Strategic Human Resource Planning for Academic Libraries

Information, Technology and Organization

Michael A. Crumpton

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781780634456
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Gestion des ressources humaines

Strategic Human Resources Planning for Academic Libraries: Information, Technology and Organization provides an in-depth discussion of human resources as a strategic element of a library organization, especially as staffing needs and competencies change.

The book focuses on the impact of human resource practices in a library setting, discussing several aspects, including the role of human resources when the library is part of a larger organization, along with information on how to identify strategic objectives that are expected and related to workforce issues.

In addition, the book reviews hiring practices, reorganizations of staff, use of temps or time-limited positions, and how students, volunteers, and internships can make a strategic difference overall.

• Chapters address competencies across different levels of employment within different library types and consider how those competencies are changing
• Presents how leadership and library leaders must utilize human resources as a valuable tool for developing a strong and healthy organization
• Addresses human resource tools, such as job tasks analysis and the creation of equitable payroll structures
• Demonstrate the use and benefit of multiple employee statuses that provide flexibility and resourcefulness to end users

1

Strategic intelligence in today’s environment

Abstract

Today’s financial environment has put academic libraries into a crisis mode for serving their user base, but also competing within the higher education institution for value and relevance which translates into budget dollars and value. A strategic point of view needs to be considered with regard to managing the human resources components of the organization. Academic libraries must develop the instinct to foresee changes that will impact the organization and learn to create strategy to be able to move forward and maintain value and relevancy to its mission. Learning to create data through an assessment strategy is critical to the ongoing success of the libraries and its parent institution.

Keywords

Strategic intelligence

Strategic planning

Human resources

Budget reductions

Higher education trends

Balanced spending

Institutional value

Strategic initiatives

Value assessment

Strategic credibility

Communication

ROI

Balanced scorecard

Knowledge management.

1.1 Introduction

The global economic crisis of the last several years has had a profound impact on organizations across a wide scale of purpose and type. Overall, the libraries and information centers have been impacted, not only financially but also with enhancement and change of technologies affecting the output of services and material format and accessibility. Private companies and firms seek to find strategies in which financial shortfalls can be offset in order to remain profitable and sustainable. Public institutions, such as state supported facilities of higher education, which depend on public revenue for support, not only have to adjust for sustainability but also have a stake in the impact to its organizational values and mission for its constituency.

All of these organizations must develop a strategy which will institute needed organizational changes to provide a path for sustainability as well as create values to its stakeholders. Institutions of higher education in particular must balance a very diverse set of needs in order to remain true to its mission. Academic libraries are part of that balance within the larger institution and must develop strategies on their own that support the institution’s mission while also adhering to the principles and values of the information studies and librarianship profession.

Strategic intelligence is most often associated with military actions, plans, and policies to lead resources toward a successful conclusion of a conflict or potential conflict. Wells (2012) discusses strategic intelligence as the purposefully “steering” in a winning direction. He also associates different levels of strategic intelligence with the inertia of what is driving the need for change or the lack of awareness that change is needed.

Academic libraries have been forced into a change mode, since the Internet provided users a means for finding information on their own. Since then, these changes get modified frequently due to the changes made by other organizations that impact the library. Vendors seeking a competitive edge, systems enhancements that provide data faster, changing formats that are marketed commercially and a rise in user expectations, parent organizational demands of sharing costs or adding services, are examples of changes being made consistently in the last 20 years. Much of this change is being facilitated by librarians those who did not experience these types of curricula in library school or worked on the development of those changes internally.

This reinforces the need for strategic planning and consideration in terms of an academic library’s human resource needs and philosophy. Hernon and Matthews (2013)describe a “sweet spot” of competitive ideals in which librarians should focus their strategic energy in order to maintain relevance and competitive advantages. This sweet spot is the convergence of a library’s capabilities, customer or user needs, and competitor’s offerings. Each of these has broader and diverse layers of complexity as it relates to librarians and staffs those who work through these ideals.

The human resources consideration within institutions of higher education is also undergoing change and is impacted by current economic conditions. Evans and Chun (2012) point out that by drawing the elements of human resource consideration into the strategic planning, an advantage can be gained with proactive contribution and leadership. Larger academic libraries have begun bringing human resource representation to the table, either from the institution’s human resources department or by incorporating the human resource positions onto library staffs. This trend allows for the elements and activities related to human resources to become part of the strategic planning process and demonstrates a higher level of strategic intelligence by recognizing these advantages.

1.2 Strategic intelligence to strategic planning

Strategic planning in itself is not new to academic libraries. Traditionally, long-term strategic plans were developed and put into place to provide guidelines as to the library’s output for the larger institution. In more recent times, the strategic planning process occurs more rapidly due to the changes discussed previously with technology and competition. In Wells’s definition, he discusses three different levels of strategic intelligence as follows:

• Least intelligent—does not recognize the need to make changes.

• Higher or smarter intelligence—recognizes the need to change based on the external factors and react accordingly.

• Highest intelligence—foresees the upcoming need for change and change faster, thus influencing those external factors to their advantage.

Higher education institutions can be complicated and bureaucratic and the libraries within them could be much the same. The organizational culture of the institution would have an impact on the libraries and vice versa. Part of preparing for strategic planning activities is to address where the institution stands with regard to organizational development. The strategic intelligence of the larger institution can have political implications on how strategic planning is accomplished within the libraries.

Birdsall (2013) recognizes the political aspects of strategic planning within academic libraries and offers advice on success strategies. He postulates that strategic plans for the library must be accepted by the affected constituencies in order to relevant to a course of action. He also stipulates that it is important to have alliances and coalitions supporting the strategies from library stakeholders, and finally to create persuasive and attractive planning documents that are tools for change.

Academic libraries typically enjoy low turnover and people stay in positions longer than in a lot of other professions. This is good for the cost associated with turnover (Fitz-Enz, 2009) but raises the issue of talent management; does the library have the right talent to meet strategic objectives? This will be discussed in more detail later, but it is important to point out during the strategic planning process. Part of understanding, the strategic intelligence of any particular library will be to understand the willingness to change and plan strategically in a subjective method.

Although academic libraries have discussed strategic planning for years, changing times call for a broader approach to the process, such as a more holistic approach called strategic engagement (Singh, 2013). Singh advocates for strategic engagement through development of a culture of strategic thinking, in which stakeholders learn to think strategically on a daily basis. This can provide a competitive edge as the value of libraries is challenged in many different venues. Library leadership who encourage open and collaborative communication about issues related to strategic thinking will find a stronger commitment from library staff.

1.3 What’s changing?

In 2011, the University Leadership Council, as supported by the Education Advisory Board in Washington DC, published their research findings related to the changing mission of the academic library. Titled Redefining the Academic Library, Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services, this work is the collective wisdom of many high-level academic librarians and related associates, who are in the business of defining the changes that are occurring and need to occur in order for academic libraries to remain relevant and support their home institution’s mission and values statement.

This work addresses the change that is occurring or transforming the academic information environment to be centered in four major principles: unsustainable costs or support from the academic community, viable alternatives for information seekers, declining usage of libraries’ resources, and new demands by patrons outside of the traditional library business model. And of course, this all leads to library staff and how they must be redeployed or change, in order to meet these new skills and competencies.

In 2012, the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Research Planning and Review Committee published their top 10 trends that are affecting academic libraries in higher education. These trends reflect similar findings as the University Leadership Council with changes in technology, user expectations, and needs as well as changes to the larger institution, figuring predominately in trends to follow. One of the 10 trends identified was staffing and the ability to develop staffs who can meet these changes and new challenges either through hiring practices or redeployment. This trend was supported by researching and observing conference activities and other professional development actions related to changes to staffing expectations.

This ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee followed up with the publication of an Environmental Scan 2013, which was a scan of the environment in which those trends developed in order to provide the broader context in which academic libraries need to operate and consider. This report also addresses the profession itself and the shifting of traditional jobs toward unmet and sometimes unknown needs of the communities being served. The report quotes Brian Mathews taking an entrepreneurial approach to changes in staffing models. He says, “Anticipating and preparing for new roles and how these roles can expand and evolve over time will be key to an enduring, and thriving profession in the future” (Mathews, 2012).

This complements Wells notion that the higher level of strategic intelligence can foresee the need for change and react quicker and sooner. Mathews advocates that rather than trying to improve services or functions, consider instead developing new service models and functions that better meet the needs of patrons and library users. This can be a major change of thinking for incumbent librari...