Agility: Lessons from the Game of Poker By: Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College