Case Study: New Librarian in Town

New Librarian in Town 17

Case Study: New Librarian in Town

Group 6: Lavonne Jahnke, Tiffany Keagy-Klier, and Michael Mishler

Managing Information Organizations: INFO 640-900

Professor Catherine Collins

Drexel University

We certify that:

• This paper is entirely our own work.

• We have not quoted the words of any other person from a printed source or a website without indicating what has been quoted and providing an appropriate citation.

• We have not submitted this paper/project to satisfy the requirements of any other course.

Signature: Tiffany Keagy-Klier

Date: December 6, 2010

Table of Contents

Statement of the Problem……...………………………………………………………..…3

Statement of the Facts of the Case………………………………………………………...5

Statement of Alternative Courses of Action, Their Advantages and Disadvantages……..6

Evaluation of Courses of Actions………...…………………...………………….……… 7

Certainty of Occurrence of Advantages and Disadvantages……………..………..………9

Selection of the Best Alterative……………………………………………..……...……10

Group Strategies and Responsibilities...…...... ……..……………………………………11

References.……...…….……………………………………………….…………………13

Appendix..……...………..…………………………………………….…………………15

Statement of the Problem

Our case involves numerous problems. However, we have consolidated them into three main problems which ultimately lead to the singular problem facing our librarian. The three problems we have identified are: collection development is based on the personal beliefs of the existing staff, which project their values into the materials the library provides to people; the librarian's staff directly and frequently undermines her collection development decisions; and finally, it appears the existing staff is too intimately connected with members of the board of trustees. A more thorough discussion of each of these problems follows below culminating in the identification and brief discussion of the central problem.

The issue of collection development is troublesome because it is in direct opposition to the ALA Bill of Rights which states, “Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation. (ALA BOR, 1996)” In the words of one staff member the library and its collection should be “perfectly respectable [and for the] use of people with some sense of decency.” This same member went on to state “Isn’t it awful what’s being published these days?” These statements are revealing not just of the bias of the employees in material selection but also reveal how they run the library. A related issue stemming from this is that there is no community input when it comes to the selection of materials. Here again the current library practice differs from the ALA. The lack of community input can be viewed as disregarding equity of access. In the words of the ALA, “Equity of access means that all people have the information they need-regardless of age, education, ethnicity, language, income, physical limitations or geographic barriers. It means they are able to obtain information in a variety of formats-electronic, as well as print. It also means they are free to exercise their right to know without fear of censorship or reprisal. (ALA EOA, 2010)” From the facts of our case patrons might fear reprisal as the libraries staff is intimately connected to influential community members the so called invisible government of Tunbridge. This leads into problem number two.

Claudia's staff directly and frequently undermines her collection development decisions. Put simply, this can be seen as censorship a direct violation of the public's First Amendment rights. It also goes against the American Library Association core values of equal access to information and its Bill of Rights as mentioned above. The lack of formal organizational structure allows this censorship to take place. The populace of South Tunbridge is unable to openly access information. Instead, they are left with the decisions made by members of the staff who feel they have the communities’ best interest in mind but who frequently reject materials. Evidence of this comes from the following statements from the development staff, “We don’t think this would be suitable for the collection, dear, so we better not purchase it (case study).” These responses can be seen as benign but they undermine Claudia and the library in general.

The third problem is that the current staff is too intimately connected with members of the library board of trustees. This makes future management of the library difficult, especially when Claudia and her staff may disagree. This could be especially true with regard to collection development and issues of equity of access. There are no healthy management boundaries and there is a lack of respect shown by the staff towards Claudia. Most of this behavior on the part of her staff may seem benign but in truth it is very self-serving. They want to keep the status quo while Claudia would like to bring much needed and helpful changes.

These three smaller problems ultimately lead to the central problem facing Claudia, her lack of leadership. Her inability to transition into this role and to lead with clarity and force has allowed for the problems with collection development both with selection of materials and with her staff. Currently Claudia lets the staff control her and set the tone and direction of the library through a mixture of their kind but forceful personalities, and their intimate relationships with the library board. Claudia needs to step up into her role as director and lead. Her predicament is best described by a Winston Churchill quote, “leadership is taking people in a direction they would not otherwise go" (Baldwin, Chapter 7, p.229). Put another way, Claudia faces the challenge of leading her staff and the library into the twenty-first century, a direction they do not want to go. She has to be the one to set a new tone and lead this library into a new era. There are a number of ways she can go about establishing her leadership and these are discussed in the next section.

Statement of Facts of the Case

South Tunbridge Free Library is a small library addressing the needs of a small town. Claudia Delane is a relatively new librarian with no prior managerial experience. Fresh out of library school, Claudia was warned by friends that the small library would be much different than her university experience.

Her staff is small, five people, with some higher education and years of experience with the town. There is a perceived relationship between the staff and trustees, which may be inappropriate. The staff has voiced their perception of the library's mission to be open foruse by people with a common sense of decency and to be protected from filthy materials that couldwarp the minds of the young. As a result, of this censored collection, material orders are denied by a clerk’s belief that the material is inappropriate. The clerk continues to resist placing orders Claudia submits. Claudia has not addressed this situation, but instead has let it continue unchecked. The community, unaware of this censorship, has not complained about material selections. To this point, Claudia has only heard praise for the library. Claudia’s predecessor was once a clerk at the same library, who got her degree, and was a librarian there for 30 years. She still drops by from time to time and can provide further insight if Claudiapursues a new path for her library.

Statement of Alternative Courses of Action, Their Advantages and Disadvantages

Delane has several alternative courses of action form which to choose, which we’ve listed in a table in the appendix. For example, should she choose contract with key parties, she engenders transparency but could risk sparking resistance to change. She could try 360 feedback, which could help her identify staff who possess leadership skills, but again, it could fuel resentment or resistance. Interventions would be a dramatic choice, but could backfire and breed morale problems. Evaluations, as described by Gabarro, seem like a reasonable alternative since it would directly involve and empower staff to be recognized for high quality performance. Creating a hearts and minds mission statement could be positive, or it could be met with an attitude of complacency if it’s being oversold. Approaching the board is another bold choice, but could alienate staff and make them feel like their input isn’t important. TQM would be the most comprehensive course of action, but since Delane is so new, it means it would also take the most time to both plan and execute.

Evaluation of Courses of Action

Many of the actions Delane could take are best described in Chapter 10 of Baldwin. Different and useful models are described in that chapter, but a practical model combines them all in a way that Delane can be flexible with her options. We took some actionable items from these models, listed and evaluated their viability.

For the first action, there is no way Claudia Delane can move forward without this. The five staff members are key parties, but also are members of the board and community. Delane must identify to these customers the changes she needs to make by using concise links with the mission and values of the library. Other examples, like in Moghaddam’s article on “Total Quality Management, (2008)” describes these customers stake holders with the same need for Delane to communicate clear values for an effective plan. All the parties involved will need to be acutely aware that this process is the pursuit of building organizational mission and values, not personal agendas.

The second course of action involves using feedback in a 360 degree learning action. Feedback from the customer is one of the best tools any manager can use (Baldwin, Ch.5.) This feedback can be delivered by developing a library surveys both internally and externally. A survey based on customer service and collection development should be developed by all staff before implementation. The survey can then be dispersed by using virtual and physical means throughout the community the library serves. To get as much feedback as possible the public must also be allowed to remain anonymous. The information gathered during this process can be later translated into a second phase, where performance evaluation links directly to customer satisfaction. Again customers are considered stakeholders who hold value in the library. Board members and Delane will also be given feedback from staff about their performance and expectations.

Interventions are another course of action to consider. Staff has already displayed problems and resist changing may need more stringent interactions. Delane can do well taking responsibility for how she contributed to the problem, such as book order processing. Stone (1999) describes this in three steps she will need to accept about herself in order for interventions to take place. She needs to admit she will make mistakes, intentions can be misunderstood, and she truly contributed to the existing problem. Fear of being seen as weak or incompetent should not stop her from being honest with her staff about the problems that exist. Stone also implores that you cannot control the outcome of a person’s response and sometimes mediation is necessary when all other avenues have been exhausted.

Evaluations are another course of action we considered. This course of action was described in Baldwin, but also in Gabarro and Ford. Evaluations can be used as a tool to encourage directing activities towards the goal of the organization. They also set a tone for what expectations everyone will attempt to fulfill for the betterment of the organization. The evaluation action may be something enacted later, after the initial adjustments are made, such as working with key players in creating more realistic job descriptions or re-defining team goals. Gabarro (1985) states that 30% of more significant action should take place three to six month after the initial changes. This may involve rewards, promotions, transfers or a termination, it depends how each individual meets the challenge of fitting into the new version of the library.

The last three courses of action were develop a mission statement based on the “Hearts and minds” theory (described in Armstrong, “How to Manage People,” 2008); Approach the board directly and begin the plan; or begin a Total Quality Management process as described in Mogahaddam, (2007.) The first may be too simple for the changes Delane needs to make. The second may change the relationship she has with all the stakeholders, not in the way she would want or expect. TQM, the last item, is acceptable, but would take extensive training and time to implement. See the full table of actions with detailed advantages and disadvantages in the appendix section of the paper.

Certainty of Occurrence of Advantages and Disadvantages

The certainty table we came up with lists our alternative courses of action and the likelihood of their success were they to be incorporated by Delane. The percentages are simply and estimate and best guess derived from a mixture of our understanding of the course readings and the case description. From the case description it is clear that the staff of the library is highly resistant to and insulated from change. Change of any sort seems to greatly upset them especially if it is change brought on them from the outside. If Delane is to establish her leadership role as the new director of the library she cannot simply attempt to force change on her staff. This will result in the staff either ignoring her completely or worse yet resenting her.Simply put, she will fail at becoming the leader and will likely always be challenged and undermined by her staff.Instead she needs to involve her staff while still coming from a position of power and authority.The way to do this is to adopt that action of contracting with the key parties.This course of action has the highest likelihood of success because it involves the key players and makes the change open and transparent while keeping Ms. Delane in a position of authority. It is very similar to the Tichy "Cycle of Leadership". This cycle is best summed up by the following: “first wake up the staff to the need for change and deal with the resistance… leaders need to be strong, but not necessarily social.Then craft a new vision and align people to it, and finally re-architecting or eliminating the old visions and working relationships (Tichy, 2002).” Other courses of action are less likely to meet with success because rather than involving the key players in the change that is to occur they either bypass them, stir up too much resentment, or they may be seen as banal.