Obstacles for Networking

Published by Guest Author at February 10, 2014

We are always promoting that networking in the Society of Jesus is a way to offer joint responses to regional or global apostolic challenges that cannot be met by our institutions acting on their own. Many of you are encouraging us through messages that show your agreement with the general intuition behind this project. This post wants to answer your request to also understand the “dark side” of Jesuit Networking. Let’s highlight the main difficulties we usually find in our attempts at networking in the real world:

Weak sense of universal mission. A first difficulty consists in the lack of a sense of the Society being called to contribute to a mission that extends beyond the local ministry. Without this sense of a wider mission, the emphasis of our action is limited to one locality, while the importance of the global level is neglected. As a result, important challenges of a global nature appear to be in competition with urgent local needs.
Individualism. Certain unhelpful attitudes can flourish in institutions, such as self-sufficiency and individualism. The failure to fulfill commitments that an individual or an institution has assumed can jeopardize the survival of a network since confidence is undermined.
Lack of sufficient resources. Practical obstacles also exist; these may include the absence of human and financial resources dedicated to the network, the lack of resources for good communication, or the inability to use such resources. Often there is much good will, but also an inability to use horizontal participation to identify visions and objectives for the network; this results in a network empty of contents.
We are not used to horizontal leadership. Our present mentality is also sometimes an obstacle. We are not accustomed to horizontal leadership, where decisions are made by consensus and we respond to commitment collectively. Such leadership requires rendering account of our work and often we are not prepared for that.
Organizational culture. The establishment of intersectorial and interprovincial networks sometimes may not be favored by the Society’s organizational structure, which entails a certain understanding of authority and of the procedures and behaviors required by authority. Diversity is part of the Society’s potential, manifesting itself in the variety of apostolic sectors, provinces, languages, cultures, etc. At the same time, diversity can become a major obstacle to achieving joint plans and agendas.

We hope you find these ideas worthy of thought, especially if you are really involved in networking or considering the development of new structures for the mission. If you think something is missing or you want to express your own experiences regarding difficulties or pitfalls when trying to network, please contribute to our common reflection in the comment section below. It is this way, rather than through messages, that will better show how we can build up a common dialogue to express ourselves, learn and evolve.
This post is part of a document wrote by the Social Coordinators of the Conferences in May 2013 titled Networking in order to respond better to our mission. Networks of the social apostolate in the Society of Jesus. Recently published in Promotio Iustitiae, n° 113, 2013/4, also available on our website [English] [Spanish] [French]. Photo from Flickr by innercore under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Guest Author

Our blog is open to the participation of guest authors who are interested in contributing content that is aligned with the overall goals of the project. Jesuit Networking is a platform to promote networking related to the Jesuit mission. If you have a proposal for content, please feel free to send us a message at [email protected].

1 Comment

Jesuit Networking – Value Added of Jesuit Networks says:

March 31, 2014 at 12:10 am

[…] can be achieved by other means only with difficulty. Previously in this blog we’ve focused on obstacles we usually find in our attempts at networking in the Jesuit world, but we’ve also argued, with Jorge Cela, that networking offers real […]

Obstacles for Networking

Guest Author

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