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5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 266 of 293

  • 6 - Communication skills

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 97-118

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The aim of this chapter is to provide an outline of the communication skills required by team leaders and supervisors. Excellent communication skills are at the heart of teamworking and they involve people in thinking about the person to whom they are communicating, what they want to communicate, and the most effective means of getting their message across. This chapter considers the following topics: communications in organizations, communicating with the team, e.g. briefing teams and individuals, leading meetings, listening and presentation skills and using virtual communication tools.

    Communications in organizations

    It is traditional to classify the communications processes in organizations into formal and informal systems.

    Formal communications

    Formal communication systems are those set up by the organization to ensure that the organization and its staff work towards their goals in an efficient and effective manner. Formal communication processes include:

  • • Written communications:

  • — formal letters, minutes of meetings and memos

  • — annual reports

  • — procedure manuals.

  • • Verbal communications:

  • — manager's briefings

  • — formal meetings.

    • Large organizations often have a department, frequently the marketing or communications department, that is concerned with internal as well as external communications. Individual managers and team leaders may be provided with guidance about the communication standards within their organization and department. However, the communications processes within a department or team are the responsibility of the managers, team leaders or supervisors. In small organizations individual managers will take much greater responsibility for all communication processes including external communications relevant to their department.

    Informal communications

    Informal communications include written communications such as notes, birthday cards and e-mails, and a whole range of activities such as gossip, discussions over lunch or in the pub and informal meetings over a photocopier. An important difference between formal and informal communications is that while the management of an organization has some control over the formal communication processes they have little control over the informal ones.

  • 8 - Human resource management

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 137-156

  • Summary

    Introduction

    As a team leader or supervisor you are likely to have contact with the human resources or personnel department when dealing with people issues. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the types of processes and activities that are involved in human resource management. This will help you to know and understand how the work of these specialists can support and help you in your work.

    An important point to note is that if you are involved in a staff issue then it is always best to obtain expert advice from human resource specialists before attempting to tackle the problem. Employment legislation is constantly changing and developing, and this makes it imperative to ask for specialist assistance when dealing with staff issues.

    The topics covered in this chapter are: human resource management, recruitment and selection, performance management and appraisal processes, disciplinary and grievance procedures, health and safety, managing absence, and equal opportunities and diversity. A useful and standard textbook on the subject is Torrington et al. (2005).

    Human resource management

    Large organizations will typically include a human resources department (previously called the personnel department) which is concerned with the strategic management of staff so that they support the goals and objectives of the organization. The human resources department is likely to take on the following responsibilities:

  • • administration of recruitment and selection

  • • servicing contracts of employment

  • • health and safety

  • • personnel policies and procedures

  • • supporting team leaders and managers in their dealings with their staff

  • • consultation with the recognized trade unions and other employee representatives

  • • workplace learning and development

  • • development and maintenance of personnel management systems

  • • provision of employment information, including statistics, for use within the organization and by related outside bodies

  • • presenting the organization's personnel policies and views in appropriate forums outside the organization.

    • Smaller organizations may employ one or two human resources officers and their function may be more narrowly focused on recruitment and selection, industrial relations, employment policies and practices, and health and safety.

  • 3 - Confident leadership and supervision

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 31-50

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The purpose of this chapter is to introduce a range of ideas that will help the new and developing team leader or supervisor to become confident in working with others. This chapter offers a number of different models that may be used by team leaders as a tool for reflection and personal development.

    The chapter starts by considering some of the characteristics of confident team leaders. This is followed by the presentation of the assertiveness model which offers a useful framework for exploring, understanding and developing individual behaviour. The concept of emotional intelligence was developed in the USA in the 1990s and this model is presented here because it offers a pragmatic approach to exploring the emotional side of leading and working in teams. This chapter includes a section on problem solving and provides a framework for tackling problems in the workplace. This is supported by a long case that demonstrates the application of problem-solving techniques to the type of problem that commonly arises in libraries and information services. Finally, the issue of the management of change is outlined and developed through a framework that explores individual responses to change.

    Confident leadership and supervision

    Confident supervisors and team leaders are people who are able to lead their teams: they know where they are going; they have a range of strategies for getting there; and are able to handle the people issues that inevitably arise in a clear and honest manner. These leaders and supervisors may not always know the ‘right answer’ or the ‘best approach’ to carrying out a task but they have the confidence and leadership skills to work with their team and others to identify and put into place the most appropriate set of actions. While confident team leaders still experience the types of problems and situations common to many teams, e.g. personality clashes, problems with disaffected and demotivated staff and high workloads, they will be pro-active in bringing these issues out into the open and attempting to solve them. An analysis of the ways in which confident supervisors and team leaders work produces the following list of common characteristics.

  • 4 - Motivation

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 51-68

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter presents some common motivation theories that help to explain some of the ways in which team leaders can motivate their team. The final section of the chapter covers motivational drivers that may be used to help motivate individuals or a whole team. These motivational drivers are particularly useful because they provide insights into the ways in which we can influence individuals or the whole team through our use of language. This chapter includes a range of case studies and examples. Case study 4.1 is a long one and this is referred to in the subsequent sections on motivation theory.

    Introduction to motivation

    A motivated team is essential if you want to provide a high-quality information and library service. Motivated teams are a pleasure to work with and mean that, as team leader, you look forward to going to work in the morning. In contrast, demotivated teams are challenging and require a careful development process if they are to change. If you ask individuals about what motivates them at work then you are likely to obtain a range of responses including:

  • • being able to pay the mortgage and other bills

  • • doing a good job

  • • helping people

  • • learning new things

  • • doing an interesting job

  • • developing my career

  • • working with friendly people

  • • not doing the same thing every day • being able to make my own decisions.

    • Understanding what motivates individuals and how to improve their motivation is vital to being an effective team leader.

    Case study 4.1 The new team leader

    The accessions team in a public library was made up of five team members: two parttime clerical assistants (Joan and Jane); two administrative officers (Clare and Tom); and a qualified librarian (Andrea). The team had experienced a number of difficulties in the past three years including loss of a treasured team leader due to cancer; two new team leaders who only stayed for nine months each; change in their work, i.e. rise in purchase of DVDs and CDs and fall in the number of books purchased; threat of closure of department with the idea that acquisitions would be outsourced. Morale in the department was very low and this was illustrated by high rates of absence due to sickness, errors in their work and slow processing of new stock.

  • 7 - Managing and leading complex teams

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 119-136

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Team leaders and supervisors may be asked to lead a complex team or, as a result of their role, they may be asked to join such a team or project. The purpose of this chapter is to consider some of the challenges involved in managing and leading different types of complex teams. This includes partnership teams which may be multi-professional, i.e. made up of representatives from different professional groups, or teams involving members from different organizations (who may be from the same or different professional backgrounds); diverse teams where members may come from a wide range of national and cultural backgrounds; and also virtual teams. This chapter will help you to lead or to be an active and effective team member in a complex team.

    Working in collaborative and multi-professional teams

    Partnership is one of the most complex and difficult ways in which to work. When it works even reasonably well, however, it can bring some of the best results for the end-user.

    Dakers (2003, 47)

    Information and library workers have always had a tradition of networking and collaborative working both within the profession and also with other professional groups. In the last decade, governments, agencies and organizations have raised the profile of partnership working as they see this as one way of meeting the needs to modernize and develop new approaches to working and delivering services in a complex and rapidly changing environment. A scan of the current ILS literature reveals that many information workers are now involved in developing and delivering a wide range of services through partnerships. Pilling and Kenna (2002) provide an overview of many collaborative projects and partnerships in the information and library world.

    Sullivan and Skelcher (2002) highlight the rise in collaborative working between public, private and the voluntary and community sectors and they map out how collaboration is central to the way in which public policy is made, managed and delivered in the UK. Partnership working is currently popular with the UK government where it is seen as an important strategy for tackling complex and interlinked issues such as crime, education, health and housing in our inner cities.

  • 1 - The role of team leaders in ILS

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 1-12

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This introductory chapter sets the context of leading and supervising teams in information and library services (ILS). The chapter discusses working as a team leader or supervisor; the role and the responsibilities; the context of library and information work; and the background to approaches to management including the strategic planning process.

    Working as a team leader or supervisor

    Working as a team leader or supervisor normally involves responsibility for a team plus their work. The team may be relatively small or large and may be located in one building or spread geographically across a country. Virtual teams are becoming increasingly common in ILS. Coming into the role of team leader for the first time may involve taking responsibility for an experienced team that has been established over a long period of time. It may involve working as a team leader with staff who perhaps applied for your position and were unsuccessful. Sometimes team leaders are appointed with the task of developing a new team from scratch. Case studies 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 provide typical examples of team leaders in today's information and library world.

    Case 1.1 Information work in a museum

    Sam has taken up the role of team leader of a small team made up of two part-time library assistants and an information officer. They work in a specialist information service associated with a museum. Sam has never worked as a team leader before and her main concerns are that she is younger than her colleagues and has little experience of working in the museum sector as her previous experience was as a school librarian.

    Case 1.2 Information skills team leader in an academic library

    Jane has taken over responsibility for leading a team of six information skills specialists in an academic library. She is confident that she can do the job as she has just moved into her new role from a similar role elsewhere. Her main concern is that one of the team members made an unsuccessful application for the job. She is not looking forward to meeting this person for the first time.

  • 9 - Workplace learning and training

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 157-176

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter outlines approaches to managing workplace learning, and then identifies and explains the planned workplace learning cycle. This cycle may be used to implement any type of workplace learning activities, e.g. coaching sessions, demonstrations, training events. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of different types of workplace learning activities including e-learning, coaching, and learning through reflection.

    Context of workplace learning

    Team leaders in the 21st century face many challenges including the need to ensure that their team has the knowledge and skills required to produce high-quality work. We are working in a rapidly changing environment – one that is characterized by accelerating change, continuing information explosion and continuing changes to communication and information technologies. In addition, new approaches to living, working and learning as illustrated by the shift to a 24/7 society, the development of a mobile and global workforce, and the expansion of learning from traditional places such as schools, colleges and universities into the community and workplace have provided further challenges for information and library services.

    In recent years there has been a shift in emphasis from the idea of training and development to the concept of lifelong learning and continuous professional development (CPD). What is training and how is it distinguished from concepts such as development, continuous or continuing professional development and lifelong learning? In practice, people often use these words interchangeably:

  • • Training. Often used to refer to learning that is associated with the development of very specific skills and behaviours that are required in the workplace. Training may take place through a wide range of activities, e.g. through instruction, coaching, on-the-job training and e-learning. It frequently involves attending specific training events organized by the employing organization or a professional association such as CILIP.

  • • Development. A broader term including all types of learning that are associated with personal and career development; these may or may not be work-related. It takes place through gaining a variety of work experience, attendance on education and training programmes, e.g. university or collegebased degree or diploma, and workplace activities such as mentoring.

  • • Continuous or continuing professional development (CPD). Relates to the idea that learning and development is an ongoing process and essential for individuals involved in any kind of professional practice.

  • 5 - Social and economic impact

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 77-89

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Direct impact on individuals, and on the specific groups which the library serves, has been discussed in the last chapter. However, alongside that kind of impact measurement, there has been growing interest among librarians in recent years in trying to assess the broader social and economic impacts of their services. In other words, what does the library mean in terms of the development and sustenance of communities and societies? What does the existence of a library add to the economic performance of a city, region or nation?

    ■ Social impact

    Studies of social impact start from the observations that all organizations have effects on the societies within which they operate, that they have responsibilities to those societies and that the extent of their impact needs to be monitored and assessed. The concepts of social responsibility and social impact were brought into sharp focus by the events of 3 December 1984 at Bhopal in India:

    Shortly after midnight poison gas leaked from a factory in Bhopal, India, owned

    by Union Carbide Corporation. There was no warning, none of the plant's

    safety systems were working. In the city people were sleeping. They woke in

    darkness to the sound of screams with the gases burning their eyes, noses and

    mouths. They began retching and coughing up froth streaked with blood.

    Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic, some were trampled, others convulsed

    and fell dead…. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets.

    (www.bhopal.net/index1.html)

    Subsequently the factory's owner, the Union Carbide Corporation, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, had to pay $470 million in a legal settlement. The company's website states: ‘Since the time of the incident, the chemical industry has worked to voluntarily develop and implement strict safety and environmental standards to help ensure that an incident of this type never occurs again’ (www.bhopal.com/).

    Partly as a result of incidents like this, it is now accepted that good governance requires that all organizations monitor and take positive action on their impacts on society, with responsibilities going far beyond mopping up after adverse effects have been noticed. It is also worth noting that, while in the UK and USA shareholders still remain dominant, in many other countries a much broader view of corporate stakeholding is taken.

  • 3 - User satisfaction

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 35-53

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    The days when a service organization could ignore its customers and concentrate on its internal targets are long gone. Hopefully, all libraries have moved away from the customer-as-nuisance viewpoint, what Moore (1992) characterized as the ABC (Another Bloody Customer) approach to customer service:

    all too often we are made to feel that simply by being a customer we are trespassing upon someone's leisure time; or making their life unnecessarily complicated. In some cases, usually in shops selling computers or hi-fi equipment, we are made to feel that, as customers, we fail to come up to the intellectual level of the people serving us.

    Libraries now accept that they must be user-centred and show empathy with their customers. In other words, the focus of all their services needs to be on the individuals and groups who will make use of them, rather than on the library's own processes or on the materials and other resources which the library collects or to which it provides access. A small caveat needs to be added to this statement to recognize that many national and specialist libraries do focus on collection development, conservation and preservation. However, even in these cases, users of the future inform decisions on acquisition, retention and conservation priorities in the present. It follows that statements of library purpose, which as Chapter 1, ‘Background’, suggested need to drive performance measurement, will have a clear user focus.

    The idea of focusing on users, or customers, has a long history. In librarianship it was most memorably expressed by the Indian librarian S. R. Ranganathan in his ‘laws of library science’, formulated 75 years ago (Ranganathan, 1931):

  • • books are for use

  • • every reader his book

  • • every book its reader

  • • save the time of the reader

  • • a library is a growing organism.

    • Interestingly, this approach preceded the adoption of similar principles in industrial and commercial organizations, which only really started to adopt customer-focused approaches in the aftermath of World War 2. A series of influential figures, known as the ‘quality gurus’, started to promote the idea that the quality of a product or service could only be assessed by reference to the intended user and the intended use.

  • 7 - Processes

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 106-112

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Efficiency of operation – essentially the transformation of available inputs into the maximum number of high quality outputs, or the production of the required number of high quality outputs from as few inputs as possible – is an important part of performance measurement. Apart from any other consideration, accountability for the use of, often public, funding requires that processes are as efficient as possible. Libraries have addressed this requirement for many years. In this chapter we will look at some of the ways in which efficiency can be measured.

    A useful perspective on assessing process performance is to think of the organization as a series of units which are dependent on each other, acting as each other's suppliers and customers. The following example illustrates the point:

    The professional librarian may decide to order the book in the first instance on the basis of either an earlier request or an assessment of likely demand. He or she then becomes the customer of the acquisitions department which is to arrange for the item in question to be purchased. In turn the acquisitions department becomes the customer of an external supplier. When the book is delivered, the acquisitions department supplies it to the cataloguer – another customer/supplier relationship. Each department of the library will in turn be the customer and the supplier as the book travels down the chain until eventually the circulation department supplies it to the end user, the external customer.

    (Brophy and Coulling, 1996)

    This idea has been encapsulated in the concept ofquality chains, encouraging a stress on the importance of internal customer satisfaction. Using classic definitions of quality, we can ask whether the product which is handed over to the next person in the chain is fit for that person's purpose and meets that person's requirements. Asking these questions provides a powerful tool for identifying where things may be going wrong, or where inefficiencies may be occurring. As with all chains, the strength of the whole is defined by the strength of the weakest link.

  • 6 - Inputs

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 90-105

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    This book has deliberately chosen to put the spotlight on effectiveness, outcome and impact measures in its early chapters, reflecting a concern shared by most professionals to show how much good a library does. However, there are many occasions when it is important to measure inputs – resources which contribute towards the delivery of the service itself; processes – the work done to transform the raw inputs into useful products and services; and outputs – those things, including the intangibles, which are produced. The next three chapters focus on these topics.

    ■ The library profile

    One vehicle for presenting input measures is the ‘library profile’ and many reports and studies use this approach. In essence the idea is to draw a picture of the library in terms of what resources it has to draw on. These include stock held, contracts for access to information sources, buildings, staff, IT equipment, financial resources and various types of infrastructure. There is always a temptation in presenting such data to imply that ‘the bigger the better’. So a larger building, it is implied, is better than a smaller one. A larger bookstock is better than a limited one. All other things being equal, these statements are probably true but it is rare for all things to be equal. Apart from anything else, the purposes of the library and the purposes for which the resources are held will differ over time and between organizations.

    ■ Library statistics

    When measuring inputs, processes and outputs it is common to make use of quantitative (i.e. statistical) data. Indeed, this is so much the norm that it may be taken almost for granted. Such data may be presented in terms of the individual branch, the individual library, a sector or by some other grouping.

    Most libraries issue an annual report of some kind, which contains much data of this type. For example the British Library's Annual Report contains a section headed ‘Statistics’ (the 2004–5 version is at www.bl.uk/about/annual/2004to2005/pdf/statistics.pdf).

  • 11 - Services for all

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 138-146

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    In measuring the performance of a library or information service, it is easy to concentrate almost entirely on the broad picture and thus lose sight of the service being received by particular user groups. In this chapter we will be looking at ways in which success in meeting the needs of such groups can be assessed. A particular emphasis will be placed on users with disabilities (or, more properly, different abilities). However, all libraries should carefully consider how they are addressing the needs of all the subgroups in their populations, bearing in mind comments such as that in Chapter 5, ‘Social and economic impact’, that ‘the public library service has not yet managed to engage freely with ethnically diverse communities’ (and there is no evidence that other sectors are any better). By developing the library profile (see Chapter 6, ‘Inputs’) to include such groups, regular measurement of performance in meeting specific requirements can be encouraged. Williams (2004) suggests that libraries should be considering, and monitoring their performance in serving, people who are ‘different’ in all of the following ways:

  • • age

  • • ancestry

  • • cognitive style

  • • cultural background

  • • economic background

  • • ethnicity

  • • gender

  • • geographic background

  • • language(s) spoken

  • • marital/partnered status

  • • nationality

  • • disability (mental, learning and physical)

  • • physical appearance

  • • political affiliation

  • • race

  • • religious beliefs

  • • sexual orientation.

    • As a general principle, the more that services can be differentiated to meet the specific needs of individuals and groups, the greater satisfaction with those services is likely to be and the more probable it is that customers will return time and time again. For this reason, there has been considerable interest in the possibilities of personalization, and this is the topic we turn to first in this chapter.

    ■ Personalization

    The idea behind personalization, in terms of electronic services in particular because it is there that the scope is greatest, is that each individual should be able to tailor the ‘look and feel’ of the information which is displayed on their workstation, so that it matches their personal requirements both in terms of content and presentation. An advantage of this approach is that it enables people to express their individuality and their personal needs for themselves.

  • 14 - Standards

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 166-174

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    There are considerable benefits from the development and use of standards in performance measurement, not least reduction in individual effort and the possibility of producing results which are truly comparable. It is not surprising, therefore, that over the years different sectors have developed standards and guidelines as a basis for service, some of which have statutory backing. For example, public libraries in England and Wales have been required by law to offer a ‘comprehensive and efficient service’ since the Public Libraries Act of 1964, though what is meant by that has in the past been poorly defined. An attempt to resolve this came in the early 2000s with the development of public library standards to try to provide a yardstick for assessing service economy, efficiency and effectiveness (see below). Another example can be found in the health service sector, where a standards-based approach to accreditation was introduced in 2002 by the Health Libraries and Information Confederation (HELICON), which remarked that ‘part of the quality improvement process in libraries is the development of standards that can be used to assess and support library and information services in providing cost-effective, client-centred services’ (Fowler and Trinder, 2002).

    In addition to sectoral standards and guidelines, there is a small number of formal international standards which have been developed by experienced professionals and have received endorsement by the national standards authorities such as BSI and NISO. These are described later in this chapter.

    ■ Public library service standards

    Public library standards were introduced in April 2001 in the UK and subsequently modified in the light of experience and following the publication of the major report,Framework for the Future, in February 2003 (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2003). In 2006, public libraries were expected to meet standards defined in terms of ten criteria (www.culture.gov.uk/NR/ rdonlyres/07070797-AE22-4064-8BAF-FEEE2ABA99F9/0/libstandards_ 06.pdf):

  • • the proportion of households living within specified distance of a static library

  • • aggregate scheduled opening hours per 1000 population for all libraries

  • • the percentage of static libraries providing access to electronic information resources connected to the internet

Page 266 of 293