1 Blackburn - LI805 RUNNING HEAD: APPLYING CLASSICAL MANAGEMENT THEORY

Applying Classical Management Theory at the Wichita State University Libraries: Organizational and Cultural Implications

Gemma Blackburn LI805 Spring 2007

2 Blackburn - LI805 Abstract: This paper analyses the organizational structure of the Wichita State University Libraries using the classical management theories of Henri Fayol. Cultural implications will then be examined through an analysis of artifacts to give deeper understanding into the organizational structure. A critique of classical management from a corrections perspective is also discussed, with implications for libraries.

3 Blackburn - LI805 Applying organizational theory to a large corporation, small business, school or library is to understand the relationships and systems of every aspect of that organization. While no business or institution is the same, the established theories associated with organizational studies can be applied to virtually any situation in order to analyze and remedy complicated problems within an organization, and to help managers see a larger picture of their environment. While organization theory did not become a recognized field of study until the 1960's, it was preceded by the ideas of scholars from other fields, most noticeably sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, who are now considered the Classical influences of organization theory (Hatch, 1997). Other Classical ideas that have shaped organization theory come from managers of organizations and their observations, such as Henri Fayol and Frederick Taylor. The main difference between the ideas of these two men is the direction of the management flow studied. Fayol concentrated on a top-down flow of management by approaching solutions from the manager's point of view, and Taylor (attributed as the father of Scientific Management) took a more bottom-up approach and looked at the individual workers and what they needed in order to work most efficiently. The models of these two management theorists are still valid today (and were later adapted into many updated models), but it is the ideas of Henri Fayol that will be used in this paper to analyze the organizational structure of the Wichita State University Libraries, primarily because of the top-down planning techniques that have been implemented there over the past few years. The structure of the Libraries has also had a great impact on the culture of the organization. Cultural artifacts that exist within the Libraries have been examined, especially as they relate to the hierarchical and departmental divisions within the organization to give a deeper understanding of the systems and staff that are not immediately visible from the organizational chart. Finally, a critique of classical models from the perspective of a corrections officer is presented that presents potential hazards in customer service environments.

4 Blackburn - LI805 Before analyzing the organizational structure of the Libraries, it would be useful to give some brief background information about the changes in management at the Libraries during the past nine years. After a long period of static administration and organization structure, where both the Dean of Libraries and Associate Dean of Libraries had held the same jobs for over two decades, both men retired almost simultaneously in 1998. During the next five years various administrative changes were made, including appointments of interim deans and the short-lived employment of a replacement Dean in 2001. In 2003 the Libraries hired our current Dean, and it is during the past four years that the greatest organizational shift and stabilization of the Libraries has occurred. The new Dean, who has considerable management experience, spent a short time in the libraries before making significant changes to the organizational structure. Unnecessary positions were identified, new positions were requested to handle the changing face of the library and information world, and the organization was reorganized into a library that was prepared for the future. To help understand these changes the simplified organizational chart of the WSU Libraries from 2001 and also the current chart are included as appendices.

Henri Fayol voiced his idea on management theory in his 1916 book General and Industrial Management. Although his models are based on his experiences in the industrial and mining industries, they are quite applicable to service-based organizations such as libraries. Management theory was a young area of study when Fayol first presented his ideas on topdown analysis of organizations, and his ideas have been used from that time up until today. Fayol outlined six functions that occur in all organizations; technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting, and, most importantly, managerial - which oversees all of the other five. It is the managerial function that this paper will concentrate on while applying Fayol's ideas to the WSU Libraries. The managerial function or organization is further divided by Fayol into 5

5 Blackburn - LI805 subactivities; to plan, to organize, to coordinate, to command, and to control. The concept of strategic planning is the solution Fayol gives to the planning responsibilities of managers, and according to his recommendations only one unifying plan encompassing all aspects of operations can be in effect at any one time. However, while Fayol advocates sticking to the plan he also realized that a plan had to be flexible enough to allow for change as necessary, and had the foresight to understand that organizations exist in a dynamic world and had to be dynamic in response. And yet, who decides what the plan will be? Fayol's answer is that the administration is completely responsible for creating and implementing the plan based on observations of what the staff and the organization as a whole need. The demonstrated needs of senior members of the firm, operating personnel and outside sources are recorded and are used by the administration to make decisions. From this perspective, although it looks like everyone associated with the organization has a voice, their voice is then interpreted by someone else (a manager or administrator) who makes the final decisions, which is by no means a democratic process of management. This is similar to the situation at the WSU Libraries in many ways. While all faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to give input into the decisions that affect the organization, it is ultimately the Dean of Libraries who makes the final decision. For example, the guidelines for selecting and hiring new faculty members requires a committee to be formed, consisting of faculty, staff and student representation. However, once the committee has analyzed applications and completed the interview process they are to send their recommendations to the Dean who will make the final hiring decision alone through his interpretation of the information gathered by the committee. However, while not always popular, this approach to management has quickly produced results by including less debate and disagreement in the process of decision making, and relies on the management expertise and knowledge of a single manager who has ample experience to make a justified decision in such matters.

6 Blackburn - LI805 Fayol insisted that one of the qualities necessary for a good planner is to be skilled in the art of handling personnel, and to be able to inspire their loyal cooperation. However, the state of organization flux at the WSU Libraries over the past few years has left many employees disillusioned with administration, and a lack of democratic process has caused resentment instead of an increased confidence in the single-handed decisions of the Dean of Libraries. Fayol does not offer solutions for remedying this kind of upset environment, and his model of planning does not seem to allow for anything but a perfectly harmonious organizational culture. Fayol spends a great deal of his book outlining the concepts of organizational design, which includes depicting the lines of responsibility and communication channels within that organization. All organizational planning starts at the top, setting the manager as a keystone to ensure success, rather than setting a foundation of solid bottom workers from which to hold up the rest of the company, as some other theories (such as Taylor's) have suggested. The manager, from Fayol's perspective, is required to oversee certain duties, such as strictly carrying out the strategic plan establishing a competent authority and defined lines of communication, maintain discipline among workers, maintain a unity of command, give fair recompense to employees, and formulate decisions, among other things. Again we see the non-democratic, single authority model as with the creation of the organizational plan, which is clearly illustrated in sample organizational charts Fayol provides in his book. Appendix 1 and 2 of this paper illustrate simplified illustrations of the organizational chart of the Wichita State University Libraries both before and after the arrival of the new Dean of Libraries. Some of the obvious changes include; simplified lines of responsibility, one manager per department (no multi-boss situations), a reduced number of faculty and staff, updated positions, and overall a better sense of where every individual employee stands within the organization. Many of these changes mirror the suggestions made by Fayol, for example he states that organization charts can draw attention to weak points, such as overlapping or the

7 Blackburn - LI805 encroachment of one department into the domain of another, dual command, and activities that are unstaffed or have no clearly indicated single head. The collection development division was placed as a single entity on the early WSU Libraries organization chart, but in reality it was located between technical services and reference, as this department dealt with both areas equally. This led to confusion in the lines of communication and authority as the Coordinator of Collection Development was reporting to multiple sets of people at once, trying to please different interests equally. Under the revised organization chart the collection development responsibilities have been placed within the reference department, and while the technical services department still has much-needed interaction with this area, it is clear to whom the collection development coordinator reports to and where she stands in the larger picture of the organization. Another benefit of restructuring the organization chart was the elimination of unnecessary positions, and the creation of new positions to meet the changes that are occurring in the library field. As Fayol suggests, having a clearly defined chart will allow the organization to more effectively see where changes should be made and find areas of weakness to be improved. For example, the interlibrary loan librarian position was eliminated, making room for an access services manager who could combine the common interests of all of the access services areas (interlibrary loan, circulation, and reserves), and at the same time the electronic resources librarian position was created to meet the increasing need to manage electronic subscriptions. Also, one of the cataloging librarian positions was switched to a metadata librarian position. It was thanks to a clear outlook of the organization, and a strong vision of the future that these changes were possible. It is doubtful that these changes could have been implemented as easily under the previous, more complex plan. Another of Fayol's sub-concepts that is relevant to the WSU Libraries is Commanding. In order to better manage the organization as it stands, and to seek areas of improvement, he

8 Blackburn - LI805 suggests that the manager must gain a knowledge of the personnel of the company. During the first week after arriving at the WSU Libraries, the Dean set appointments to meet with every faculty and staff member (and a large number of student assistants) to become familiar with everyone, find what their strengths and limitations are, and place faces with names. This was not only beneficial from a managerial standpoint, but also helped to create trust in the employees. Another aspect of commanding is a deep understanding of the culture of the organization. Fayol suggests that the manager should actively try to make the culture work for the organization, and not against it; with the staff and administration restraining from taking advantage of cultural situations for their own benefit. There are aspects of the culture at WSU Libraries that the Dean of Libraries has attempted to regulate, not always successfully, which will be explained below. The deep cultural components that are contained within an organization are not usually visible from the organizational charts, but there are many visual representations that portray elements of the culture among the library staff. Edgar Schein, a social psychologist, presented three intrinsic values of organizational culture; assumptions, values, and artifacts (Hatch, 1997, p.211). Assumptions, which are taken for granted by members of the organization, represent things/concepts/ideas that the employees believe to be true, and can influence behavior on an unconscious level. In contrast, values are principles and standards held within the organizational culture that define things that the employees care about (such as benefits and compensation) and can often be associated with strong emotions. While the first two concepts deal with intangible ideas, cultural artifacts are a more solid representation of culture. Organizational cultures leave artifacts strewn about, and from those artifacts many things can be deduced about the culture in an archaeological way. Although the members of the culture may not see the artifacts as anything but part of the normal, everyday operation of the organization, to an outsider they can give a glimpse into the culture itself.

9 Blackburn - LI805 Some of the artifacts found at the WSU Libraries reveal insight into the culture of the organization, but more importantly they can help reveal how the members of the organization fit into and react to the organizational structure of the Libraries. As mentioned above, the WSU Libraries is controlled by the Dean, and while he likes to receive input from employees he makes the final decisions. However, an illusion of democracy does exist at the Libraries. The ballot box, an attractive gift-wrap covered shoe box with a slot in the top, is a common sight in the administrative offices. This box is used by employees to post responses to polls and ballots that are distributed throughout the library, such as votes for committee members and changes to organization bylaws, etc. All employees are familiar with the box, and it has become a symbol of the equal voice of everyone. Another, perhaps less effective, artifact of democracy is the employee mail slot area. The slots were previously arranged by position, with the administrative mail boxes at the top, followed by faculty, followed by staff. It was a visual representation of the hierarchy of the organization, which was not appreciated by the staff who had to physically bow down to the bottom of the slots to retrieve their mail. The new Dean rearranged the mail boxes into an alphabetical structure, with all stations of employees intertwined. While this arrangement may give the illusion of a flatter organization style, many believe that the rearrangement of the mailboxes was simply a false representation of equality between positions and was seen by many as a way for the new administration to gain the trust of employees. There are also artifacts that symbolize the divisions within the organization, both on a hierarchical level and on a departmental level. Elsbach (2006) calls these artifacts physical markers which he defines as things that in a corporate setting may signal and affirm an employee's identity by defining his or her status and distinctiveness categorizations. One example of this at the WSU Libraries is the style of work space assigned to employees of different levels. Administrators have comfortable offices, filled with art picked from the campus art museum, with expensive furniture and spacious desk space. Faculty have smaller, less

10 Blackburn - LI805 luxurious offices with doors that can be shut to maintain physical distance from other employees. Staff are assigned a desk in an open space, with no privacy, and minimal space for personal items. Student assistants often share desks and have no personal space of their own. Elsbach explains that the physical work area of an employee, with markers such as doors, windows, larger desks, and room for personal items, can define how an employee reacts to his or her position and the positions of others, perhaps even defining the level of respect and trust they may have for higher and lower employees. For example, faculty members may feel that it is appropriate to interrupt a staff person at any moment because of the public location of the staff person's work area, whereas a staff person may regard the faculty member who keeps his or her door shut with distrust. The physical layout of departments may further the dissension between employees. One example would be the complete separation of the technical services and public services departments of the Libraries. Both sides have little understanding or appreciation for the other side which often leads to separatist feelings and distrust. Markers are used to define work areas and mark property, such as book carts and other equipment, which further exacerbates the separation. Lack of communication between the two divisions has also become a common complaint. Physical markers and divisions are most often directed towards the lowest level of employees in the organizational chart: the student assistants. One artifact that is unique to the student assistants is the time clock. Students are required to clock-in when they arrive and clockout when they leave, unlike the faculty and staff who are considered responsible enough to keep track of their own time. While the Dean has expressed a distaste for the time-clock system, it has still remained in effect and becomes the most powerful artifact of separation within the organization. However, this expression of lack of trust may be the cause of discipline problems among the student assistants. There has been abuse of the time clock for many years, with

11 Blackburn - LI805 students working in pairs to clock each other in when they are not actually present to help each other increase their paychecks. The camaraderie among the students and their occasional expression of rebellion could be due to the blatant statement made by the time-clock itself. As Fayol suggests, building a loyalty and trust between all levels of staff within the organization may create a more harmonious environment built on trust instead of suspicion.

While the use of Classical Management models has made noticeable improvements to the WSU Libraries, there are potential hazards association with this approach (some of which have already been pointed out above). Gilbert (1997) critiqued the use of classical organization models in the corrections profession, and discovered potential hazards to using classical management style that may also transcend to other service professions. He argues that the hierarchical structure of the corrections organization leaves the corrections officer, who is usually found at or near the bottom of the organizational chart, with no individual discretionary power. However, the corrections officer must use social interaction and spur-of-the-moment decision making in order to effectively perform in an unpredictable environment. He believed that this lack of decision making on the part of the officer frequently led to disgruntled employees, and an inability to control and gain respect from inmates which could potentially be dangerous. He also pointed out problems in the decision making of the managers, and while decisions were communicated to employees the values and ethics behind those decisions were not communicated and left the officers confused as to why decisions had been made which also created a rift between employee and supervisor. While library workers are rarely placed in a dangerous situation, it is true that the lowest employees on the hierarchical ladder, at least in the public services section, are more likely to have contact with patrons and may have to think quickly to deal with unpredictable situations. It is not feasible that the staff person can consult a manager for every situation, so some personal

12 Blackburn - LI805 decision making must be allowed, which means removing some of the power from the higher management and placing it with the lower employee. This bottom-level power may create an imbalance with Fayol's model of organization, but needs to be accounted for in the organizational structure. Communicating the why behind new decisions and policies through the channels of communication is also essential in these situations as patrons will usually want to know exactly why they are required to follow a policy and must be informed of the logic of that policy.

In conclusion, while the classical management ideas of Fayol are obviously present in the organizational structure of the WSU Libraries, there have been positive and negative reactions, depending greatly on the perspectives of each individual. Fayol may have understood what was best for the manager, but he seems to be almost naive about the needs of the other employees and bases his concepts in a problem-free environment where there is little dissension between upper and lower staff. It is through the analysis of the culture of an organization, possibly by using artifacts such as physical markers, that problems may be revealed. And while Fayol suggests that the manager should try to skew the organizational culture towards his or her best interests, it is doubtful that this will be possible. There are some obvious benefits to a top-down management approach, especially when decisions must be made quickly and without debate, but as Gilbert has shown it can be hazardous to not give some personal power and decision-making abilities to the employees on the lower end of the organizational chart.

13 Blackburn - LI805 Works Cited:

Elsbach, K. (2006). Perceptual Biases and Misinterpretation of Artifacts. In, Rafaeli, A. and Pratt, M. G., eds. Artifacts and Organizations: Beyond Mere Symbolism, pg 61-81. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Mahwah, N.J.

Fayol, H. (1984). General and Industrial Management. IEEE Press, New York: N.Y.

Gilbert, M. J. (1997). The Illusion of Structure: A Critique of the Classical Model of Organization and the Discretionary Power of Corrections Officers. Criminal Justice Review, 22(1), 49-64

Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory: Modern Symbolic and Postmodern Perspectives. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

14 Blackburn - LI805 Appendix 1

15 Blackburn - LI805 Appendix 2