Across these overlapping and interconnected motivations for networking, a number of issues are raised consistently as obstacles to effective networking and, by implication, as obstacles to effective performance and career development. In particular, time pressure, competitive tensions and the practical challenge of
building, managing and benefiting from networks represent the most substantial difficulties faced.
The most consistently cited challenge to networking of all kinds is time pressure and intensive work
demands. The issue of work intensification and stress was raised as a theme by over two-thirds of those
interviewed, and often discussed at some length. The impact of the substantial (and often increasing) pressure of work on the ability to network was substantial and felt especially acutely when managers attempted to engage in the less formal networking, such as establishing a relationship with a mentor, or maintaining learning sets after the completion of a training programme:
We had learning sets with, you know, people from similar roles, backgrounds, et cetera, which I found really, really useful. The minute that, that programme finished and we tried to carry those on, it lasted about a month. And everybody got subsumed again into their daily grind. (. . .) I make a commitment that I’m going to start doing that again. And then the next time I look up, it’s been 6 months and I’ve just been sat in the office and never left the hospital. And it’s terrible; really terrible how that happens. We just all get totally consumed by our individual organisation’s problems.
Other, more formal, networks such as professional associations and practice-related networks also had
their effectiveness undermined by the difficulty in maintaining active engagement levels:
There is the allied health professional network but it’s not always that well attended. Everybody is under such huge pressure now, there is just no time to do anything
Belinda, general, Acute
I find that (the clinical networks) are out there but fitting it into the day job, you know? It’s about managing how you fit everything in. The first thing that goes, rightly or wrongly, is yourself; (. . .) if your diary’s full and you’re desperate for an appointment, well, oh, yeah, cancel the network meetings
Hugh, general, Acute
There are a lot of events that (the professional body) hold as well, but I have to say to be honest I’ve only been to a few because I can’t seem to get out at the minute.
Danielle, functional, Specialist
In practice, and with little immediate prospect of a significant decrease in work intensity, the challenge,
even for those convinced by the importance of networking, is to maintain a balance so as to protect this long-term activity in the face of more immediate work demands.
Networking with a focus is absolutely essential, that kind of going and learning and bringing the learning back, going and looking, absolutely essential, we don’t do enough of that. There is a balance to be struck about how you create the capacity to do that and the spin-offs that can be learnt from that versus the number crunching, the day-to-day grind meeting, the must-dos, keeping the front door open and not taking your eye off that ball.
Laura, general, Care
The potential for knowledge exchange through networks is most clearly impeded by the presence of
competitive tensions between trusts. This obstacle was affirmed by a number of interviewees across the
trusts, but particularly among general and functional managers and most frequently in the acute and care trusts:
When we meet, we are directorate managers, same level, but also, we are working for a foundation trust. A foundation trust has to survive as its own, as a business. And that’s the dark side to the NHS, I guess, but that’s what FTs have to do. And so there is a sharing of information but titrated sharing of information, should I say, is a better way of putting that. Because some of it is service sensitive, business sensitive. So some information you would share, some you wouldn’t. (There are certain) constraints on the free flow of information, definitely.
Hasin, general, Care
The barriers described here related not only to information of a commercially sensitive nature, as might be
expected, but also to knowledge that was not clearly confidential, such as lessons learned from experience
in a particular area, guidance on good practices or even information on future developments which were not widely announced.
At one extreme, this may be seen to constitute a complete barrier to network formation between particular groups or organisations:
Basically, I don’t network with them because they are the competition! So I can’t ring them up and say, ‘Oh, I’m doing this business case . . .’ I don’t feel able to.
Graham, functional, Care NETWORKS AND NETWORKING
86
A common means to balance this tension between the necessity of networking and the danger of
knowledge sharing in a competitive context relates to the‘titrated sharing of information’ discussed earlier
by Hasin (general, Care). In practice, this involves a careful selectivity in terms of what can be discussed at the expense of a fuller and more effective knowledge-sharing process.
So here, when you’re in a foundation trust and you’re surrounded by other foundation trusts, there’s not a huge willingness to work together as organisations, because you’re in direct competition. So you probably find less that people would get together and discuss the issues and the problems they’re having, their risks, when you’re in direct competition. I’m seeing (colleagues at another trust)
tomorrow afternoon, we’re going to have a conversation about a couple of things we might be able to work together on. And then we’re going to avoid a conversation about all the other issues that we’ve got because, you know, that could result in difficulty. So that doesn’t help, I don’t think. You would hope we’d all be mature enough to have those conversations but I think it just doesn’t work.
Greg, general, Acute
Elsewhere, these formal competitive tensions appear to be more stratified, presenting more rigid barriers
to formal requests to knowledge sharing, but allowing a freer exchange of information through managerial tiers in which personal networks have been established.
I would say we were permanently in direct competition with a fairly large trust (nearby). When we look where we are on some sort of report it will be like ‘Oh my God where are they?’ (. . .) And yet we’ll go to a conference at the end of the month and we will all go out and have way too much to drink together. So I know that I can ring their head of X up and say, ‘can you just send me a copy of your policy?’ and they’ll send it me. Interestingly a little bit lower than that level that isn’t there (. . .) The ward sister asked a similar ward sister over there for their document – not a hope! ‘No I haven’t got it’!
Bridget, functional, Acute
Afinal, and more individual, obstacle to networking lay in the personal discomfort in engaging in
networking and, for some, their lack of the often sophisticated interpersonal skills necessary to network
effectively. A strong injunction to network was a message clearly received by a significant minority of
managers, particularly those who had attended formal management/leadership training programmes: What came through (on the course) was they were saying network, network, network. That’s it. That is what it’s about.
Pavak, general, Specialist
However, a number of interviewees spoke at length about their personal distaste at this activity, because they were uncomfortable with the instrumentality implicit in networking, particularly for career or
influence, sycophancy, or inauthentic behaviour. Many expressed their unwillingness or inability to engage
in‘brown-nosing’ or ‘sucking up to’ senior or influential colleagues within or outside the organisation
(Felix, functional, Acute), even when encouraged to do this:
I found it uncomfortable – I wouldn’t do that. And even though I’ve been here 3 years, that’s not what I would do. I still find it strange now.
However, several interviewees who expressed this discomfort went on to say that they had later come to recognise the value and importance of networking and that they had eventually overcome their qualms in this regard:
When you first start (on the graduate training scheme) they go on about networking and you can’t . . . I remember thinking I can’t be bothered. And it just seemed to me like, forgive my terminology because I can’t think of any way else to describe it, but brownnosing people. It just felt like that to me. But as you mature which I did when I started, you realise how important it is.
Felix, functional, Acute
Although networking is often a form of socialisation for managers, it is clear that managers were not equally socialised into engaging in networking activity, over time accepting its apparent importance or inevitability and attempting to suppress their disinclination or compensate through the development of networking skills.