© 2008 Somerville

ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS:

A “BACK TO BASICS” APPROACH

Mary M. Somerville, MA, MLS, PhDAssociate Library Dean

San José State UniversityDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

San José, California USAmary.somerville@sjsu.edu

© 2008 Somerville

Overview What are the Critical Issues?

© 2008 Somerville

Organizational Effectiveness = ?

Librarians must reconsider:

• Organizational purposes

• Traditional responsibilities

• Conventional relationships

© 2008 Somerville

Organizational Prioritieso Cooperative Collection

Development

o Programmatic Information Literacy Instruction

o Research Consultation and Referral

o Learning Organization/Learning Commons

© 2008 Somerville

Reflective Inquiry

Problems / Issues

Framework (s) /Comparison

Decision Making / Problem Solving

Questions EvidenceWorkplace Situation

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Thoughts?

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Leadership Responsibilities • Cultivate shared vision and common

purpose

• Encourage information exchange and dialogue

• Build communication, decision making, and communication systems

• Advance learning partnership with and for users

• Create appreciative, inquiry-based culture

© 2008 Somerville

Learning 2.0

23 Things in 15 Weeks Week 1: Introduction Week 2: Blogging Week 3: Photos & Images Week 4: RSS & Newsreaders Week 5: Play week Week 6: Tagging & Folksonomies Week 7: Wikis Week 8: Online applications & tools Week 9: Podcasts, Videos & Downloadable audio

© 2008 Somerville

Master Blog Communication SystemMaster Blog

•Library Management Team

(category)

oAgendas (tag)

oSummaries w/ Minute Attached (tag)

oFeedback Requests (tag)

oDecisions and Explanations (tag)

•Emerging Technologies Team (category)

oAgendas (tag)

oSummaries w/ Minutes Attached (tag)

oFeedback Requests (tag)

oDecisions and Explanations (tag)

•Electronic Resource Team (category)

oAgendas (tag)

o Summaries w/ Minutes Attached (tag)

o Feedback Requests (tag)

o Decisions and Explanations (tag)

Agendas Page (all groups’ agendas)

Summaries/Minutes Page (all groups’

summaries and minutes

© 2008 Somerville

Master Blog Logistics and Processes

• One master blog designed for all group, unit, and branches

• Content providers post in categories (agendas, minutes, decisions)

• Posts tagged with group name, as well as content categories

• Participants subscribe to entire blog or just certain tags via email or RSS

© 2008 Somerville

Discipline-Based Team Lead Meetings

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Discipline-Based Functional Team Mgts

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Discipline-Based Teams Quarterly Mgts

© 2008 Somerville

Organizational Effectiveness Outcomes

•Staff express increasingly more

sophisticated appreciation of information

sources, information use, problem solving,

and knowledge management.

•Staff increasingly situate decision making

within progressively evolving contexts,

enabled by appropriate technologies.

© 2008 Somerville

Copyright Mary M. Somerville, 2008

This work is the intellectual property of the author.

Permission is granted for this material to be shared for

non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that

this copyright statement appears on the reproduced

materials.