8.1.1 The library and its change project

This personnel and organisational developer worked for four and a half years in a huge German public library with 32 district libraries and a central library. In this library 492 members of staff are working in 399 full-time equivalents and it has more than 1.7 million media items. Among other things the change manager supported the implementation of a library RFID management system.

This project to implement the new RFID technology took about four years and involved change for everybody working in the central and district libraries.

All members of staff – including managers at all hierarchical levels – were rather sceptical at the beginning of the process which led to a lot of concern and agitation related to different aspects of this change throughout the entire library.

8.1.2 Leadership during the change process

At the beginning of this change project to implement a library RFID management system there was little leadership in the library. It seemed that there were teams with coordinators rather than teams with real leaders, and the leaders could not be distinguished from their followers. In this change management process it quickly became clear that leadership aspects needed to be improved to enable leaders at all hierarchical levels to handle this change project in the face of all the concerns and the scepticism about implementing this new technology.

This was particularly the case since the team members – certified librarians as well as assistant librarians – were concerned about their new duties after the implementation of the RFID technology. Moreover, the certified librarians were worried that the assistant librarians would take over their duties and responsibilities, while the new tasks for the certified librarians consisted of, for example, the management of events and especially the challenge to use more of their time for leadership aspects of their jobs.

On the other hand the assistant librarians and the untrained personnel recently employed for shelving the media were also afraid that they would lose their tasks to the RFID management system. They were especially concerned about their new duties and responsibilities for tasks they took over from the certified librarians.

To make it even more alarming for the people who were at that time working in the central library, the shelving of the books was permanently outsourced to an outside company during the change process.

For the assistant librarians a new task was to act as a so-called ‘mobile assistant’. Trained in customer service but without a counter, mobile assistants would go directly to the users and help them on the spot at the shelves, at the self-check-out station or at the copying machine.

There was in addition a lot of apprehension among the staff about the library’s users and how they would react to the self-check-out of their media. This also needed to be taken into account by the leaders.

8.1.3 Change management supported by a change manager

Can a change manager support the leaders and the teams of the library? It is possible, but in this case it happened only indirectly through the mentoring of the top management. The change manager gave them advice and told them about the importance of bringing the middle management as well as the team members on board. To do this they needed to canvass these members of staff about their opinions and ideas about the expected changes. Having gained the participation and integration of middle management as well as the team members they would have the opportunity to use their knowledge and potential as experts in their jobs.

As a consequence the library organised a two-day ‘Future Conference’ where more than 20 per cent of the staff from the central library, from all the district libraries and every organisational unit and department, together with members of the various different professional categories such as human resource management and buildings and facilities, took part. All the other members of staff backed this conference up to ensure that no library had to be closed while the conference took place.

The top management prepared the conference, in particular by developing a vision and strategic goals as a framework for the new developments throughout a two-day workshop previously held with external consultants. The next step was to organise a team of librarians to use the parameters of the top management’s workshop as a basis to develop further ideas for the ‘Future Conference’. The top management merely outlined the limits and their requirements as goals. Thus the ‘Future Conference’ was an example of an instrument in which everyone could participate to develop a library and to bring the library staff forth to deliberate large-scale changes.

Thus a group of staff members were asked to organise the ‘Future Conference’. It was important to choose those members carefully and to communicate the selection process and the decision about the final formation of this preparatory team to the other members of staff. All the steps leading to the ‘Future Conference’ were supported by external consultants and the works council was also engaged in the process.

After a review of the process as well as the results of the ‘Future Conference’ all the ideas and projects that were generated needed to be analysed and evaluated.

The main goal of the ‘Future Conference’ was to identify new tasks for the team members affected by the implementation of the new RFID technology because there was no need to dismiss any member of staff as a result of its introduction, and the ‘free working time’ that was gained by use of the RFID technology could be used to organise the library along more customer-friendly lines. The RFID management system should be seen by everyone as a chance for the library, not as a threat – this was the most important message from the top management.

As already mentioned, a lot of ideas were produced during the conference. After prioritisation through the top management a lot of new projects were started in this public library. The first alteration was that project management was to be established as a new method in the library to prioritise and organise these projects.

One important new project was, for example, the implementation of a request and complaint management system. Before this was implemented in the central and district libraries a number of librarians conducted a pilot project to test this new method. Afterwards, these librarians were then trained to help implement the new request and complaint management system in the other district libraries. The idea behind this was that it is often easier to roll out a new method across the whole library through ‘learning on equal terms’, that is learning from colleagues rather than outsiders.

Another new project was the development of leadership structures. In the role of a change manager with a view in from the outside it was possible to give advice on leadership and to show how the leadership structures could and should be changed. For example, it was difficult for the leaders of the district libraries to have only the director of the library as their contact person for questions concerning their team members, leadership and aspects of organisational culture. To give them the support they needed and asked for, a new management level was established. This person is now responsible for all the managers of the various district libraries and is aiming to introduce a new leadership structure as well as a suitable organisational culture with the help of external consultants.

The change manager took part in this project concerning the leadership structure by developing and implementing appraisal interviews, and a number of district libraries tried out the appraisal interviews as pilot schemes. After the evaluation of the results of the first appraisal interviews in the pilot district libraries the concept was slightly changed and afterwards implemented as a new instrument for personnel development and leadership for all members of the library. The pilot project with leaders and team members did notably help to avoid resistance to this new instrument.

The change manager also assisted the leaders with the organisation of training sessions and workshops based on the foregoing analysis of their needs and expectations.

Finally, the communication between the different management levels in this public library was strengthened through regular meetings of all leaders.

8.1.4 Recommendations

This change manager in a public library, retrospectively reviewing her activities, is convinced that it is useful to employ or bring in a current member of staff as a personnel or organisational developer to take on the role of change manager, particularly during big, major changes, but also if only smaller changes are envisaged. It wouldn’t go amiss to have the opportunity to transfer some of the tasks concerning deliberate large-scale changes to a change manager.

But even if they are working with a change manager, leaders at all levels should have or gain competences in the various methods and tools of change management. These are the real change managers; the other change managers – the personnel and organisational developers – can only assist and promote the necessary changes. The members of the top management are the ones who decide at the end of the day what has to be done and how.

For the ‘Future Conference’ mentioned above, the implementation of a new leadership structure and the introduction of project management, it was helpful that external consultants supported these processes.

A change manager – irrespective of whether this is a leader, a personnel developer or an organisational developer – should have a clear ethical principle, they should appreciate others and last but not least they should be able to receive feedback openly.

8.2.1 The library and its change project

This section gives an example of the integration of an information service provider, located in another city, into an academic library in Germany from the perspective of a change manager responsible for the organisational development of the library.

This library now has more than 4 million publications and subscriptions to over 31,700 journals at both locations with a total of 208 full-time equivalents.

The decision to integrate the information service provider of a scientific institute into this academic library was made after the evaluation of the scientific institute was negative, which meant it had to be closed down as an independent institute with an individual financial budget from the government.

The evaluation of the academic library on the other hand made clear that it needed more independence and for this had to change its legal form.

Both deliberate large-scale changes – the integration of the information service provider and the new legal form – needed to be done at the same time, which lasted three years and affected every department of the library as well as all the staff members of the information service provider.

The first step in this change process was an extensive organisational analysis of the information service provider which was to be integrated, carried out by the director of the academic library together with his change manager. They therefore organised interviews with every manager, all the working groups existing in the information service provider and selected members of staff. In particular, the discussions with the working groups were used to find out if some of the members of the staff of the information service provider could be appointed as change agents.¹

At the same time, the first actions in the process were carried out, such as closing down the press documentation and the implementation of a status meeting. This meant that the management of the information service provider met on a regular basis with members of the academic library.

This was followed by the integration of the team members of the information service provider into the academic library. For this an ‘organisational culture process’ was begun. This cultural process was set up by the top management and a planning group, which consisted of members of the staff of all hierarchical levels of the information service provider (with many of the above mentioned change agents) as well as the change manager. The idea of this ‘organisational culture process’ was to prepare the members of the library as well as those of the information service provider for the upcoming change process.

The mission statement, already implemented and accepted in the library, was to become operative in the information service provider – as a new part of the library – as well.

In this cultural process framework a huge conference took place with every member of staff from the library and from the information service provider. This conference lasted three days and was supported by external coaches.

One of the main goals of this conference with everybody from the library and the information service provider was to adjust the actual communication with the communication process recorded in the mission statement.

The role of the change manager in this ‘organisational culture process’ was as a contact person between the two different groups (the team members of the library on the one hand and those of the information service provider on the other).

As a result of this conference with every member of the information service provider different working groups were built, which were attended by members of staff from both the academic library as well as the information service provider. The motto was ‘Under Full Sails’ in reference to the location of the academic library close to the sea and the idea of an energetic movement forward together.

At the same time as the ‘organisational culture process’ started, a working group on ‘integration’ was implemented in the library, which was to prepare for the new organisational structure. Another important task of this working group was to arrange the match of the operational concepts for IT, the document delivery service, and so on.

The year of the official integration (when the governmental funding of the information service provider stopped) was the same year in which the library finally became a public law foundation. In this year the reorganisation in the form of an expansion across locations was realised for the better part through functional consolidation such as data integration, the lending services, the document delivery service and the inter-library loan service. A working group on ‘coordination’ was also established, which took over from the working group on ‘integration’. This group’s task was to support and coordinate the operational and functional integration of the service provider into the academic library.

This extensive change project concerned everyone working in the academic library as well as those working for the information service provider, which needed to be integrated as required by the government, the source of finance.

8.2.2 Leadership during the change process

As for the leaders there have been obvious differences between those working in the library and those working in the defunct information service provider, now closed at least as an individual organisation. The last-mentioned were shocked at the results of the evaluation, especially the criticism of their management and their productivity.

The leaders working in the information service provider questioned the validity of the evaluation results and communicated this to their team members: ‘The expertise is wrong. The world will someday recognise how good we are.’ At the same time these leaders communicated to the director of the academic library their willingness to cooperate. All in all the team members of the information service provider were given inconsistent information and decisions. This was a time of unclear leadership and vague decision-making processes for those team members.

This unclear and unreliable leadership resulted in an unwillingness among those team members to work together with their leaders and a refusal to stand behind them any longer, as the leaders were told at one of the regular status meetings. This led to resignations. Every leader working in the information service provider took up his or her right to work in another governmental organisation and left.

The members of staff of the information service provider buried their old culture in a ceremony in which they all wrote down some aspect on a piece of paper which was put into a treasure chest to be shut away. By means of this process old cultural aspects were got rid of that were no longer needed or wanted.

The leaders working in the academic library on the other hand were very open and motivated concerning the changes and alterations. This might have been caused by their newly gained status as managers and leaders, resulting from the new organisational structure. They accomplished the alteration into a public law foundation and the integration of the team members of the information service provider with great commitment. However, in spite of their motivation, occasionally the pressure and workload of the newly announced leaders as well as the director of the academic library could be recognised. As a result of this some alterations were made during the change process regarding the room for decision-making by some leaders and their teams.

8.2.3 Change management supported by a change manager

To support the director and the leaders of this academic library the change manager had to achieve the following roles and tasks:

In response to the question whether the change project was successful, the answer was: ‘Yes, one hundred per cent!’ Today the members of this academic library work under the motto: ‘Two different locations, two different cities “under one umbrella”.’ Everything concerning the organisational and procedural integration has worked out and is functional. All tasks are now undertaken as routine activities with experience.

This is not only the opinion of the change manager. Since that time another evaluation process has been carried out and in the expert opinion of the evaluation committee it is stated that the integration of the information service provider into the academic library, especially with regard to the cooperation of the members of staff, was very well done.

8.2.4 Recommendations

This change manager’s recommendations for leaders who have to deal with deliberate large-scale changes include the need to be authentic as well as to be physically present. They also have to show empathy, as people are all individuals and all are different – for example, some are innovative while others prefer to stick to the old methods.

Leaders also have to be open to new ideas so as not to miss any chances for their library, their department or their team. And to give these new ideas a chance they need to be able to motivate their team members to carry out the changes required to implement them.

It is also important to show team spirit and have the competence not only to come to a decision but to handle any conflicts that arise from that decision, or between members of their team or from the change project in general.

And last but not least one aspect is very important: communication!

8.3.1 The library and its change projects

In this German academic library with 326 full-time employees and nearly nine million media items deliberate large-scale change projects which affect many or all of the people working there have been going on for about twelve years.

It began with projects to institute teamwork as a new method of working in around twenty teams. This included the integration of parts of another library and all the activities that needed to be organised and accomplished as a result of an employee survey conducted two years after the teamwork was implemented. In addition, there was a project to institute highly integrated trilateral cooperation with two other academic libraries, although this was modified to a project based on less integrated and interdependent cooperation, which still ensured the total autonomy and self-sufficiency of each library after the project was completed. The trilateral cooperation is now a strategic alliance which works together on certain fields of competence, such as the supply of electronic and printed full-text documents.

8.3.2 Leadership during the change processes

Everyone – leaders as well as team members – acts differently during times of change than in times when they are working in more familiar and safe conditions. Even if the known has its shortcomings, it is often preferred because those shortcomings are usually predictable. Change on the other hand always generates uncertainty at times and every emotion connected with the loss of the known and the familiar.

Furthermore, personal pressure increases in times of change, because change processes usually have to be dealt with in addition to ongoing day-to-day business with less staff or more tasks and responsibilities for everybody. The growing backlog or the rising amount of overtime leads to additional stress, which affects the behaviour of both leaders and team members.

In the academic library under consideration here, undergoing the above-mentioned change process as well as several others, it can be said that major change nowadays represents normality for the staff. There are no longer any real breaks between the deliberate large-scale changes.² Thus the behaviour resulting from the pressure of these ongoing change projects is also going to be the ‘norm’, that is the everyday behaviour of each member of staff. This also means that change management and a leadership style in line with the requirements of that change management such as communication and participation have to become the daily routine for every manager in this academic library.

We might ask what was different during the change processes in comparison to the time before these major changes began. To begin with, there was a greater amount of uncertainty and disorientation among staff members. To cope with this, guidance and support was much needed by the team members. This led to new requirements demanded of their leaders, including the willingness as well as the ability of each leader to act as a mentor for his or her team members.

The willingness to communicate with team members by means of a dialogue during a change process depended on the personality of the leader. This communication was intensified by the leaders, because understanding the need for change and the sense of transparency as well as involvement of their team members increased.

On the other hand there were leaders who had an increasing need to regulate and control their team members during the change processes and discussions were hampered by them. Furthermore, these leaders were characterised by conflict-avoidance behaviour.

However, during the change processes the leaders of this academic library did slowly broaden their skills and self-competences. Change became part of the routine and with this the self-composure of the leaders increased. This led to a more explicit and determined course of action.

8.3.3 Change management supported by a change manager

To support the leaders of this academic library – from top management to team leaders – a lot of different activities have been carried out.

For this change manager it is usually difficult to say if a change project has been successful because there are no reliable methods to measure the outcome of the project or of the supporting personnel development activities.³ Moreover, depending on someone’s approach and his or her hierarchical position the success of activities and processes might be evaluated differently.

As the sponsor of each change project the director of this academic library evaluated output and outcome in generally positive terms, even if it was sometimes necessary to revise one or other change process or to initiate a follow-up project.

On many an occasion the time scheduled for a change project needed to be extended, as a result of too narrow a time schedule or unexpected alterations during the change process.

To evaluate the change projects from a broader perspective, evaluation activities were carried out in this library whenever it was possible and reasonable. For example, for several of the change projects mentioned above evaluation workshops have been held to take stock of their outcomes.

In addition, questions related to change projects, especially about the team-building processes, were integrated into an employee survey to give every member of staff a chance to evaluate the changes in their library. Generally the results have been evaluated positively, but there has always also been criticism over the details. The main criticisms have usually included the general set-up while the determining factors as well as the actual room for decision-making had not been formulated far enough in advance.

During their realisation and implementation, the results of the change projects have often been looked at critically at first, but have proved to be practicable as part of everyday routine. As a result they have been more and more accepted and have sometimes been even further optimised since their introduction.

8.3.4 Recommendations

As leaders in times of change, managers of libraries should have all the competences that can be found in any job specification for managers, for example:

This change manager advises change management every time the following criteria are met:

Because change these days is often day-to-day business knowledge of change management skills and their practice should be demanded of every leader in a library, even if the current transformation is not a deliberate large-scale change and only affects one manageable group of staff or single process. Sometimes even minor alterations to the division of work in one team require change management skills.

Even in phases of (assumed) tranquillity – see section 2.2 on phase 3: the ‘refreezing’ of change processes – leaders are always being asked to control and revise their strategies, projects and activities and to develop new goals for the future. They need to discover trends and new challenges and act proactively instead of only reacting to changes and external pressures.

A change manager is always needed as soon as the above-mentioned criteria are fulfilled. This person should be appointed and provided with the required competences and capacities. The position as change manager can be given to someone from inside the library, if necessary with support through an external consultant.

If change is to be day-to-day business as usual, in the course of the daily changes in their own team or field of responsibility every team leader as well as every team member will transform over time into a change manager in a broader sense.