Applying Change and Organizational Theories in a Library Reorganization Copyright 1990 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 13, Number 4, Winter 1990. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its dateappear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu APPLYING CHANGE AND ORGANIZATIONAL THEORIES IN A LIBRARY REORGANIZATION by Joy R. Hughes ************************************************************************ Joy R. Hughes is an independent information technology consultant currently working with the Pittsburgh Regional Library Center. Previously she held the position of Dean for Information Services at the private college described in this article. She holds graduate degrees in mathematics and in computer science. Her Ph.D. degree from the Union Institute is in computer and information systems. ************************************************************************ ABSTRACT: This article describes the efforts of a small, private, liberal arts college to transform its library (which had been found unsatisfactory in an accreditation evaluation) by placing it into the same reporting structure as academic and administrative computing and telecommunications. The project made use of strategic planning and organizational theory to smooth the transition by modifying aspects of the library's political and cultural systems that were at the root of its problems and that might have hindered the success of the reorganization. During the last decade, a number of higher education library and information technology leaders proposed the merits of bringing campus departments with responsibilities for information services into one organizational unit.[1] A few large research universities, such as Virginia Tech, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Kentucky, Rutgers, and the University of California, Chico, have created organizational structures to encompass the library and academic computing and, at many of these institutions, administrative computing and telecommunications as well. Often the rationale given for such organizations is the need to develop a common, coherent information infrastructure to provide faculty and students with the immediate, desktop access to local, national, and international electronic information resources they need to conduct scholarly research in today's fast changing world. But what of the small college whose mission is not research but the education of undergraduates? Such schools may well not have a strong interest in desktop access to international information resources. These schools, nonetheless, are facing challenges that make it equally important to develop strategies to more effectively coordinate their information resources: the competition for both good students and the donor dollar. To meet these challenges, colleges need first to ensure that they are educating students to make significant contributions to society, and then to ensure that they acquire and manage resources wisely. The former requires that students learn how to identify the information needed to solve real-world problems, obtain the information in a cost-effective manner, and use the information creatively and cooperatively to develop and test solutions. The latter requires that departments with similar aims coordinate their planning, learn from each other, jointly set priorities, and avoid costly errors in technology selection and costly duplications of service. A CASE STUDY It was within this context that the president of a small, not-very- selective, private university decided to create a new organizational unit to deliver information services, comprising the library, academic and administrative computing, and telecommunications. Although the president was certainly motivated by the need to develop a common, coherent information infrastructure and an effective means of managing the campus information resource, the primary motive of this action was the improvement of library services. The president was aware of dissatisfaction with the library, the most recent expression coming from the regional accrediting association. A few years before there had been even greater dissatisfaction with computer services. But progress had been made in that area, and he hoped that by placing the two units in the same organization, progress could also be made in improving library services. The head of the library had recently retired, and the president seized this opportunity to appoint as acting director a librarian whose library school education had emphasized library technology. The individual selected to head the new information services (IS) department was at that time serving as the dean of university computing; her background included advanced degrees in mathematics and computer science and service on the faculty and as a departmental chair. Among the hoped- for outcomes of the reorganization were: * a coordinated effort to plan for, set priorities for, and implement information services; * a greater emphasis on access to scholarly information rather than on the collection of such information; * a reduction in the number of library "middle managers" who were not involved in providing services to faculty and students; and * a significant improvement in the overall quality of library services, particularly services to seniors and graduate students since these had been singled out as most unsatisfactory by the accreditation team. Action based on theory After spending some time with the library staff, the new IS dean began to realize that the culture and priorities of the library were very different from those of the computer services area and that these differences could hinder the success of the reorganization. To identify areas of difference that would need to be addressed to smooth the reorganization process, and to ensure significant improvements in library services, the dean decided to analyze the library's technical, political, and cultural systems using a model developed by Noel Tichy[2] Tichy's TPC model of an organization is that of a megasystem made up of three interrelated systems: the technical system, the political system, and the cultural system. Tichy believes that the need for change occurs when one or more of these three systems gets out of alignment. In diagnosing an organization in trouble, he advises that these three systems be analyzed to determine if each system is internally consistent and if the three systems are congruent. (See the sidebar on the next page for examples of questions to be answered.) Tichy places great emphasis on the interdependence of and the need for congruence among the three systems. His research shows that most failures of strategic organizational change occur because the leaders only pay attention to the one system they want to change and fail to take into account the incongruence of the other two systems. For example: suppose the president announces: "From now on we are going to be the most student-centered college in the region" (a cultural change), but does not change the curriculum to accommodate student-designed majors (no corresponding technical change) and continues to promote people on the basis of seniority or the number of papers published rather than on their student evaluations (no corresponding political change). It's not likely the college will meet its stated goal. Even when the change agent ignores two of the systems while changing the third, changes occur in the other two systems, but they are usually changes that make the relationship even more incongruent. Tichy provides example after example of change efforts that failed because the change agent concentrated on one system (usually the technical) to the exclusion of the others. Technical, political, and cultural systems analysis To gain some insight into the library's TPC systems, the IS dean in this case study held structured interviews with the library staff, organized small discussion groups of faculty and students, and read several years' worth of library reports and correspondence. The results of the analysis indicated there were many aspects of the library's technical system that needed to be changed to improve services to students and faculty. Among the problem areas were: * The manual circulation system was cumbersome, did not provide the data needed for service and utilization analyses, and was very "user unfriendly." * The library's collection was inadequate to serve students and faculty, particularly seniors and graduate students. * The library did not belong to any electronic resource sharing networks. * Access to current periodicals was controlled by the staff rather than by the client. * Routine office procedures were expensive and time-consuming since the systems were manual and not integrated. * Access to complex (Boolean) searches was nonexistent. * Cataloging was done manually and was therefore expensive, inefficient, and, at times, inconsistent. * The evening hours for the library were insufficient, and evening supervision and reference assistance were of uneven quality. * Too much of the collection was being stolen. One approach that might have been used to improve library services would have been to address each of these technical problems in turn. Or the problems could have been addressed in priority order. But agreement with Tichy's claim that efforts to improve the technical system are likely to fail if the cultural and political systems are not also addressed led to the decision to place equal emphasis on all three systems. The TPC analysis revealed these problems with the political system: * The library's budget had declined each year. The regular budget was no longer sufficient to support routine operations, let alone the introduction of new technology. * The one group on campus that supported the library (the traditional faculty) did not support a reallocation of resources from books to technology. * The librarian appointed acting library director had no power base. She had been hired just a few years before, had very little supervisory experience, and was unknown to the faculty. * The electrical service in the library was insufficient to support any new equipment, and the plant and property department had not made it a priority to provide additional electrical service to the library. The TPC analysis further revealed that the culture of the library at the time was not one that was conducive to innovation. Aspects of the culture that could interfere with efforts to change the technical system of the library included: * The staff was averse to risk. (Work was checked and rechecked to be sure there were no errors. The staff asserted that there was "no time to take on new projects and do them 'right.'") * Strict adherence to rules and regulations was valued; flexibility was not. (The library hours never changed once they had been posted for the semester. The staff's hours did not change except in serious emergencies. Staff were not asked to come in early or stay late for a staff meeting.) * Quiet, slow-moving, careful behavior was valued; enthusiastic, dynamic behavior was not. (The newly appointed young library director who was enthusiastic about the possibility of change was described by staff as "not mature enough," and "not aware of how things should be done." One staff member was heard to say: "Real library directors are supposed to be male.") * There was a lack of respect for students, particularly students who were asking for increased library services. (The staff called these students "troublemakers" who "wouldn't use the library even if it were open more hours" and who "only came to the library to meet their friends.") * Staff initiative was not valued. (Members of the staff were not expected to use their experience and skills to make decisions concerning situations that might arise in the library. Instead, they were supposed to consult the director or one of the many procedures manuals on the shelf that defined who was to do a job and how it was to be done.) * Teamwork was not valued. (The staff had no experience working as a team to evaluate and improve library services. Negative aspects of evaluations of library services had been suppressed so that "people's feelings wouldn't get hurt.") The analysis indicated that the library staff believed that it was both necessary and desirable to automate many of the library's functions. But it also indicated that the culture of the library could seriously hinder the success of any efforts to introduce library technology. There were also indications that other needed changes in the way the library provided its services and in the choice of services provided were not seen as desirable by the staff and would probably be resisted. Moreover, the political system of the university was contributing to the fact that the library staff felt powerless to institute the changes being demanded by students and faculty. It was also clear that the computer services department had not been providing the library staff with the quality of support that it had provided other departments on campus. Change strategies selected Change strategies were designed that drew heavily from the organizational change theories of Tom Peters and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The key elements of Peters' theories applied were that one can bring about improvements in quality by empowering people, particularly people in the lower ranks, and that one can create a climate receptive to change by creating "a sense of urgency and hustle," while simultaneously reducing potentially paralyzing fears caused by that same sense of urgency and uncertainty.[3] Kanter also stresses the empowerment of people. Project design was influenced by her theory that segmented organizations have great difficulty supporting innovation and, therefore, the chief task of the change agent is to promote integration by reducing barriers between organizational units, creating means for information to be exchanged across units, and prospecting for multiple perspectives before making any important decision. Kanter also emphasizes the importance of "the skills, strategies, power tools, and power tactics" needed to "turn ideas into innovations."[4] These power tools derive from the three types of commodities that can be invested in the achievement of the innovation: "information (data, technical knowledge, political intelligence, expertise), resources (funds, materials, space, staff, time), and support (endorsement, backing, approval, legitimacy)."[5] She places great emphasis on the building of coalitions to obtain these power tools. In addition to Tichy's TPC model, his emphasis on the importance of putting a major share of the resources into the implementation stages of the project also influenced the reorganization strategy. According to Tichy, "it turns out that a major hindrance in carrying out a strategic plan is due to inadequate management of implementation. Lack of commitment as well as unmanaged resistance often leads to sabotage and blocking."[6] Tichy, Peters, and Kanter were the major theorists relied on in the design of the change strategies. But a few months after beginning the project, the IS dean attended a workshop on strategic planning for information systems that profoundly influenced the tactics used to bring about change. One workshop presenter described the steps that he had used to develop a strategic plan for information services at his school. His model was adapted for use in this project as the primary vehicle to bring about the needed changes in the political and cultural systems[7] A variety of change strategies were employed, but the ones discussed here are those that are less often described in case studies such as this, and ones where lessons learned can be shared. The strategies to be discussed are: * Empowering the library staff * Changing the library reward structure * Building coalitions with different segments of the community to obtain needed "power tools" * Placing major emphasis on students * Creating a climate of change Empowering the library staff Two methods were used to empower the staff: the provision of training as well as the equipment and time to practice what they had learned in the training, and the creation of new job descriptions that emphasized higher-level responsibilities. The training was provided by two sources: (1) the computer center, which because of the reorganization now viewed the development of greater computer competence in the library staff as its responsibility; and (2) the Pittsburgh Regional Library Center (PRLC), which had received a federal grant to provide computer training to library staff at selected schools with limited resources. Computer center staff strove to fit the training to the needs and the personalities of the people in need of training, offering small group sessions and one-on-one consulting. With some staff, trainers were very supportive. On the other hand, if they encountered passive resistance, they did not hesitate to confront and challenge the behavior. The computer center also provided the library with the hardware and software it needed to practice new skills. During the summer months, PCs were taken from the microlab and loaned to the library. The IS dean gave the library her PC and printer in order to keep the project moving. The PRCL training was valuable for more than the technical skills that it taught. Sending the staff to a training site 250 miles away where they had to stay together at a hotel encouraged feelings of importance. Meeting staff from other libraries who were struggling with similar issues and, in some cases, had even fewer resources, made the staff feel less beleaguered and more like active players in the technological revolution. A major empowerment opportunity was missed, however, by not placing any of the library staff except the new director on the information services strategic planning committee. If more of the library staff had been a part of this committee, they might have felt less threatened by the significantly changed mission and goals that the committee was recommending for the library. Changing the reward structure Previously the staff had been rewarded for being loyal and passive. One of the more difficult challenges of the project was the effort to have staff assume more responsibility for client satisfaction with the library's services. All non-librarians on the staff held bachelor's degrees, yet they had been told that they were "non-professionals" or "para-professionals" for so long that they believed they bore no responsibility for facilitating improvements in library services. In contrast, the computer center director, computer user services manager, and programmer/analyst also held only bachelor's degrees, but each saw herself and was perceived by others as a professional and as responsible for user satisfaction with computer services. A drastic reorganization plan for the library was proposed. It included the elimination of all "para-professional" positions and the substitution of an equal number of professional coordinator positions. The job descriptions for the new positions emphasized decision-making, the use of technology, and responsibility for user satisfaction. Although the intent was to move the existing staff into the new positions, the level of anxiety caused by the change process was so high that some members of the library staff believed the reorganization was an administrative plot to "get rid of them." They made a number of intense but unsuccessful attempts to get the administration to back down. However, the reorganization proceeded on schedule, and each member of the existing staff decided to commit to one of the new positions. Duties were redistributed and redefined with some staff taking over tasks formerly performed by a librarian who had left. (That librarian, for example, had been doing all of the cataloging manually; one of the staff was trained to do it via OCLC.) By not replacing this librarian, money was made available to give the staff salary upgrades reflecting their new responsibilities and to hire a part-time evening coordinator to address the problem of inadequate service and supervision in the evenings. These upgrades and the new quarterly evaluation system that was instituted helped the staff to make the connection between their efforts to make positive changes and the distribution of rewards. Building coalitions to obtain power tools One of the more important coalitions built proved to be the one with the physical plant department. On the recommendation of the IS dean, the head of Plant and Property was asked to serve on the information services strategic planning committee. (He commented that it was the first time he had ever been asked to serve with faculty on a committee.) He enjoyed the experience (and the social events that went with it) and soon became a supporter of automating the library. The result was that providing sufficient electrical service to the library became a priority of Plant and Property. The provost also appointed five faculty to the committee, after soliciting the IS dean's input concerning committee composition: one from the Business College helped convince the dean of that college to fund CD-ROM indices for business students; one from the Health Sciences College helped convince the dean of that college to fund Medline and other CD-ROM indices for nursing students; one from the education department helped the IS dean develop strategies to win faculty approval for the strategic plan; one from the College of Art and Design helped design the new periodicals reading room; and one from the chemistry department spread the word among the science faculty of the wonderful changes that were taking place in the library. The computer center staff, through their now almost daily interaction with the library staff, came to realize how little support and attention the library had been receiving from the university. They also came to realize that the computer center had ignored the library in the past and had not made the effort it had made with other departments to promote and support technological change. As a result, the computer center staff became committed to the library project, sought to anticipate and resolve problems, and provided extensive support (hi- touch as well as hi-tech) to the library staff during the implementation stages. The support of the faculty, the computer center, and the head of Plant and Property made the project possible. Another department that played a significant role was the development office. Because of its involvement throughout the project, sufficient money was directed toward the library to fund an online catalog. Placing major emphasis on students Five students selected by the Student Government Association served on the strategic planning committee -- five outspoken, activist students. On most university committees the students were outnumbered by the faculty and administrators. But on this committee there were more students than administrators and just as many as there were faculty. This demonstrated to the student body that the university was serious about improving the library's services to students. And it sent a message to the library staff that students are the reason the university exists. Sometimes, though, opinions expressed by students were ignored or discounted by the other members of the committee, sometimes students were patronized, and they were usually excluded from the good-natured banter that preceded each meeting. The dean had to make a serious and sustained effort to acknowledge student comments, redirect the discussion so that it would be responsive to a student's comments, and include students in the banter. Eventually the practice of excluding, discounting, and ignoring students ceased, and the students began to make important contributions to the work of the committee. As part of the effort to have students play a more meaningful role, the dean asked one student to chair the subcommittee on library security. This student investigated security policies at comparable institutions and used the results to convince the administration to fund an electronic security system. Another student convinced the senior class to target the library for its class gift for that year and for the next ten years. The strategic planning process itself, particularly the emphasis on understanding environmental trends and the core values of the institution, shaped the attitudes of the committee members concerning the skills that the university's graduates will need to thrive in an information society. The material that the committee read to become familiar with emerging trends, particularly the book Information Literacy, helped to shift the emphasis from "automating the library" to "enhancing student learning."[8] By the end of the process, all of the committee members were much more committed to developing student information literacy and far less interested in technology for its own sake. This, in turn, gave the resulting plan an integrity that made it hard to oppose. Creating a climate of change All of the strategies described above contributed to creating a climate of change. In addition, a deliberate effort was made to send "change messages" throughout the project. For example, one of the small but dramatic actions taken to indicate that the library was expected to change was closing the library one afternoon for a general staff meeting. For the previous 45 years, the library had never deviated from its published schedule. The person who posted the closing announcement said that her feelings as she taped the notice on the door were a combination of wickedness and fear. Peters emphasizes the importance of these "attention-getters" in creating a climate of change[9] Another change message was sent when it was time to fill a vacant librarian position. The strategic planning committee was asked to define the characteristics of the successful candidate and to participate in the search process. This sent the message that the library was no longer an autonomous unit within the university, and that it would no longer be governed unilaterally. On the other hand, this loss of complete control over the hiring process caused the library director some distress. She and the library staff preferred the candidate whose skills and personality more closely matched the culture of the old library. The IS committee preferred the more dynamic candidate who had experience implementing technology and developing faculty and student information literacy. The director did agree to accept the more dynamic candidate because the other members of the committee convinced her that he was what the new library needed. But if the IS committee had not been involved in the interviewing, it is likely that the director would have selected the more traditional candidate since she felt much more comfortable with his attitudes. This incident illustrates why lasting change is often hard to realize even when all parties are committed to the change. Evaluation The change process was difficult for the library staff, the new library director, and the IS dean. The process might have been easier if an external organizational consultant could have been hired to help them work through some of their anxieties. And, as already mentioned, more library staff should have participated on the strategic planning committee. Overall, however, the project was considered very successful. All of the objectives concerning the technical system were accomplished, as were all of the objectives set by the strategic planning committee. People are now working well together and are proud of what they have accomplished. The active involvement of the faculty members on the committee and their efforts to obtain input from the rest of the faculty during the planning process led to a unanimous vote by the faculty to accept the strategic plan developed by the IS committee. There are currently a dozen joint faculty/library projects under way. The library and the computer center worked together successfully to automate the library catalog. Later they cooperated on a foundation proposal to obtain funds for an information technology classroom/lab that features networked workstations, hypermedia software, interactive video-disc instruction, and access from each workstation to the college's catalog, the statewide library catalog, and other regional and national information resources. The computer center cabled the room and selected and installed the hardware and network. The library installed the software and is training the faculty who will use it. With respect to the reorganization into an information services department, there are indications that it will be permanent. For example, one of the librarians is serving as director of academic computing, and the university's chief academic officer has proposed adding the audio-visual department and multi-media education center to the IS department in the next fiscal year. On the other hand, reorganizations like this one have been known to fall apart when the people who led them leave. The president who initiated the reorganization left one month into the project to head a large technological university, and the IS dean has also left. It is not known yet how stable the reorganization will be in the absence of these two key players. One thing is certain. The reorganization served as a catalyst for profound changes in the cultural, political, and technical systems of the library and these changes, in turn, enabled significant improvements in library services -- a major contribution toward strengthening the university's undergraduate education. ************************************************************************ Applying Tichy's Model In the technical-system analysis, the questions to answer are: 1. What is the intended output of the organization? (For example: "students who are information literate," "graduates who are qualified for graduate school") 2. What are the output goals ? (For example: "students will be able to identify and locate 80 percent of the information resources relevant to a given problem," "90 percent of the graduates will be accepted by the graduate school of their choice") 3. What strategies are specified to attain the goals? (For example: "courses will be modified to feature instruction in cost-effective information retrieval strategies," "whenever a graduate is rejected by a graduate school, the program chair will investigate in order to determine needed modifications in curriculum, advising, or program composition") 4. How is the organization organized? (Who reports to whom? Are there informal networks to get the job done? Is the organization rigidly hierarchical or more project oriented?) In the political-system analysis, the questions to answer are: 1. How are resources allocated? 2. Who gets rewarded, and on what basis? In the cultural-system analysis, the questions to answer are: 1. What are the norms and values of the organization? (Is teaching more important than research? Are the values more like Georgia Tech's or like Yale's?) 2. Is the culture homogeneous or are there frequent value clashes? 3. How is the culture transmitted? (For example: newsletters, training programs, team building, and so forth) 4. How effective are the organization's efforts to build cultural cohesiveness? 5. What happens to people who do not conform? ======================================================================== Footnotes 1 Patricia Battin, "The Electronic Library: A Vision for the Future," EDUCOM Bulletin, Summer 1984, pp. 12-17; Diane Cimbala, "The Scholarly Information Center: An Organizational Model," College and Research Libraries 48 (September 1987): 393-398; Pat Molholt, "On Converging Paths: The Computer Center and the Library," Journal of Academic Librarianship 11 (November 1985): 284-288; and Raymond Neff, "Merging Libraries and Computer Centers: Manifest Destiny or Manifestly Deranged," EDUCOM Bulletin, Winter 1985, pp. 8-12, 16. 2 Noel M. Tichy, Managing Strategic Change: Technical, Political, and Cultural Dynamics (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1983). 3 Tom Peters, Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1987). 4 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, The Change Masters: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Corporation (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983). 5 Ibid., p. 216. 6 Tichy, p. 186. 7 James Penrod, Vice President for Information Resources Management at the California State University, Los Angeles, was the speaker at a CAUSE/EDUCOM workshop on "Strategic Planning for Information Systems," held in Washington, D.C., October 1988. 8 Patricia Senn Breivik and E. Gordon Gee, Information Literacy: Revolution in the Library (New York: MacMillan, 1989). 9 Peters, pp. 412-420. ========================================================================