In Jan. 2001 I
was asked if I had any resources on:
Conflict Management
- for resolving conflict between
"librarian managers and
paraprofessionals"
Below
is my response:
Resource links
Conflict
Mangement Sites
I don't know of any "websites"
that deal with just
"conflict management
between librarians and
paraprofessionals".
But there are many websites
with general workplace
"conflict management"
ideas for everyone who deals
with these issues. I
think that the concepts and
ideas that these "general"
sites list - would most
certainly work for conflicts
between librarians and
paraprofessionals..which
is actually "boss,
supervisor" versus their
"workers" or those that they
"boss or supervise",
and of course between co-workers.
The human dynamics of
the workplace is pretty much the same everywhere.
But if you think there
is something "unique" about the
relationship of librarians
and paraprofessionals that
makes their conflicts
harder or more difficult to
resolve..I have not found
any "websites", that
specifically address
that relationship. There are
textbooks, on "Library
HR management" and
journal articles that
talk about these topics, and I
found some "links" to
seminars/conferences where the
topic of discussion was
"conflict management" in the
Library workplace..but
it usually just listed what the
speaker was going to
talk about.
See these online
article links re: Dealing with Poor Managers or Bad Bosses
Also check the Soaring
Teleconference website and take
a look at the resources
available from the Nov. 17 2000
conference:
Interpreting and Applying
Library Service Policies
with Deb Johnson
www.cod.edu/teleconf/STE2002/index2001.htm
Related Note: to see more
information about the "SOARING to EXCELLENCE" Series
Visit: www.cod.edu/teleconf/soaring/Index.htm
I also came across a post
to another listserv where a
Librarian was sending
out a survey regarding Library
Workplace Conflict:
You may want to take
a look at the survey questions,
and/or write to Jack
Montgomery
(Jack.Montgomery@wku.edu)
and ask Mr Montgomery
what the results were of his
survey, and/or if he
is aware of "websites" that
address this particular
issue of librarians and
paraprofessionals in
the workplace.
Mr Montgomery, who at
the time of his
escribe message post
of Jun 2, 2000 - mentioned in the post that he
and a colleague were
writing a book on
"Conflict inLibrary Organizations"
Also read this Conference
program post at:
www.mdlib.org/divisions/tsd/2001confprog.html
A future book will be
published by ALA Editions
"Management of Conflict
in Library Organizations" by Jack Montgomery
**As of March 2003 -
the title is NOT in print**
Keep checking the ALA
Online Store
Here are some:
Websites that deal with
the General topic of
Conflict Management in
the Workplace
Resolving
Conflict in the Workplace
http://www.idiotsguides.com/Quick-Guides/MG_Conflict_Workplace/file.htm
Conflict Management
www.work911.com/conflict/index.htm
Several sites listed:
Addressing Interpersonal Conflict
http://www.mapnp.org/library/intrpsnl/conflict.htm
Also of Interest: visit
these sites that deal with Workplace issues
Here
are some article citations of interest:
InfoWorld
August 9, 1999
Don't let conflict get
you off course….
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0IFW/32_21/55432690/print.jhtml
**Please
note:These are just excerpts from the online article:
“Improved communication
is key to keeping workplace disagreements from slowing you down”
“Key aspects of conflict
resolution include good listening skills, flexibility, and a willingness
to change, Bumbaugh notes. Simple communication, however, is at the heart
of conflict resolution and can also serve as a primary method of conflict
prevention.”
"When individual conflicts
do arise, it's important for staff members to recognize
that conflict is a normal
occurrence in the workplace and
that it won't disappear
if ignored,
Bumbaugh notes.
"Employees need to be
willing to approach their peers;
following some basic
steps can make this process feel
more natural and less
threatening, experts say."
"If two employees are
unwilling or unable to solve their differences,
a manager may choose
to step in and facilitate the conflict resolution process.
The employees could also
ask another peer to work with them as an objective third party."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allred, Carol B. "The
Anatomy of Conflict: Some
Thoughts on Managing
Staff Conflict." Law Library
Journal 79, no. 1 (Winter
1987) : 7–32.
Weaver-Meyers, P.L. Conflict
resolution: a case study about academic librarians
and faculty status [at
the University of Oklahoma].
College & Research
Libraries v. 63 no. 1 (January 2002) p. 25-34
Kachmar, D. Understanding
the workplace:
managing conflict in
the workplace [panel discussion at the 1997 Charleston Conference].
Library Acquisitions
v. 22 no. 2 (Summer 1998) p. 216-8
Darling, John R. and Dale
E. Cluff. "Managing
Interpersonal Conflict
in a University Library.
Library Administration
and Management 1, no. 1
(January 1987) : 16–22.
Blooming, M.C. Conflict
management as a fun-damental leadership skill!
[workshop presented at
the 1995 CLA leadership conference].
Catholic Library World
v. 66 (September 1995) p. 25-7
Hulbert, Doris. "Assertive
Management in Libraries."
Journal of Academic Librarianship
16, no. 3
(July 1990) : 158–162.
Kathman, Jane McGwun and
Michael D. Kathman. "Conflict
Management in the Academic
Library." Journal of
Academic Librarianship
16, no. 3 (July 1990) :
145–149.
Pettas, William and Steven
L. Gilliland. "Conflict in
the large Academic Library:
Friend or Foe?" Journal of
Academic Librarianship
18, no. 1 (March 1992) : 24–29.
Ware, James and Louis
B. Barners.
"Managing
Interpersonal Conflict."
In Managing People and
Organizations, ed. John
J. Gabarro, 213–226. Harvard
Business School Publications,
1992.
Anderson, A.J. "Polly
wants a doctor"
[interpersonal conflict
among reference librarians; with discussion].
Library Journal (1976)
v. 118 (February 1 1993) p. 55-7
Wilkinson, Margaret Ann
and John P. Wilkinson.
"Plotting Conflict."
Library Administration and
Management 11, no. 4
(Fall 1997) : 205–216.
Online article: (General
info, not Library workplace focused)
Conflict Resolution in
the Workplace
by Christine Kemp-Longmore
www.black-collegian.com/news/special-reports/conflict2000-2nd.shtml
Article from Nursing perspective
- but contains useful tips
Surviving and Thriving
with Conflict on the Job
Valerie Restifo, RN,
MA, MS
nsweb.nursingspectrum.com/ce/ce112.htm
More article resources
Free Conflict Articles
On Line - Learn To Prevent and Deal With Workplace Conflict
www.mts.net/~rbacal/conflict/conart.htm
Academy of Management
Review
July, 1999
Tit for tat? The spiraling
effect of incivility in the workplace.
Author/s: Lynne Andersson
*see the other articles
cited that Lynne Andersson has written
http://www.sbm.temple.edu/~landerss/resume.html
Can You Recognize a Toxic
Coworker? Quiz
http://www.ahealthyadvantage.com/topic/toxicquiz
The Baltimore Workplace
Civility Study - Jan. 2003
*PDF File*
http://www.ubalt.edu/jfi/jfc/reports/civility.PDF
Related:
Library Rage: Handling
Patrons
And
Problems in our Libraries
A Select Bibliography
& List of Web Sites
Prepared by Karen Baudouin
and Marjorie Fusco
MS WORD document
http://www.dowling.edu/library/papers/
marje/BibDifficultPeol.doc
Related article of interest:
Maintaining a Healthy
Job Share Partner Relationship
Excerpt quoted from website
Being in a job share
partnership is like any other relationship. It can really be compared
to a marriage. As a matter of fact, you may end up spending more
time working collaboratively with a job share partner than you do with
your own spouse. So, it is very important to make sure that you work
at the relationship just like a marriage.
Here are some tips to
keep it in check.
The two key ingredients
to success are communication and compromise.
http://www.womans-work.com/NewsInd/keeping_a_healthy_job_share_part.htm
-----------------------------------------------------
To
top of page
Conflict in the Workplace
is usually due to the "stresses" of Constant Change for the Workers:
Here are some articles
dealing with :
"Implementing
Successful Organizational Change"
Massey, M.T. Inside Pandora's
Box -- "Change" Through Adversity:
An Organizational Triumph
Over Tragedy.
Against the Grain v.
15 no. 2 (April 2003) p. 79-80
Hudson, Mary Pelzer
Library Management -
"Conflict & Stress
in Times of Change"
Library Management v.20
(1) 1999 : 35-38
Boer, P.
The path of most resilience:
letting stress work for you.
Library Personnel News
v. 13 no. 3/4 (Fall/Winter 2000) p. 8
Bull, J.
Managing the emotional
side of change.
Library Mosaics v. 13
no. 2 (March/April 2002) p. 11-12
Morgan, S.
Change in university
libraries: don't forget the people.
Library Management v.
22 no. 1/2 (2001) p. 58-60
"Leading Change." In Managing
People and Organizations, ed.
by John J. Gabarro, 424–431.
Harvard Business School
Publications, 1992.
Butler, Meredith A., ed.
Libraries as User-Centered
Organizations: Imperatives for Organizational Change.
Binghampton, NY: Haworth
Press, 1993.
Also published as Journal
of Library Administration 19, no. 3/4 (1993).
Gray, S.A., et. al.,
Redefining reference
in an academic health sciences library:
planning for change [at
SUNY Buffalo].
Medical Reference Services
Quarterly v. 20 no. 3 (Fall 2001) p. 1-11
Kotter, John P. and Leonard
A. Schlesinger.
"Choosing Strategies
for Change." In Management of Change.
Harvard Business Review
Paperback 90064, 67–76.
Boston, MA: Harvard Business
School Publishing, 1991.
Lawrence, Paul R.
"How to Deal with Resistance
to Change."
In Management of Change.
Harvard Business
Review paperback 90064,
77–86. Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Publishing,
1991.
Mondy, R. Wayne, Robert
M. Noe, Shane R. Premeaux and
Ronald A. Knowles. Human
Resource Management. 2nd
Canadian ed. Toronto:
Prentice-Hall, [2000] c2001.
Chapter 7
von Dran, Gisela M. and
Jennifer Cargill, eds.
Catalysts for Change:
Managing Libraries in the 1990s.
Binghamton, NY: Haworth
Press, 1993.
Also published as Journal
of Library Administration 18, no. 3/4 (1993).
Zuboff, Shoshana.
"New Worlds of Computer-Mediated
Work."
In Management of Change.
Harvard Business
School Review paperback
90064, 111–121. Boston, MA:
Harvard Business School
Publishing, 1991.
To Top
of Page
Burnout on the
Job -
We all reach points in
our jobs and careers, where we feel like we have hit "the wall"!.
When we ignore the early
signs, and stress builds, we often are the creators of the "conflicts",
that result and wreak
havoc with our co-workers, bosses, and even friends and family.
We try to blame everyone
else, but it is important to recognize that burnout, is not
uncommon and it can be
turned around.
Here are some useful articles
to read and help you cope and understand burnout on the job.
Snuffing out burnout.
Library Mosaics v. 11 no. 2 (March/April 2000) p. 22
From A Healthy Advantage
Job Burnout
http://www.ahealthyadvantage.com/topic/burnout
Excerpt quoted from online
article:
The reasons for job burnout,
the researchers concluded, are varied and complex. In fact, the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has its own take on
what stresses workers to the point of no return. Along with workloads,
infrequent breaks and long hours, NIOSH cites a lack of control over your
job -- including little or no support from bosses and co-workers and an
inability to participate in decision-making. Other factors contributing
to stress and burnout may be familiar to many workers: They include job
insecurity, too much responsibility or conflicting expectations, and unpleasant
or dangerous conditions, such as crowding, noise, or ergonomic problems.
Read entire article at:
http://www.ahealthyadvantage.com/topic/burnout
See other topics covered
re: work & health
http://www.ahealthyadvantage.com/topic/work
From Votech.about.com
Excerpt quoted from website
article
Job Burnout defined:
What exactly is burnout?
It is defined in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as
“exhaustion of physical
or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress
or frustration.”
At some point in
your career, you will experience burnout.
Regardless of how much
you like your job there will come a time when you just don't feel
like doing it anymore.
If you could choose between being sick enough to stay home
(and not just lying about
being sick) and going to work, you would actually choose to be sick.
It would be far less
aversive than facing your boss, your co-workers, your clients, and your
desk.
Read complete article
online and see the many resource links:
http://votech.about.com/library/weekly/aa021501a.htm
Sheesley, D.F. Burnout
and the academic teaching librarian:
an examination of the
problem and suggested solutions.
The Journal of Academic
Librarianship v. 27 no. 6 (November 2001) p. 447-51
Tips for Relighting After
Burnout: Energizing Self and Others
©2000 Eileen McDargh
http://superperformance.com/burnout.html
10 Ways To Feel Good About
Your Life
By Kathy Gates, Professional
Life Coach
www.reallifecoach.com
http://www.superperformance.com/10ways2feelgood.html
Related: see other "work"
related articles on the SuperPerformance site
http://www.superperformance.com/articles.html
ItsTime.com Newsletter
online
July 2001 - Balancing
Life and Work [resources listed]
http://www.itstime.com/jul2001d.htm
Coping with Job Burnout
http://www.itstime.com/jul2001a.htm#coping
Merwin, E.O. Uptight In
Library Land: A Confirmation of Stress In South Carolina Academic Libraries.
Against the Grain v.
15 no. 1 (February 2003) p. 28, 30, 32, 34
17 Ways to Reduce Stress.
The Unabashed Librarian no. 125 (2002) p. 7-8
It's O.K. to feel the
way you do-- [symptoms of stress].
Library Personnel News
v. 14 no. 4 (Fall 2001) p. 8
Hudson, M.P. Conflict
and stress in times of change.
Library Management v.
20 no. 1 (1999) p. 35-8
Sources of stress: survey
results, part I [survey of school librarians].
The School Librarian's
Workshop v. 22 no. 1 (September 2001) p. 2-3
Sources of stress: survey
results, part II [survey of school librarians].
The School Librarian's
Workshop v. 22 no. 2 (October 2001) p. 2-4
Yucht, A.H. "Go with the
flow" [planning ahead reduces stress].
Teacher Librarian v.
27 no. 1 (October 1999) p. 36-7
Stress on the job
http://www.baylorhealth.com/library/healthguide/IllnessConditions/topic.asp?hwid=ug1810
See too:
My relaxation and stress
reduction resources
relaxsites.html
See these online
article links re: Dealing with Poor Managers and/or Bad Bosses
includes articles with
tips for Managers, helping them become better.
To Top
of Page
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
Learn how to be a better
employee -
Book to consider reading

Please
Don't Just Do What I Tell You,
Do
What Needs to Be Done: Every Employee's Guide to Making Work More Rewarding
From Publishers Weekly
This book is filled with
brief anecdotes of people who did more than their day-to-day duties. In
a friendly, knowledgeable tone, Nelson explains how to take the initiative
and make one's job better or one's customers happier. Each of these brief
chapters has a title that itself is a lesson "Turn Needs into Opportunities,"
"Learn to Enjoy Those Things Others Hate to Do" and "Regroup When Your
Ideas Meet Resistance." His basic point is one of empowerment: think bigger,
he urges, figure out "what needs to be done" beyond the confines of your
job description and do it. Although readers may wish Nelson had offered
more detailed suggestions, his solid advice should be read by employees
at all levels of an organization. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business
Information.
Another useful title -
[*under $10*]

Nasty
People: How to Stop Being Hurt by Them Without Becoming One of Them
and see too

Don't
Sweat the Small Stuff at Work:
Simple
Ways to Minimize Stress and Conflict While Bringing Out the Best in Yourself
and Others

Stress
and Burnout in Library Service
Using Humor & a Sense
of Humor can be one of the best resources,
a manager or coworker
can have
See the Humor links for
Library Folks on the libhumor page
and consider reading
this book

Laughing
Nine to Five
Note: if not available
via Barnes & Noble try this site with more on this title
home.teleport.com/~laff9to5/laff9to5.html
To top
of page
MORE INTERESTING ONLINE
READING:
In doing some further
research into the topic of
conflict management..I
came across an interesting
article - it has no date
on it, and I think it may
only appear on the net,
and not in a published
journal.
Anyway - it isn't about
"conflict management" but
rather it is a commentary
on the "Redefining of a
profession" Librarianship.
The author "Richard A.
Danner" has made some
observations of the
relationships of librarians
with their "peers",
co-workers (support staff),
and library patrons.
I have copied and will
paste here: the excerpt about
their relationships with
Paraprofessionals. I think he
is "right on" in his
thinking and know that many
"paraprofessionals" feel
the same way. It helps
explain, just what might
be the underlying cause of
"conflicts" in the
Library workplace. As I mentioned
to you earlier, there
are "articles" about this topic,
but no specific "websites"
about it (there may be
some, I just haven't
found them yet)
This is just interesting
reading -
************************************
"Excerpt" copied: (url
for entire article at the end)
B. With Co-Workers in
the Library
To compete in the arena
of public opinion, a
profession must establish
a clear identity vis a vis
other groups in the workplace.(31)
Abbott notes that
discourse about jurisdiction
in the public arena is
usually about discrete
and homogeneous groups: in the
public mind, the roles
of doctors and nurses are
clearly distinguished
(nurses assist doctors). The
same may be observed
in the relationships among
attorneys, paralegals,
and law librarians in the legal
workplace.(32)
According to Abbott, there
is a "tremendous
inconsistency between
the public and workplace
realities of professional
life."(33) Discussions in
the public arena do not
usually acknowledge that on
the job there might be
significant overlapping in the
tasks that members of
individual groups perform. This
can be observed both
in the extent to which separate
professions share tasks
and in degree to which
nonprofessionals perform
tasks that the public assumes
are professional in nature.
This process of knowledge
transfer, called workplace
assimilation, "reflects the
actual complexity of
professional life" in the
workplace:
If a professional is incompetent,
organizational
function demands that
his or her work be done by
someone else who is probably
not officially qualified
to do it. Or if there
is too much professional work,
nonprofessionals do it.
... Subordinate professionals,
nonprofessionals, and
members of related, equal
professions learn on
the job a craft version of given
professions' knowledge
systems. ... In the
jurisdictional system
of the workplace, it is the real
output of an individual,
not his credentialed or
noncredentialed status,
that matters.(34)
These comments certainly
resonate in the context of
librarianship, where
there is much blurring of
boundaries between the
work of professional and
support staff, as evidenced
by the difficulties that
even regular library
users often have in telling who
is a librarian and who
a clerk on the library
staff,(35) and by the
comments of library support
staff members that their
work is no different from
that of the higher paid
professional staff.(36) In
larger libraries, it
is probably more common for
non-professionals to
do specialized professional-level
tasks than it is in smaller
libraries, where
professional librarians
are often required to perform
a wide range of professional
and nonprofessional
tasks.
Some also question whether,
as librarians focus
increasingly on management,
they will lose touch with
the traditional groundings
of the profession. Mark
Sandler notes that librarians
have generally been able
to distinguish themselves
from other library workers
on the basis of "their
links to content and the
broader principles underlying
information
services."(37) Sandler
points out, however, that, as
libraries have grown
larger and more complex, the
[librarian's] relationship
to content and user service
has been weakened. Librarians
are increasingly unable
to maintain control over
the qualifications needed to
perform library work,
in part because information
technology has challenged
the traditional skill base
of librarians. But, Sandler
also emphasizes the
effects on librarianship
of the societal trend toward
"business models," which
place greater premium on
efficiency and cost effectiveness
than on traditional
assumptions regarding
the role of the library
professional.(38)
Abbott notes that "If
the public knew the extent of
workplace assimilation,
it would profoundly suspect
professionals' claims
of comprehensive jurisdiction."
He points out that "the
central public argument
[professionals make]
against workplace assimilation
holds that subordinates
lack the theoretical education
necessary to understand
and use what they know by
assimilation."(39) As
discussed later in the section
entitled "Librarianship
as a Profession," this
argument may be difficult
to make for librarians,
because librarianship
does not have a fully
articulated theoretical
basis for the professional
tasks that librarians
either perform or control in the
workplace.
C. With Other Information
Professionals
The greatest threat to
any profession's claim of
jurisdiction over tasks
in the workplace is
competition from other
professions. Disputes over
jurisdiction can be settled
in any of several ways
ranging from successful
claims for full jurisdiction
over an area of work
(e.g., the licensing mechanisms
that control the practice
of law and medicine) to more
limited settlement mechanisms
that divide jurisdiction
over segments of the
area. Among the common mechanisms
for resolving jurisdictional
disputes are:
subordination (e.g.,
the formal relationship of
nursing to medicine)
and division of labor (e.g., the
relationships among architects,
engineers, and others
in the design of buildings).
Between subordination
and division of labor are two
weaker and less stable
forms of relationships between
professions claiming
jurisdiction in the same area of
work: intellectual jurisdiction,
in
which one
profession controls the
cognitive knowledge of the
area, but shares practice
with several competitors
(e.g., the relationship
in psychotherapy between
psychiatry and psychologists,
social workers and the
clergy); and advisory
jurisdiction, a "weaker form of
control," based on relationships
between two
professions already possessing
independent
jurisdictions of their
own).(40)
As discussed above, distributed
computing and access
to networked information
have blurred the boundaries
between librarians' and
technologists' established
jurisdictions in the
information area. Neither
librarians nor information
technologists have
subordinated the other
group, and neither group has
established intellectual
jurisdiction over information
provision. Nor is there
a formal and stable division
of labor. Rather, there
seems to be in place the less
stable relationship of
advisory jurisdiction. Under
advisory jurisdictions,
"one profession seeks a
legitimate right to interpret,
buffer, or partially
modify actions another
[profession] takes within its
own full jurisdiction."(41)
As played out in the
workplace, advisory jurisdictions
might manifest
themselves in open battles
for turf, but are more
likely seen in requests
from one or the other group
for improved communication,
consultation, and
coordination, either
made directly from one group to
the other, or through
higher authority in the
workplace.(42) They also
involve what Abbott calls
"treatment substitution,"
which takes place when "a
profession accepts another's
diagnoses and perhaps
treatments, while claiming
to carry them out faster or
more effectively than
the other." Abbott, writing in
the late 1980s , saw
treatment substitution as the
essence of the competition
between librarians and
computing specialists,
with technologists arguing that
"since computers can
carry out information retrieval
much faster than can
the other technologies,
specialists in the computer
area should dominate the
information area."(43)
For Abbott, an advisory
jurisdiction is "the
bellwether of interprofessional
conflict" and can be
"maintained only by constant
attention."(44) Should we
expect the current set
of relationships between
librarians and information
technologists to continue
indefinitely, or will
one group eventually come to
take precedence over
the other in a more stable
relationship?
Undoubtedly, a more stable
relationship will develop.
But, it is unlikely that
either librarians or
information technologists
will come to control the
area either by subordinating
the other group, or by
establishing intellectual
jurisdiction. Reliance on
either content or access--the
traditional bases for
distinguishing the two
professions-will not establish
jurisdiction in an evolving
workplace environment
where the boundaries
between the two areas are
increasingly less distinct.
The following sections
look at what might develop,
starting with an
examination of each group's
development as a
profession.
********************************************
Read the entire article
online:
Redefining a Profession
http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/danner/callweb.htm
Related
See also, some of the
article links and more information
about the New Roles and
Changes that today's Library Support Staff
are facing and handling
on the newroles page
__________________________________
To top
of page
To Contact, Me ~ Mary
Niederlander
via e-mail, write to:
Mary@LibrarySupportStaff.com
THANK YOU for Linking
By!!
page updated: March 2003 |