Underdog Spanning: How and When Newcomers With Less Prestigious Status Employ Strategies of Upward Networking for Career Advancement

Abstract: Upward networking is crucial for newcomer career success, but is challenging for those with less prestigious status, particularly compared to more prestigious colleagues. Based on underdog research and social capital theory, this study finds that newcomers with less prestigious status adopt different upward networking strategies than their more prestigious counterparts, affecting their promotability. Less prestigious newcomers tend to network with high-level employees outside their workgroup (external upward networking), while those of higher prestige engage more within the workgroup (internal upward networking). The external upward networking strategy, however, may be of a greater benefit to newcomer promotion. We found support for our theoretical model across two studies. Supported by two studies - one analyzing data from 3525 newcomers in a large enterprise and another with a vignette experiment involving 157 elite and non-elite graduates - our research highlights how prestige status influences newcomers' networking strategies and career advancement.

Keywords: upward networking; newcomer career success; newcomer status