Networking in the Time of Covid

Bibliographic Data

ID5901255
AuthorsJennifer Militello (0000-0002-2472-5781, University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume6
Issue2
Pages92
Publication date2021-05-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages6020092
OpenAlexW3163682013
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited31

This study examines how during COVID professionals in the financial sector in Hong Kong experienced adaptations to previous ways of networking and what the material outcomes were. Becoming acquainted traditionally relies heavily on face-to-face interaction to advance and cement feelings of trust that eventually lead to successfully concluded transactions. Using linguistic ethnography, I interviewed 36 professionals about networking during COVID. For all three aspects of networking (creating, cultivating, and utilizing relationships for attaining professional goals), participants indicated significant changes as embodied co-present interactions all but ceased and were replaced by computer-mediated communication, including video platforms such as Zoom. Many, but not all, participants indicated that they had made either no new, or a greatly decreased number of new professional acquaintances, compared to pre-COVID times. The cues that would be present in face-to-face interaction were largely viewed as essential for establishing trust in deepening relationships and achieving professional goals such as concluding transactions. There were some compensatory affordances such as more 'objective' evaluations and equalization for those in more peripheral geographic locations. The material outcomes were that, for most, new relationships were significantly handicapped, resulting in networks in a state of stasis, a situation that privileged extant connections and those with strong professional networks

Affordance · Cognitive psychology · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Embodied cognition · Ethnography · Extant taxon · Face (sociological concept · Face-to-face · Feeling · Gesture · Internet privacy · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Medicine · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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Open DOIOpen Access