Bethany Havas

MLIS 7250 Human Resources Management in Libraries

Thinking Strategically about Workplace Bullying in Organizations Ruth McKay, Cristina E. Ciocirlan, & Ed Chung Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship; Dec 2010; 15:4; pp. 73-93 ABI/INFORM Complete Bullying is a topic often discussed in the context of grade school, but the behavior can also have a negative impact in the work environment when it takes place among adult colleagues. It is up to the organization and the leaders in the workplace to create an environment that addresses bullying strategically and proactively, and to provide a positive example that sets a standard for the organization as a whole. If left unchecked, bullying may introduce greater costs to the workplace including paid sick leave and increased absenteeism, higher turnover rates with expenses in hiring and training new employees, negligence on the job, and reduced productivity. These concerns occur with some regularity in the fields of law enforcement and public school education, and the article addresses each case as an example of a workplace in which bullying is present. McKay, Ciocirlan, and Chung posit that a bullyingfree work environment can be treated as a valuable resource with which to retain employees and gain new hires, which is particularly important given the expected loss of talent in the workforce as the experienced and skilled baby boomer generation retires. While the entire organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a bullying-free environment, human resources personnel are uniquely involved in the process as they are engaged with all employees from recruitment to termination. The authors point out that the most care should be given to maintaining preventative measures against bullying, in addition to maintaining reactive procedures that will correct inappropriate behavior. Human resources personnel should provide information on bullying prevention and education in employee orientation and training materials, and all employees should have clear and well-enforced anti-bullying guidelines. The concept of creating and maintaining a safe, productive workplace without bullying is applicable to libraries just like any other work environment. The individuals who make the hiring decisions for public, academic, and other kinds of libraries should provide new technicians, paraprofessionals, and librarians with information on how to identify and prevent bullying in the workplace, and how to maintain a bullying-free environment. The article did not address libraries specifically, but many public library environments are similar to the teaching environments that it did address. Public librarians are often quite busy helping schoolchildren and teenagers with homework during the school year, and they provide more intensive reading programs to youngsters in the summer when school is out of session. McKay, Ciocirlan, and Chung discuss the fact that a great deal of bullying directed at teachers comes from students and parents. If the students and parents behave the same way toward librarians as their teachers, it would not be surprising to find the library staff becoming a victim of bullying in their workplace. I found this article to be very interesting and of significant concern for human resources personnel. Bullying can be difficult to address, as are many interpersonal conflicts, but it may have dire consequences if left unchecked. I would not be surprised to hear of bullying in a high-stress environment like a Wall Street office or (perhaps due to too many reality shows) a professional kitchen in a five-star restaurant, and I had not considered the library as a risky environment in which to work. The libraries where I have worked were generally rather low-stress environments on the employee side of things, but the authors raise a good point about the bullying by parents and students. In workplaces that handle public services, it is important to be able to address bullying inside the organization and bullying that may possibly come from outside the staff. Nobody should be the victim of bullying, and it is a concern of human resources to resolve and prevent such conflicts for the good of all employees and the organization.

Bethany Havas

MLIS 7250 Human Resources Management in Libraries

Making the Case for In-house Training Michael A. Crumpton The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances; 2011; 24:3; pp. 167-172 ABI/INFORM Complete An organizations workforce can be a great asset, especially in hard economic times when other aspects of growth may be cost-prohibitive. A skilled and efficient group of employees will make any business run more smoothly, and it can also turn into positive public relations in a customer service setting. Professional development and training programs may be time-consuming as well as somewhat costly in themselves, but it is well worth the effort to use ones existing workforce to the best of their abilities and to promote a culture of excellent performance. Crumpton cites the U. S. Government Accountability Offices Human Capital Self-Assessment Checklist for their Agency Leaders as a great tool to begin the process of assessing training needs in an organization (168). Such assessments can be helpful to determine what training might be required and to what extent (169-170). Once the needs of the employees are accurately assessed, the organization has a choice to produce the training in-house or to outsource the program. In-house training is advantageous for the organization because it is easier to customize the training, the leadership is stronger when it comes from the inside, and it prevents an organizations information from leaving the organization (171). The issues of maintaining a well-trained, competent, and efficient staff are integral to the mission of the human resources department. No employee can be expected to perform well without guidance, and some type of training is necessary to maintain a good workforce. Crumpton makes excellent points regarding performance assessment and the relevant issues for human resources officers to strategically manage their employee development. Libraries benefit just as much as any other business might from a well-trained workforce, and it might even be of greater concern for libraries in a sluggish economy: much of public libraries funding comes under special consideration when city, county, and state budgets are tightened, and the value of libraries is bound to the services they provide. If the service is poor and limited because of inefficiencies in the staff, which may also result in reduced library traffic, it is all the easier to decide where the cutbacks should come from. Crumptons advocacy of in-house training programs should be well-received in the library community. Library collections and services vary according to their major patron demographics, location, or affiliation with other organizations. In-house development would allow libraries to tailor their training procedures to their specific needs and goals. I agree with Crumptons assessment, and I think his points are clear and concise. I also find his references very helpful, since items like the federal government assessment checklist are quite relevant and are excellent illustrations of his assertions. He is speaking directly to libraries, but I think that it may be a little redundant with what library human resources officers already practice. I have only ever known libraries to design and provide their own training materials and development activities in-house, rather than using an outside source to provide them. In libraries where I have worked, the decision generally seemed to be based on the lesser expense of putting something together in-house. Crumpton makes good points, and the concerns he addresses are indeed relevant to library human resources programs. However, I think that the author might have been able to address an audience who may commonly have more of an option to decide whether to outsource development. It is very important to make sure the organizations workforce is well-trained, and his examples of assessment tools might assist HR officers in exploring their options to make a decision on development activities.

Bethany Havas

MLIS 7250 Human Resources Management in Libraries

Effectively Facilitating Gender Transition in the Workplace S. Taylor, L. A. Burke, K. Wheatley, & J. Sompayrac Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal; 2011; 23:2; pp. 101-116 ABI/INFORM Complete Taylor, Burke, Wheatley, and Sompayracs article is a review of best practices to facilitate the transition of transgender employees from one gender identity to another in the workplace. Such personal topics can be quite tricky for an employer to handle, and the authors recognize that all parties must proceed to make the necessary and desired changes at the appropriate times and with the appropriate respect and dignity that employees deserve. There is currently no federal protection for transgender employees, but state and municipal governments may have anti-discrimination legislation in place. In the workplace, many employment policies and practices trend toward an inclusive interpretation of standing anti-discrimination laws that may provide protection for transgender individuals. Organizations may put transition guidelines into place that provide a helpful vocabulary and statement of expectations for the employee, supervisors, and other essential parties to ensure all affected members feel informed and respected during the process. Managing a diverse workplace is an essential skill for human resources professionals, who are challenged to encourage a respectful and productive work environment among employees who may come from a variety of beliefs and backgrounds. Individuals who feel included and at ease are more effective in the workplace, and it follows that it would certainly benefit the organization to support its employees during such a transition. This means that the transgender employee should receive support, as well as coworkers and supervisors who may not fully understand the concept of gender identity or the process of transition. Human resources managers should educate the members of their organization in advance to address any concerns or misunderstandings before conflicts arise during a transition process, but providing education after such a process has begun is still better than not providing it at all. Addressing these guidelines alongside other standard training materials has little direct cost to the organization, and it creates a culture of inclusion in the work environment which may in turn positively affect recruitment. The concept of creating and maintaining an inclusive and supportive workplace applies as much to libraries as to any other workplace. If a librarian were to transition from one gender identity to another, mundane issues like bathroom usage and the printing of new business cards would need to be addressed as well as the more complicated processes of modifying health insurance records and credentials under a new name. Since there is no federal protection, libraries would need to review the policies of their relevant administrative bodies to determine how to proceed: for example, county or city policies for public libraries, university policies for an academic library, or organizational policies for a private library. I think that the article is well-written, especially for such a sensitive subject. The concept of gender identity and expression is almost prohibitively personal to be held up against the scrutiny of organizational policies, but it is so essential to the well-being of the employee that human resources managers cannot afford to avoid the topic. Taylor, Burke, Wheatley, and Sompayrac address the issue from multiple angles and give a variety of suggestions and criticisms from guidelines that are already in use by successful businesses. The conclusion of their review seems sound: there is a great deal of misinformation about gender identity and transgender individuals, and education and preparation are key to handling the issues in the workplace.