Organizational Behavior and Culture

One of my favorite classes in library school was regarding the culture and unique behavior within an organization. I have always had an interest in personalities and their categories. We all have an innate desire to know more about ourselves, how we tick and why. This undoubtedly motivated Jung, Briggs, Myers and others to delve into the world of the mind and how each one is different in some ways and the same in others.

So when you take a small collection of people and put them into an organization, their cumulative personality combination creates the personality or culture of a given organization. And every time one person leaves or arrives, it all shifts a little. We don’t always stop to think that our characteristics or personalities or even styles of leadership impact the rest of those around us whether in the workplace or any other group.

Case in point:
This recently was brought to mind when talking to a co-worker who has been struggling with stress and its effects on that person. She was able to identify three areas where stress had come from. One of them was the workplace.

At the beginning of the school year we were unexpectedly given the recorded course materials for several classes. These are used by our Non-Traditional Studies (NTS) department for students who check out the c.d.’s or tapes for a particular course. (It’s kinda like a correspondence course in an audio format.)

This was probably bad timing, in retrospect. They needed to be cataloged and readied in time for the beginning of the new year. This was probably partly my fault for agreeing to the change. Students were already requesting various titles. It was a scramble. Parts were missing; and courses were found stored in various places. There was not a complete list. School was starting soon.

This was just as new books were coming in, including textbooks which really needed to be available just as quickly as our student workers could get them out. We were not even fully staffed at this point; applicants were being interviewed, hired and trained. Supplies weren’t even fully stocked. You get the picture-not quite chaos but crazy.

Having been down this road before, I knew that the beginning of every school year is always a little chaotic. But you have to go with the flow, take one day at a time and deal with it as it comes. Worrying about it doesn’t help or change anything. You do what you can, go home, get your rest, and come back the next day, picking up where you left off. Now if you haven’t done your best that’s another story. But if you have – don’t sweat it.

However, not everyone takes that approach to their job, including my friend. She was stewing over getting the “NTS” dumped in our laps just as we were in the process of getting underway for the new year. I understood her stress but I did not successfully communicate to her that I understood her situation or validated her feelings regarding the situation. I knew where she was coming from. But I also knew that everything would work out in time. On the other hand, she did not feel like I ‘heard’ what she was saying. Thus in the end my actions (or lack thereof) had in part contributed to her stressful situation and how she was able to handle them (or not).

As mentioned this wasn’t the whole situation. There were two other situations in her life that also were contributing factors to her mental state. But my actions did have an effect on her. This in turn impacted her job performance – missed days, difficulty in concentration, or the mood she was in on a given day. Fortunately, I have had some of the same experiences she has been having, but from a different source. This allowed me to be understanding of what she's been going through. Consequently I have given her wide berth, in how she wants to deal with it. Already she is improving and over the last few months we have also talked about it a little bit more each time. This has also helped her work through the stress, which in turn helps her, period.

But it hit me today, as I walked across the parking lot to get my lunch – that – my actions had contributed to her health. How often does it become obvious to us that what we do affects someone else? Probably not often enough. Yet this domino affect could probably be traced – like the rings on the surface of water when an object is dropped into a body of water. It keeps reaching out further and further until it finally has covered the entire surface of that “organization”.

Thus the behavior of one affects the behavior of all in an organization, a community, a nation …and dare I say the world?

Giving of our Thanks

We're thankful for our food, our health, our clothes, and home
But also for our Savior from whom our blessings come.

May this Thanksgiving Season find us before His throne
To give our praise and gratitude that's due to Him alone.

swg 11-2-2006


...to think that stores are going to be open on Thanksgiving Day to 'help customers beat the crowds' makes me disgusted and shows the total opposite of Thankfulness - that of Greed!!! Where is the gratitude for what we already have? "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."

Cataloging

Now that the new semester is well underway, new help is hired and well on the way of being fully trained, I have finally reached the point that I feel I can catch up on checking the cataloging. Items that were faculty requested and/or textbooks have been pushed to the "head of the class" all along, but other cataloging has consequently been put in waiting. Starting about a month ago, I began getting the backlog checked. I have a "new" cataloger that I have had to train, so I have checked her work. She has been here a year now. So I told her the other day, that after I get this backlog caught up that I would no longer be checking her work. She is a fast learner and knows enough about it as I do - maybe more in some respects. She is good at asking questions of something she is not sure about. She has done a phenominal job.

With the introduction of automation and computer technology in the Library world, it has turned cataloging upside down. The majority of cataloging done by small libraries such as ours (59,000 volumes), is "copy-cataloging" - finding the record either in our consortium database, or on the Library of Congress website, or through WorldCat. At this stage we probably do about 1% original cataloging. That really spoils us when situations arise when we have to deal with that 1%!

Some of the helps that enable us to do this are:
Bibliographics and Standards
Library of Congress catalog
Library of Congress Classification help (although a more detailed list is available through membership or purchase of the books,
and WorldCat (Temporarily down as of this writing.)
There are many other tools beyond these basics that are also out there that comes with experience, networking with your colleagues.
From there, if we still do not find a catalog record, we do look at similar, online catalogs - particularly theological academic libraries. By the time we have made these rounds, our problems usually are solved. Very seldom do we have to go beyond that.
However one listserv that has been helpful to us is Autocat. These "guys" are most helpful to give you answers when you can't find them anywhere else! Thanks, Autocat!

Tuesday - Election Day!

Get out and vote. Don't complain about the outcome if you don't.
But if you live in this beautiful country and benefit from our civil laws and society, then it is your responsibility to vote. There is power in just one vote. Many elections have been determined by the narrowest of margins.

Here are some examples:
One vote revisited

Durango Herald

Clean Air bill

ABC news

Hallowed Evening

Ok, this has nothing to do with libraries. Have you noticed how holidays that started out being anywhere from sacred to very sacred holidays are gradually more and more loosing their sacred-ness and becoming more and more secular? Probably the one thing we think of as the most obvious is Christmas as that has been the biggest holiday of the year. As I was growing up Easter was still held sacred. But schools can no longer have Easter Breaks, they're spring breaks. Then people started hanging Eggs on their trees in their front yard! That, besides looking stupid, is really -- what's the word I want? -- degrading to the meaning of Easter even more. (That wasn't the word I was looking for, but the statement is true.) 'Course, when it comes right down to it what do eggs and bunnies have to do with each other? However, since I grew up with that, it does seem more normal! (right or wrong).
Now, Nov. 1st is All Saints Day. It was nearly 500 years ago (minus 11 years) that Luther nailed his theses to the "door of the reformation" -so to speak. I guess what got me thinking about this is the fact that my mother was born the year of the 400th anniversay. We've come "a long way..." as they say. Boy haven't we! But I'm not sure the direction is at all wonderful. I think Luther needs to come back and shake up the world again. I heard several mention that it is expected that families will spend, I think, 5 BILLION dollars on Halloween this year. It is fast catching up with what is spent on Christmas. In Christmas' secular version even, Halloween still doesn't come close to anything good that Christmas does. And Now! Halloween decorations in the trees! "Dumb and Dumber" How stupid can you get? Don't tell me. I don't want to know!

PS - Oh, here's a couple more: St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day - originally celebrated something that was of Christian value. Now it's an excuse for chocolate and beer. ...Well, I'll take the chocolate, but forget the beer!