Transforming administration in academic libraries

Journal of Academic Librarianship

Volumn 23, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 183-190

  Honea, Sion M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0038969047     PISSN: 00991333     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0099-1333(97)90097-5     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. This approach is highly influenced by Edgar Schein's approach to the analysis of organizational culture as he elaborates it in Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2nd ed. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1992). I will make no attempt at the elaborate penetration of what Schein calls "basic assumptions," but merely wish to emphasize the importance of environmental assumptions on the functioning of an organisation. Charles Handy also notes the important role that overall organizational environment plays in Understanding Organizations (New York: Oxford, 1993), pp. 136-13
2. This approach is highly influenced by Edgar Schein's approach to the analysis of organizational culture as he elaborates it in Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2nd ed. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1992). I will make no attempt at the elaborate penetration of what Schein calls "basic assumptions," but merely wish to emphasize the importance of environmental assumptions on the functioning of an organisation. Charles Handy also notes the important role that overall organizational environment plays in Understanding Organizations (New York: Oxford, 1993), pp. 136-13
3. Handy, Organizations, p. 141.
4. Christopher Lasch, The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (New York: Norton, 1995).
5. Ralph Stogdill, Individual Behavior and Group Achievement (New York: Oxford, 1959), pp. 280-284. My concept of self-actualization is based, in large part, on that of Abraham Maslow, but is somewhat less strictly defined. Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
6. Ralph Stogdill, Individual Behavior and Group Achievement (New York: Oxford, 1959), pp. 280-284. My concept of self-actualization is based, in large part, on that of Abraham Maslow, but is somewhat less strictly defined. Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
7. Frederick Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management (New York: Harper, 1929), esp. p. 36 ff.
8. This tension between organizational culture and reality is a characteristic of the ineffective "unadaptive" organization. See John P. Kotter & James L. Heskett, Corporate Culture and Performance (New York: Free Press, 1992), pp. 44-57.
9. I have provided the full tree for the sake of completeness. Traditionally conceived, professional staff are expertise staff, while support staff are "workers." Neither of these would qualify as management, though they might be supervisory. A major trend in libraries, however, is the assumption of real managerial duties by professional staff. There are many important implications in this trend.
10. Peter F. Drucker, The Practice of Management (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), p. 203.
11. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, The Change Masters: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Corporation (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 56.
12. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, p. 281.
13. Chester I. Barnard, The Functions of the Executive (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1968), p. 100.
14. Drucker, The Practice, pp. 208-209, 220-224: Kanter, Change Masters, pp. 267-268.
15. Drucker, The Practice, pp. 208-209, 220-224: Kanter, Change Masters, pp. 267-268.
16. Sion M. Honea, "Preservation at the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music," Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, 53 (1996): 385, 392-395.
17. Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior (New York: Free Press, 1976), pp. 212-214.
18. For a proposed method of addressing this problem, see Drucker, The Practice , pp. 222-224.
19. Simon, Administrative Behavior, pp. 102-103.
20. Ibid., pp. 234-240. Simon presents a superb analysis of centralization versus decentralization in decision making.
21. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, p. 284. John Kotter, writing nearly 30 years after Stogdill, is consistent with him in noting that, as complexity increases, an organization must decentralize and correspondingly depend on individual leadership and decision, Power and Influence (New York: Free Press, 1985), esp. pp. 24 ff.; and The Leadership Factor (New York: Free Press, 1988).
22. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, p. 284. John Kotter, writing nearly 30 years after Stogdill, is consistent with him in noting that, as complexity increases, an organization must decentralize and correspondingly depend on individual leadership and decision, Power and Influence (New York: Free Press, 1985), esp. pp. 24 ff.; and The Leadership Factor (New York: Free Press, 1988).
23. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, p. 284. John Kotter, writing nearly 30 years after Stogdill, is consistent with him in noting that, as complexity increases, an organization must decentralize and correspondingly depend on individual leadership and decision, Power and Influence (New York: Free Press, 1985), esp. pp. 24 ff.; and The Leadership Factor (New York: Free Press, 1988).
24. Sally Helgesen, "Leading from the Grass Roots," in The Leader of the Future, edited by Frances Hesselbein et al. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1996), p. 22.
25. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, p. 278.
26. Ibid., pp. 281, 284.
27. Ibid., p. 283.
28. Ibid., p. 280, 75-77. This corresponds well with Argyris' observation that workers in a work place that ignores their individual needs develop activities subversive of the formal organization. Stogdill is saying that production may continue at a certain level in a situation of low morale, but disintegration of the group inevitably results. It is this disintegration that affects performance and can ultimately destroy the group.
29. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, p. 281.
30. Chris Argyris, Integrating the Individual and the Organization (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1990), p. 7.
31. Barnard, Functions, p. 279.
32. Ibid., p. 282.
33. James MacGregor Burns, Leadership (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), esp. pp. 41-42. Burns' study of this process takes place over the first five chapters of the book and cannot be reduced to a single citation.
34. Burns, Leadership, p. 72.
35. Ibid., pp. 29-46. Burns' needs-based theory of personality is founded largely on the work in psychology of Abraham Maslow, already cited.
36. Ibid., p. 42.
37. Ibid., p. 41.
38. The principles of independence of action, involvement with the environment, increasing acquisition of skills and challenges, need for contextual relevance of work, increasing sense of self-control and awareness sum up Argyris' basic individual needs, the complete exposition of which may be found in Personality and Organization (New York: Harper, 1957), pp. 49-51.
39. The brief account here is essentially a summary of the bulk of Argyris' book Personality and Organization, already cited.
40. When I was formerly responsible for creating and organizing a preservation program, I was continually struck by both the persistent emphasis in the literature and the empirical evidence for the reality of this attitude. How many other of the typical library staff positions, especially the lower ones, exhibit these same characteristics? Too many higher positions are still mired in task supervision when the changing environment calls for their involvement in management and leadership roles. Drucker remarks on this issue in The Practice, pp. 99-104, 325, 331-333.
41. Stogdill, Individual Behavior, pp. 278-282.
42. Ibid., p. 285.
43. Ibid., p. 289.
44. Burns, Leadership, p. 72.
45. Argyris, Integrating, p. 146 ff.
46. Peter Drucker makes some very interesting observations on how the increase in computerization necessitates the downward extension of decision making through an organization in The Effective Executive (New York: Harper Business, 1993), pp. 159-165.
47. This process has much in common with Mary Parker Follet's concept of "integration," now 70 years old and more. Mary Parker Follet, Dynamic Administration, edited by Henry C. Metcalf & L. Urwick (New York: Harper, n.d.), p. 30 ff.
48. Morgan W. McCall, Jr. et al., The Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1988), pp. 19, 22-23.
49. McCall, Lessons, pp. 21-24, offers a very good and brief precis of the main areas of experience, which are: the real work environment, human relationships, and self-awareness.
50. Schein, Organizational Culture. Schein's book, though not the whole picture, is exceedingly important in connection with developing leadership potential in an organization.
51. McCall, Lessons, p. 22.
52. Argyris' book, Personality and Organization, is helpful in this connection, providing a good introduction into the elements of the personality.
53. McCall, Lessons, pp. 136-137.