In “honour” of the death of Scott Adams, I present one of the papers I wrote in library school.
This was my Management class and, you won’t be shocked to hear that I had a lot of skepticism about what we were being taught (you’ll be more shocked to learn that management was my highest mark in library school!)
For this paper, I decided, almost as a dare after talking with some classmates, to cite a Dilbert cartoon instead of the usual peer-reviewed papers. Still got a great mark!
And fuck you, Scott Adams – what a way to destroy your legacy.
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By: Jason Hammond
UWO Student Number: 250352538
Mailbox Number: 140
For: Jonathan R. Slater, Ph.D
MLIS 506 – Management
Summary #3 – Chapter 2 (Decision Making & Motivation)
As the weeks go by, I find it harder and harder to respond to these chapters. Once again, we have a chapter that is more of a historical overview of the development of management theory winnowing to a brief discussion of the development of library management theory than anything that might be called decisive, current or enlightening.
Although interesting as background information, it is hard to know where to go from here. Do I pick a theory I favour and decide that this is the one for me in my future career? Or do I contemplate a world where all of the best elements of these theories could be swirled together into a penultimate theory of management? Perhaps that is where current management theory stands; after all, this is what the “General Systems Theory” movement sounds like.
All of the theories covered in this chapter obviously have value or they wouldn’t merit a mention in the textbook. Do some employees work for monetary reward? Yes. Do some work for higher goals? Yes. Do some need lots of direction? Yes. Do some like to work independently? Yes. And so on.
So what do I say as a response? Do I take issue with the author’s statement that “entrepreneurship and risk-taking have become a way of life in modern libraries and information centres”? Yes, of course, I do. But how to argue with something that’s presented so matter-of-factly and without any exploration of an alternate view and that possibly entrepreneurship and risk-taking actually have no place in libraries?
[Edit: I lumped these two things together based on the quote in the chapter I was responding to. But if I was writing it now, I’d probably say libraries need to engage in *more* risk-taking.].
Perhaps it’s their statement that “the most efficient formal organization in the history of Western civilization has been the Catholic Church.” From a purely managerial standpoint maybe this is true, but should any manager in today’s world take any lessons from an organization that has systemically held down women, covered up the widespread abuse of children, colonized foreign cultures, helped promote a pandemic in Africa and many more sins, all in the name of a Goal (capitalization intentional) that any rationale person would see as improbable at best.
Or perhaps the statement that leads the next paragraph is more relevant. “Some of the most important principles and practices of modern business management can be traced to military organizations.”
I don’t know what to say to this. Again, although true in a historical sense, what is the lesson for today’s manager? Personally, I really don’t want to have any part of a world where library managers take their lessons from churches, the military or even corporate business management theory. Is there another way? Is there a modern management theory that treats people fairly, that sees relationships between organizations as cooperative rather than competitive, is there one that focuses on more than the bottom financial line? If there is, I’d love to hear about it. Maybe in the next chapter…
Questions For Consideration
- If you needed advice as a manager, should you consult The Bible, Machiavelli’s The Prince or Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal?
- Or should you take the best lessons from all three in combination?
- Who had better management strategy – Napoleon or Ghengis Khan? 1
1 United Features Syndicate. “Dilbert” http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2006029312526.gif (Permission pending)
