Strategic Planning for the Future
The library district I work for just went through its first ever strategic planning process to determine the goals and concerns of the community. I admire the effort but based on the Social Network Analysis article and the Hatch text, I see some flaws in the execution.
First, and this is not unique to this library district, there is no common understanding of the role of the library and librarians. The strategic planning did not initialize by asking what does the library do for the community now, instead it asked for service area priorities for the next five years. If the community and the library don’t have a starting point of what the library is and what librarians do, how can it be modified? Most people using the library assume that everyone who works there is a librarian. Certainly there are overlapping functions between professionals and clerical staff but how does the organization set service priorities for all staff when their responsibilities and duties are so different? While marketing seems to be a mostly capitalist enterprise, it seems an important and frequently overlooked aspect for libraries. Libraries need to market their services and capabilities to larger segments of the community.
My second critique of the strategic planning process is the participants. Hatch discusses hegemony in the Marxist sense, interpreting the interests of the ruling class as universal. In a slightly toned down version, this interpretation could be used to describe the views of the library administration and library users. In the Social Network Analysis article, the authors state people tend to interact with people who are similar to them in regards to race, gender and age. They comment that while this is common practice, this can lead to bias by decision-makers. The strategic planning process culled its information from community members who attended information-gathering groups at various libraries in the district. No effort was made to go outside the library community to speak with non-users and determine what they would like in the library or what would make them come into the library.
My final point is a variation on the previous point. The clarion cry of diversity is constantly rung by the library director, however, the findings of the strategic plan indicate that participants did not value services to teens or mention racial, gender or age diversity. Could this be because there were no teen participants in the study? Again, the sessions were voluntary and all were welcome but the fact that they were all held at libraries and there was no effort made to have session for teens makes the results unsurprising.
I understand the realities of the budget and the impossibility of being all things to all people. I salute the efforts of the library for undertaking the strategic planning process but due to the several reasons mentioned, I am not optimistic for a beneficial outcome. If the library board and director had paid more attention to organization theory, the strategic planning process would be a more accurate reflection of community needs and interests and not the one-dimensional point of view of middle-aged, middle-class library users.
References:
Cross, R., Borgatti, S.P. & Parker, A. (2002, Winter). Making invisible work visible:
Using social network analysis to support strategic collaboration. California
Management Review, 44(2), 25-26.
Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic and postmodern
Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.
Andrea Bullock
First, and this is not unique to this library district, there is no common understanding of the role of the library and librarians. The strategic planning did not initialize by asking what does the library do for the community now, instead it asked for service area priorities for the next five years. If the community and the library don’t have a starting point of what the library is and what librarians do, how can it be modified? Most people using the library assume that everyone who works there is a librarian. Certainly there are overlapping functions between professionals and clerical staff but how does the organization set service priorities for all staff when their responsibilities and duties are so different? While marketing seems to be a mostly capitalist enterprise, it seems an important and frequently overlooked aspect for libraries. Libraries need to market their services and capabilities to larger segments of the community.
My second critique of the strategic planning process is the participants. Hatch discusses hegemony in the Marxist sense, interpreting the interests of the ruling class as universal. In a slightly toned down version, this interpretation could be used to describe the views of the library administration and library users. In the Social Network Analysis article, the authors state people tend to interact with people who are similar to them in regards to race, gender and age. They comment that while this is common practice, this can lead to bias by decision-makers. The strategic planning process culled its information from community members who attended information-gathering groups at various libraries in the district. No effort was made to go outside the library community to speak with non-users and determine what they would like in the library or what would make them come into the library.
My final point is a variation on the previous point. The clarion cry of diversity is constantly rung by the library director, however, the findings of the strategic plan indicate that participants did not value services to teens or mention racial, gender or age diversity. Could this be because there were no teen participants in the study? Again, the sessions were voluntary and all were welcome but the fact that they were all held at libraries and there was no effort made to have session for teens makes the results unsurprising.
I understand the realities of the budget and the impossibility of being all things to all people. I salute the efforts of the library for undertaking the strategic planning process but due to the several reasons mentioned, I am not optimistic for a beneficial outcome. If the library board and director had paid more attention to organization theory, the strategic planning process would be a more accurate reflection of community needs and interests and not the one-dimensional point of view of middle-aged, middle-class library users.
References:
Cross, R., Borgatti, S.P. & Parker, A. (2002, Winter). Making invisible work visible:
Using social network analysis to support strategic collaboration. California
Management Review, 44(2), 25-26.
Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory: Modern, symbolic and postmodern
Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.
Andrea Bullock
posted by OrganizationTheory at
11:13 AM
1 Comments:
I like the ideas you have presented in this article and I would like to comment on a few of them.
Your comments about the clarity of what librarians do. I agree that most patrons make no distinctions, to them everyone is a librarian. One way that our library worked to solve the problem was to teach all staff members what kind of questions could be answered most effectively by whom. That way referrals are made and the patron has a better chance of coming away satisfied.
I also agree with your ideas about publicity and marketing. I believe these activities are vital if you want to reach the people that you hope to serve. These activities are part of the artifacts that tell people what your organization is about, what you value, and what your strenghths are. These activites also help you to grow professionally because you have to work with people from other departments and businesses to accomplish your goals.
I also agree with the point you make about diversity. All aspects of the population you serve should be represented in your programming, your collections, and your physical structure, if possible. This could be accomplished be using a symbolic-interpretive approach; by directly observing people in the community you serve, interviewing them, and asking them to participate in focus groups. These ideas coupled with traditional modernist approaches like gathering statistical data about the usage of your collections can really be useful and can help you achieve your diversity goals.
Barbara
By
OrganizationTheory, at 7:07 PM
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