Staff Management in Library and Information Work (4th edition)

Citation

Rowley, J. (2003), "Staff Management in Library and Information Work (4th edition)", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 373-375. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410310472581

I agreed to review this book with some apprehension. While in my time as an academic I have been allowed to satisfy my butterfly mind by teaching many different things, staff management, or human resource management as it is often called, is not one of them. I therefore came to this book as a practitioner and manager of staff. Again my experiences in this realm do not entirely match the theme of the book. My experience has been with managing academic staff, rather than library staff, but nevertheless, it was a very interesting exercise to match my experience to the content of this book.

When reviewing a book that has already established itself as a standard text, and is in its fourth edition, there is a danger that over‐enthusiastic reviewers undertake a witch hunt for minor inaccuracies, or evidence of omission of the latest developments, or worse, have the arrogance to suggest how they might write the book. Such an approach does not acknowledge the very considerable work that goes into writing and developing, through subsequent editions, a standard text of this nature. Staff management is an extremely wide field, and any author has to make decisions about what to include and what to omit, and what to emphasise or treat only in passing. This review, then, starts with a description of the contents of the book, indicating areas that have been updated. It then proceeds to celebrate some of the specific strengths of the book, before offering a few reflections on themes that might have been developed further.

The book features eight packed chapters. Chapter 1 on the working environment embeds staff management in the management cycle, reviews drivers for change, and offers a comprehensive but succinct review of relevant legislation. Chapter 2 reminds readers of theories relating to motivation and job satisfaction. Chapter 3 addresses the strategic issue of human resource planning. These three chapters might be seen as providing the context for subsequent chapters that focus on the processes associated with managing staff, commencing in Chapter 4 with job descriptions and person specification. This chapter is well packed with examples that actually illustrate the types of roles appropriate for library staff. Having identified requirements and specifications for staff, Chapter 5 moves on to recruitment and selection of staff. Chapter 6 starts to consider staff development with an introduction to staff appraisal. Chapter 7 on staff training and development has undergone thorough revision to reflect themes such as training and development policies, assessing competency and computer‐based learning. Chapter 8 on staff supervision and interpersonal skills training is a real tour‐de‐force embracing leadership and counselling skills, time management and stress management techniques.

Some of the things that I particularly enjoyed about this book were:

• •

  The practical and easy to read style.

• •

  The extensive referencing to relevant professional and academic literature.

• •

  The plentiful examples, and figures, including samples and checklists.

• •

  Chapter 8, which is really packed with gems, including self‐assessment tests and questionnaires, and various modest management models, all of which are extremely useful in provoking reflection. This chapter would form a useful basis for one or more training sessions with a team of managers; they would both learn and enjoy.

• •

  The way in which Chapter 1 embeds the discussion of staff management in the wider management cycle.

Effective staff management has become an increasingly challenging task. Common sense and good interpersonal skills are still important, but in today's rapidly changing and diverse organisational environments, in which legislation and rights impinge on processes and relationships, managers need to be ever vigilant in developing their competencies as managers. This leads me to wonder whether there might have been scope for developing the following themes further:

• •

  It would be helpful to move on from the description of the legislation in Chapter 1 to explore more fully the processes associated, with, for instance, managing a team through a disciplinary process. Similarly, probation is a much more serious business than once was the case, and managing staff through probation would benefit from greater attention.

• •

  The staff management practices of the individual manager are often controlled by human resource policies established by the organisation. There is often a real tension between good management practice and human resource legislation. The human resource department's objective is to control the organisation's exposure to risks in relation to its human resources policies and practice. The manager's role is to build effective teams and ensure optimum contributions from team members. These are not always the same thing, and the manager needs to work through these tensions.

• •

  Developing managers, and the general issue of management competence, but particularly, what it feels like to be a manager. There is an interesting recent literature on emotional management that might offer some additional insights.

• •

  Managing in diversity extends beyond principles of equal opportunities, to seeking to accommodate different styles, values, cultures, ways of interrelating, while at the same time building effective teams. Acceptable behaviour to one person may not be acceptable behaviour to another. Another issue is developing respect for other people's job roles, and removing sense of hierarchy, such that everyone can expect to be respected as an individual, and on the basis of their contribution to the organisation. Managing diversity on a day‐to‐day basis is a real challenge.

• •

  Two key issues that relate to change: re‐deployment processes and career development. Staff need to own their own career development, however, modest or ambitious their aspirations, because organisations can no longer predict long‐term futures. Care management needs to occur within organisations and between organisations. Responsible managers know that both the organisation and their staff benefit from support with this process.

I hope that these thoughts develop the perspective on staff management offered by this book. The book is a useful practitioner handbook that is sufficiently accessible and rigorous in its academic grounding to act also as a useful introduction to students. This edition has been updated effectively, and should be on every library manager's book shelf, and from time to time on their desk.