Interim Leadership

ABSTRACT

Leadership training tends to focus on development and performance of leadership skills with the implied understanding that the position is permanent or the appointment is formalized. Yet organizations require temporary leaders during leadership gaps but there is limited information on serving in an acting role or for a short period of time. Serving as an interim leader has unique challenges and opportunities but several considerations should be made to make this a positive experience providing smooth transitions for an organization.     

Sunday democracies: a mixed methods analysis of members’ perceptions of church authority and organizational dissent

Previous research has emphasized differences between churches and other types of organizations including the potential for leaders’ authority to be based on unassailable interpretations of Scripture and on divine callings. The present study examined members’ perceptions of church authority and the degree to which those perceptions affected their willingness to express dissenting opinions, a key feature of organizational democracy. Focus group participants described a fluid process as they negotiated how their voices would be heard in decision-making while simultaneously entrusting some decision-making to ordained leaders. That process sometimes involved seeing members’ voices as one expression of divine authority or compartmentalizing pastoral leadership to spiritual matters and democratic leadership to practical matters. Focus groups also emphasized the importance of church committees and transparency as integral practices for members’ voice in church decision-making. Surveys of a wider group of church members demonstrated that perceptions of democracy and divine authority influenced members’ willingness to express upward dissent, and to a lesser extent, lateral dissent. Results revealed how church members conceptualize their roles in decision-making, highlighting potential areas of conflict when leaders deviate from members’ expectations.     

Sensemaking in Turbulent Contexts: African Student Leadership in a Postcolonial Context

This study revealed the ways that student leaders make sense of their approaches to leadership in African student organizations in the United States. Seven leaders of recognized African student organizations in universities from the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and the South took part in interviews. Discourse analysis of interview data revealed the complexity of leadership discourses and practices in a postcolonial context in showing that African student organizational leadership (a) proceeds through the accommodation and resistance to dominant Western organizational and/or colonial discourses and (b) enables leaders to make sense of theirs and their organizations’ identities in the context of discourses that marginalize African forms of cultural expression.     

Perceptions of Transformational Leadership in Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT

Transformational leadership is highly correlated with effective organizations and successful change, yet few studies of this leadership style exist in the library literature. This study examined perceptions of transformational traits in academic library leaders. The study asked academic librarians at 4 year institutions to rate their library's leadership using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. While the librarians perceived their library leaders to be more transformational than transactional, the mean score for transformational leadership was middling, as were the scores for each of the transformational components. This could indicate a lack of change readiness in these libraries.     

Leadership Reflections: Leadership Paradoxes

Leadership faces a number of paradoxes that can be challenging and confusing, particularly as individuals take on new leadership roles. Employees want leaders to be decisive but participatory in decision making, focused on big pictures but contribute to detailed discussions, and engage but not micromanage. It is confusing as mixed messages are given to leaders and the opinions of employees vary, creating a situation in which it is difficult for leaders to fully understand employee expectations. Leaders not only need to understand these paradoxes but develop methods to balance employee expectations and communication strategies that help employees appreciate the balancing act that each leader must develop.     

Tolerating Ambiguity: Leadership Lessons from Off-Road Motorcycling

ABSTRACT

The ability to tolerate ambiguity is an important attribute of successful leaders. In this article the metaphor of off-road motorcycling is used to introduce the concept of ambiguity and the virtues of becoming tolerant and comfortable with the uncertainty that has become a hallmark of information age organizations. Tolerance of Ambiguity is a known leadership concept that also extends to employees. Many employees want to be involved earlier in the planning and decision making process of the organization, but may be uncomfortable with the ambiguity characteristic of early stage planning.     

Time Management

Time management is an essential component of leadership. Leaders need to develop strategies to maximize time in order to achieve personal and organizational goals. While there are numerous time saving methods, leaders will need to test and determine which patterns are most effective for their personal style. There are some organizational strategies that will benefit the individual leader as well the organization such as planning, goal setting, delegation, decision authority, and work life balance. By managing time, the leader is accounting for the important commodity of time within an organization.     

Transparency

ABSTRACT

Within organizations, employees often discuss the need for transparency but what exactly is transparency? Transparency is often linked with communication in an effort to create an organization that is more informed about decisions and processes creating a sense of employee engagement. But leaders are not able to operate in a completely open manner due to a variety of factors. What leadership activities can be conducted in a transparent manner and how is transparency balanced with confidentiality? Transparency is not just a leader responsibility but other managers and employees contribute to organizational transparency. This column will provide more insights into the complex issue of transparency within libraries.     

Leading from the middle: An overview of current research and trends on the topic

True leadership can come from anywhere within an organization. While supervisory roles can lead to an inherent leadership dynamic based on reporting lines, it is often difficult for individuals to develop as leaders when they feel caught between their staff and upper-level administrators within their organization. This article will look at current trends regarding the leading from the middle by identifying common themes, challenges, and traits found within the concept.     

Unsubstantiated Conclusions: A Scoping Review on Generational Differences of Leadership in Academic Libraries

The academic library profession is experiencing a large turnover in leadership. To date, information on differences in the generational expectations about how to lead is scarce and the research is contradictory. This article presents a scoping review of the literature on generational expectations of academic library leaders. Based on predefined eligibility criteria, the authors searched twelve bibliographic databases and performed a broad web search. 5435 articles were located and considered for inclusion, however, only four eligible articles were identified and included for analysis. There is little empirical evidence that generational differences are evident in the academic library setting or in individual leadership expectations. There is a lack of original research on generational differences in leadership in libraries, however, anecdotal and opinion literature is drawing attention to this topic in ways that cannot be validated.     

Leadership Styles in the Top Greek Media Companies: Leading People with a Mixed Style

Media companies are different from manufactures and other commercial organizations. They have both measurable economic goals and nonmeasurable social responsibilities. Leading these companies is a difficult task. The main issue is that an appropriate leadership style for media people must balance business and political goals. In this study, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data about Greek media leaders. The research explores and identifies the leadership style of CEOs heading the top media companies in Greece. These findings indicate that media leaders use a mixed leadership style involving both transformational and transactional styles in order to anticipate the peculiar external and internal media environment.     

利益相关者理论视角下的大学图书馆治理

在大学图书馆的组织场域涉及各类社会组织机构和个人,其治理离不开对不同利益关系的管理与调节,因此在大学图书馆治理中应用利益相关者理论具有较强的适切性。根据米切尔评分法,按各类利益相关者在权力性、合法性以及紧要性三种属性上存在的差异,大学图书馆利益相关者可以被划分为确定性利益相关者、预期性利益相关者以及潜在性利益相关者。在厘清各类利益相关者的基础上,优化主要利益相关者的权力配置结构,进而构建利益相关者参与的大学图书馆治理机制,是实现不同利益相关者合作共赢的根本途径。     

Millennials among the Professional Workforce in Academic Libraries: Their Perspective on Leadership

This study explores possible leadership perceptions of Millennials working in academic libraries, specifically their definition, the attributes they associate with leadership, whether they want to assume formal leadership roles, whether they perceive themselves as leaders, and whether they perceive leadership opportunities within their organizations and LIS professional associations. An online survey was utilized to gather the responses and the study participants comprised of Millennials (born 1982 or after) currently working full-time in libraries that were a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a consortium of the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago in 2011–12.     

A New Leadership Paradigm:

The critical steps to improved performance in organizations are the empowerment of staff and the meaningful involvement of staff at all levels of the organization. This calls for a new paradigm of leadership, the "acknowledge-create-empower" paradigm as developed by Evered and Selman. The author describes this model and its application to library organizations. The core values and leadership philosophy for empowering staff are explained. Sullivan suggests a number of strategies for library managers to consider as they increase the role of staff in library problem-solving and decision-making.     

Determining research data services maturity: The role of library leadership and stakeholder involvement

As technology and the stewardship of research data continue to improve, academic libraries have made progress in establishing themselves as hubs and leaders for research data services on campus. They have been called on to assure cross-campus collaboration and support to develop a united service to meet their community's needs. However, evidence as to how libraries play a crucial role in leadership, whether other stakeholders' involvement makes a difference, and if so, how that involvement makes a difference is not well-documented. The findings of this study add empirical evidence in supporting the value of library's leadership and stakeholder engagement in developing research data policy and services. The secondary analysis of the survey data found that libraries tend to offer more extensive services when they take primary responsibility for developing the policy and service. It also found that the more internal stakeholders involved in developing the policy and service, the higher level of service maturity the libraries offer. Partnership with external stakeholders leads to more comprehensive and deeper services.     

数字时代图书馆管理危机

在数字环境下,现代信息技术与网络技术的发展对我国各类图书馆的管理和发展带来新的要求和挑战。目前,我国图书馆管理中还存在着许多危机因素,尤其体现在图书馆领导者、组织结构、战略规划、制度建设等方面。因此,图书馆机构及其领导者需要提高管理能力、准确制定并实施发展战略、培育自身文化,并采取积极措施应对竞争,才能更好地适应数字化环境下图书馆的发展。     

Leadership Reflections: Leadership Skills for Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is a process that infuses knowledge and decision making across an organization. It not only encourages decision making based on data but also fosters communication among personnel for informed practices and processes. The social connections within an organization facilitate the formal structure and encourage personnel to share expertise, insights, and past experiences to inform decision making. Such a highly interactive organization requires leadership that supports and encourages knowledge management practices. A successful knowledge management organization depends on certain leadership characteristics in order to foster interactions that contribute to the processes. A variety of characteristics and patterns will offer leaders understanding on how to lead within a knowledge management library.     

Innovation,Creativity, and Meaning: Leading in the Information Age

Today's fast paced global environment requires information professionals to be leaders keeping pace with user needs. Two academic research libraries share their work seeking to ensure and leverage the creativity in their organizations focusing on the most meaningful innovative opportunities. The premise is that usefulness and appropriateness is achieved through strategic alignment, thereby opening the door of opportunity for innovative products and services. The ability to seize the opportunity each group seeks to meet is due to the recognition by the organization of that alignment. And so, organizational perception, awareness, and value all affect the successful implementation of creativity. The products and services presented in this article, Harvard's Baker Library Historical Collections Online and Purdue University's career wiki, stem from organizational alignment, and the work of the leadership teams to influence perception, create awareness, and demonstrate value.     

THE SEX STRUCTURING OF ORGANIZATIONS

Attempting to account for the sex structuring of organizations, this article reviews literature on sex differences in three areas of importance to leadership research. Finding few differences between male and female leaders, the article suggests the use of a framework based on Schein's (68) career stages for further analysis of the sex structuring phenomenon.