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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
-----------------------------------------------------

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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. 
 
 

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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.

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                                                   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
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
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
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
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
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

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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
__________________________________
 

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To Contact, Me ~ Mary Niederlander
via e-mail, write to: Mary@LibrarySupportStaff.com
THANK YOU for Linking By!!
page updated: March 2003