Defining the problem
The key problem identified in this case is the inability of Fawville Public Library trustees to find a person who would be act as an efficient director of this organization. At the moment, they have already tried several candidates: one of them, Sam Grillo, proved to be entirely unsuitable for this position partly due to his character and partly due to his lack of managerial skills (Anderson, n. d. unpaged).
At this point, the members of the staff are acting on their own since there is no one to fill the vacancy of director. Trustees believe that such a situation is hardly permissible as because this organization is entirely deprived of leadership. It serves the needs of 14.000 people, and if the trustees to find a good candidate, it will fail to perform this task.
Causes
In order to solve this problem, one should first understand why no one except Sam Grillo applied to this job and why the interviewers found him suitable for this job. To some extent, this issue can be explained by the external factors. First, Fawville is a relatively small town and this place attracted Sam Grillo because he associated it with “peace and quiet” (Anderson, n. d. unpaged).
However, a more ambitious person might have argued that this job does not offer any promotion opportunities. The second reason is inadequate compensation offered to the candidates. Judging from the case, the salary offered by the trustees could have suited only a very undemanding person. As it has been mentioned in the case study, a person, who has to sustain family, will not be interested in this position (Anderson, n. d. unpaged).
Furthermore, we should take into consideration that people who accepted the candidacy of Sam Grillo, did not know very much about the competencies and skills which a library director has to possess. This person must be able to act as administrator who organizes the work of employees and as a leader who brings innovation and change in the organization.
He/she must be skilled in information technologies, HR management, performance assessment and many other areas (D’Andraia, 1997, p 52; Stueart & Moran, 2007). In part, the approval Sam Grillo’s candidacy can be explained by the fact that the interviewer misunderstood the role played by library directors.
Thus, it is possible to argue that current situation is due to external factors like unwillingness of good librarians to move to a town where they will have practically no promotion opportunities. Yet, the situation can also be accounted by unwillingness of the trustees to offer adequate compensation for this job. Finally, they did not know how to interview the candidate and test his/her skills.
Generating Alternative Solutions
Prior to proposing any alternative solutions to this problem, we need to say the board of library trustees may lack expertise in the field of library management and it is of crucial importance that they include the personnel of Fawville Public Library into decision-making. Moreover, one should take into account that they do not have much time at their disposal. On the whole, they can choose from different strategies:
The trustees can choose the candidate among the employees of the library. The key advantage of this approach is that this person will know the culture of this organization, the skills of each employee and how their work can be organized.
However, in the long term this decision can lead to numerous workplace conflicts, especially if there are many candidates for the position of the library director. Besides, we do not know for sure any of the library workers is competent enough for this kind of job.
The second solution that we can recommend is to hire a person, who already has experience of working as a library director. Certainly, this candidate will have both experience and expertise in this area, but it will be difficult to persuade him/her to move to Fawville, especially if this individual is employed at the moment. It is quite probable that the library will not afford to pay the salary that he or she will demand.
The key disadvantage of these solutions that they will yield only short-term demands, they will hardly change anything in the organizational culture of this library. For more than 16 years it has been under the rule of autocratic manager who seldom consulted his subordinates (Anderson, n. d. unpaged).
Sam Grillo failed to change anything; in fact, he did not even try. Therefore, it is necessary to find someone who is capable of implementing this change.
Decision
The key recommendation that we can make to the library trustees is to hire a candidate who has with a degree in library management, and who has worked in a public library for at least three years but not in the position of a director. There are several rationales for this decision; previous directors were not trained to work as library managers and they failed to perform their duties properly.
As we have said earlier, it may be rather difficult to hire a person who is already working as a chief librarian; this is why we have decided to focus on people with academic background and some relevant experience. First all, they know about the new trends in library management and they will be willing to apply this knowledge in a real life situation.
Additionally, these candidates already have some work experience, and they already know that public libraries struggle with such problems as bureaucracy, lack of initiative from the personnel and poor customer service (Usherwood, 2007, Park 2005). Finally, this job can be appealing to them since the position of a library director can a very important step in the career of these people.
Taking Action and Following Up
The library trustees should undertake the following steps:
- They need to conduct a meeting with the library personnel so that they speak about the needs of this organization and especially about their requirements for the future library director. This must be done within seven days.
- Secondly, they need to publish advertisements about this vacancy. For instance, this advertisement needs to be placed at the website American Library Association, since it can be the first place where potential candidates can look for the information about vacancies.
- The third step is to carefully assess the resumes of different candidacies. Again, it should be done by one of library workers. This stage of plan should last no longer than two weeks.
- The final step is to conduct a series of interviews with the candidates who sufficient experience for this position. They must be asked questions about their previous responsibilities and thee tasks that they performed, and how they can improve the functioning of this organization. Most importantly, it is vital that they spend at least some time with the staff who can better assess their strengths and weaknesses.
Probably, the implementation of this strategy will take a considerable amount of time, but it will ensure that this library is managed effectively.
Reference List
American Library Association. The Official Website. Web.
Anderson. A (n. d.) “What Do You Want In A Library Director?” ABC CLIO. Web.
D’Andraia. F. (1997). The academic library director: reflections on a position in transition. NY: Routledge.
Hayes. R. (2001) Models for library management, decision-making, and planning. London: Emerald Group Publishing.
Park. C. (2005). Harris County Public Library: creating a design paradigm for twenty- first century libraries. The Bottom Line. 18 (4). p 167-174.
Stueart, R., & Moran, B. (2007). Library & Information Center Management (7th ed.). Littleton: Libraries Unlimited.
Usherwood. R. C. (2007). Professional values in a bureaucratic structure. Library Review pp 666-673.