Contemporary Management Methods and the Structure of Work Organization in Academic Libraries
Danuta Szewczyk–Kłos
Abstract
After introduction of new telecommunications technologies, implementation of integrated computer systems, such as software for managing resources and distribution of information, and creation of digital libraries it became obvious that it is necessary to introduce changes in the organization of work in libraries.
The library — a non–profit organization — needs one efficient management system which has to be complex but also flexible enough to cooperate with the systems for managing human resources, finances, information and knowledge. The development of academic libraries is determined by implementing changes in the organization of work in the individual departmental libraries at university-level institutions. With new management theories, the traditional, hierarchical management models have lost their efficiency.
This paper discusses new methods of organizing and managing libraries. They rely on team work, job rotation of the staff, low levels of formality, centralization, as well as on cooperation among teams. These methods aim at making access to knowledge and information at libraries more efficient.
Quality Management Methods and their Implementation in Libraries
Recently, because of the dynamic development of data communications technologies and rapidly expanding methods of distributing information, there has appeared a need to improve the functioning of numerous organizations including libraries.
In the last decade there were several conferences organized on the issues of management, quality of services, and work systems in libraries. These problems were also dealt with in numerous papers and studies. In 1997, at a seminar in Gdańsk on the automated library organization and management several papers on these issues were delivered, including those by Zybert [1] and Cichy [2].
A year later, at a similar conference in Cracow on implementing modern technologies in the management of non–profit institutions, one could listen to interesting papers by Derfert–Wolf and Skibicka [3] as well as Feret and Dobrzyńska–Lankosz [4]. The primary goal of the conference was to discuss and popularize the rules of modern organizational management and the exchange of professional experience among the managing staff of academic libraries.
Although contemporary librarians are well aware of these issues, there is still a huge need for professional improvement in this field since, as Professor J. Wojciechowski states:
“... a person, to work in this capacity well, needs not only the indispensable professional skills, but also the ability to manage and organize efficiently, as well as the ability to be managed and to efficiently adjust to organizational structures.” [5]
Therefore it is very important to know how to apply efficient management methods and techniques, which are used successfully in commercial firms that do improve the quality of their services. Before further discussion one has to distinguish precisely between methods of management and techniques of management. Leksykon Biznesu defines methods of management as “sets of activities and tools recommended by scientists and employed by managers in order to enhance the efficiency of management from the point of view of its goals and functions. Methods of management are developed by selecting proper methods of planning, organization, motivation, and supervision, so that they are complementary to one another” [6], while techniques of management are “procedures and instruments that serve to resolve specific management problems” [7].
Contemporary methods of management have already been discussed in the literature on library and information science. In methods of management one can distinguish “soft” methods, in which changes are introduced gradually, while procedures for service rendering are constantly improved. Methods like this are TQM (Total Quality Management) and benchmarking. There are also “hard” methods, in which changes are brought about in a revolutionary manner; a method like that is re–engineering.
Quality management is the most often described method, as well as the most often used one, in the theory and practice of management. The aim of the method, the high quality of services, which one can interpret as “... a set of properties and features that affect the capacity of a product or services (...) to meet genuine or prospective needs” [8] is the main goal and task of any library. The method which seems ideal in this function is TQM.
The philosophy of TQM has been extensively discussed, especially within the framework of contemporary methods of management. It was introduced in Poland, in the framework of the library sciences, in 2000 in the habilitation dissertation by Ewa Głowacka (Głowacka, 2000). Her dissertation shows the basic assumptions, views of the experts and the development of TQM in the 1980s and 1990s. She also discussed the basic tools of the complex quality management system and the TQM implementation models in the library and scientific information systems in Poland and abroad.
The assumptions to be adopted while implementing TQM have been formulated in fourteen points by one of the leading proponents, W.E. Deming (Deming, 2000). For library management, Głowacka suggests that comprehensive quality management should be used, and in short this can be described as follows:
- — a library’s mission should be stated as permanent improvement in the user service;
- — activities to increase quality should be more efficient, the level of quality should be monitored;
- — a permanent control system is to be implemented as internal and external audits;
- — in tendering the best, and not the lowest, tender is to be selected;
- — the users’ needs should be permanently monitored;
- — the staff should receive regular in–service training in TQM procedures;
- — managing staff training should be aimed at efficient problem–solving;
- — the staff should realize that they are capable of working more efficiently;
- — barriers are to be removed between library sections and the users;
- — limits set on the amount of work to carry out a given task should be abolished;
- — quantitative task assignments should be abolished;
- — appropriate work condition standards are to be introduced;
- — regular training cycles for staff members designed to increase their professional skills should be carried out;
- — persons or organizations related to the library should be informed about new rules for managing collections and about services.