Running head: COLLABORATION, CONFLICT AND COMMUNICATION
Collaboration, Conflict and Communication:
Necessary Elements of Today’s High School Libraries
Cathleen Ash
San Jose State University
LIBR 204-10 Summer 2005
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Abstract
This paper focuses on management strategies that assist an organization as it prepares
to handle the change and conflict inevitable in today’s world. It proposes three key
elements to the success of handling change: collaboration, conflict and communication.
Drawing on a number of theories from both the business and education fields, a clear
picture is presented of a high school library that is successful at handling today’s
changing and conflicting environments. The library’s organizational structure and
management combine to create a circular, seamless, entity able to handle change and
conflict.
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Collaboration, Conflict and Communication:
Necessary Elements of Today’s High School Libraries
In any field today, managers are concerned with a plethora of details: budgets,
personnel, customer needs, facilities, and the rules of the organization for which they
work. If you add to that concern an ever-changing climate – especially in the
information technology field – and a trend to decrease budgets while increasing the
projects assigned to various divisions, you create a perfect scenario for crisis. One can
view the impending crisis quite clearly, but it doesn’t have to happen. There are steps
managers can take to avoid any future crises. These steps include collaboration,
conflict, and communication.
Collaboration
Collaboration is the essential feature of management (Wiemers). This is true in
any field, but never more so than in an educational setting, and even more applicable in
the library of a high school. Collaborating effectively will make limited dollars go further
and will end…with more resources rather than less (Wiemers). In today’s economy of
limited budgets for the foreseeable future, it is imperative that we make do with less, but
get more accomplished. In the educational sector, getting less has become the norm.
High schools are already facile with making do with less, but getting more
accomplished. A typical high school in California has a library (the author
acknowledges there are some that do not) that is staffed by one, sometimes two,
people. There is, at the least, a Library Technician in a role that varies dependent upon
the high school and other staffing members available. This person typically provides
the clerical and support staff functions of a library. In a number of cases (but far too
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few), there is also a Library Media Teacher who is representative of the professional
staff of the library. This person can empower the entire school community through
sharing the power of resources and information (Farmer), and is vital to the academic
success of the students.
With so few people, it is relatively easy to create a seamless environment – to
make it look as if there are no boundaries between the information content and the
information system. This environment makes it look as if there are no institutional
obstacles that impede users' movement through the content, tools, networks, and output
devices that are essential to their scholarly work (Wiemers).
In a library of two people, where collaboration is evidenced across all aspects of
position and work, the seamless electronic research environment is as oblivious of
hierarchy as it is of boundary. Envision, if you will, a circle. Within the library itself, this
circle represents a simple sociogram – consisting of a circle enclosing the two partners
who work collaboratively to meet the needs of their clients. Within the broader
boundaries of the school as a whole, this circle becomes a series of circles with
connecting lines. These lines connect people. The closer the circles and the thicker the
lines are, the stronger the relationship (Farmer).
Politics and Power
It is essential to build strong relationships within the school’s political and power
base. The librarian is poised in a position to influence the role of the library within the
school setting and hierarchy. Instead of wondering about destiny, the librarian should
be in a position to influence it (Jaillet). This becomes easier in a school that fits into
Jackson and Hardiman’s Restructured Stage of inclusivity, where the entire school
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reflects on their practice and develops initiatives to focus action within the system
(Farmer). The librarian should be an integral part of these initiatives. To do so, she/he
must serve on committees, attend meetings, and be a part of the reflection. It is, after
all, customers…who define a library's value (Deane), and there is no better way to learn
what a customer needs than by paying attention to the focus of the leadership
committees within in a school. Librarians must be a part of corporate politics – figuring
out how their organization works, becoming part of the group that makes it happen, and
then using their understanding to help achieve the overall goals of the corporation
(Jaillet).
Personal Power
What this means in the day-to-day world of the library is that the Library Teacher,
often denoted as the manager of the school library, must be able and willing to use
personal power to accomplish tasks and manage the library. Often times, authority
(whether it be from the district offices, school board, or principal) is limited. Public and
school libraries derive their power and authority from a governmental jurisdiction
(Evans, et al., p. 197). Effective managers meet their responsibility with limited
authority by using personal power to fill the "gap" (Bushardt). This personal power
extends collaboration within the library setting, where the key ingredients are expertise
and collaboration (Wiemers).
When managers rely on personal power to meet responsibility, they are
encouraged to develop their skills at communication, interpersonal relations, leadership,
and basic management, thereby encouraging employee development (Bushardt). All
employees in a high school library must develop to meet the changing needs of the
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clientele. This is even more evident and crucial in today’s fast-paced information
environment. With a seamless structure and collaborative work ideology in place,
where the design of the library itself has been driven by content, meets the needs of its
users in a seamless environment, and the staff is encouraged to develop, the library is
ready and able to change as the content needs of the clientele change. The result (of
using personal power) is a greater understanding of the organization as a whole and an
organization that can more quickly respond to environmental change (Bushardt). This
seamlessly structured environment continues the idea of a circle – a circle of power and
learning that grows to fill the entire school (Farmer).
Conflict
Not all circles have smooth edges, though, and with change comes conflict: from
fear and concern over applications of new technology, or technology eradicating the
need for personnel. It is imperative that management, in this case the library teacher,
be aware of the conflicts as they arise. A great help in handling conflict is to avoid it –
and this is best done through organization. The process of organizing combines both
people and resources (Evans, et al., p. 212). This can be accomplished in a number of
ways, but the following two approaches work best in an environment structured for
change: Walter Shewhart's approaches to continuous improvement use a four-step
sequence: plan, do, check, and act (Evans, et al., p. 261) and it is similar to a five step
cycle:




Determine what activities need to be done
Create logical grouping of activities for an individual to perform
Identify combinations as work units
Assure activities are connected to one another to promote coordinated
efforts
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 Monitor the outcomes and reorganize, adjust structure as necessary (Evans,
et al., p. 212)
Utilizing either of these approaches will lessen conflict based on change of client needs
and/or technological innovation.
Planning
Planning is an essential part of successfully managing any organization (Evans,
et al., p. 243). With planning and foresight, we have created an atmosphere conducive
to change and accepting of client-driven content needs. The manager must also plan
for conflict on a personal/personnel level, as it is likely to occur given the nature of
human beings. The structure for collaboration, already ensconced in the library setting
through use of personal power, requires communication. This ability to communicate
will serve management well as it handles conflict.
The first step in handling conflict is avoiding it. One way to avoid conflict is to
create a healthy system that provides for a two-way exchange between supervisor and
subordinate. Each should be free to voice satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Evans, et al.,
p. 413). Another way to avoid conflict is by utilizing the ACE paradigm (acknowledge,
create, empower), to empower employees with more creativity (Evans, et al., p. 366).
Some of the ten elements of the ACE paradigm which are directly related to conflictavoidance include




Compassion, generosity, non-judgmental acceptance, love
Speaking and listening for action
Honoring the uniqueness of each player, relationship and situation
Sensitivity to the team as well as to the individuals (Evans, et al., p. 367).
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These elements alone will not cure conflicts that do manage to arise, but they will
provide the basis for any conflict or mediation work required. It is important for
management to not only deal with conflict, but also to encourage it.
By accepting and encouraging conflict, managers will establish an environment
prepared for creativity, innovation and change (Van Slyke). In this library setting, a case
has already been made to establish a structure that will handle change and view
change as second nature to the organization. The keys of this structure:
communication and collaboration, are implicit in conflict resolution. The manager has
already established the ability to listen, confront and collaborate. In addition, the
manager must model behaviors that encourage constructive disagreement and
collaborative solutions (Van Slyke). All of the procedures (of conflict resolution) are
based on encouraging both sides to talk about their view of the dispute and explore
areas of agreement, with the goal of reducing and resolving conflict (Raisfield).
Communication
Communication remains a key component of an organization’s, and is apparent
throughout all areas and aspects of the organization. Communication is not all that is
required on the part of a manager, though. An essential management function is to use
every strategic and creative resource available to advise senior management and
company officers, executives or human resource managers on how to improve
company performance (Cote). One creative resource available is mediation. Mediation
has been used for many years in the resolution of labor-management conflicts; they
have also been introduced in schools as a means for helping students deal peacefully
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with disputes among their peers (Cousins). Cousins states that anyone can
successfully mediate by applying several key concepts:
 Focus on the future
 Focus on the facts of the situation - not principles.
 Conduct the mediation session so each side can present its viewpoint without
interruption.
 Meet with the parties individually if necessary. Sometimes one party or the other
will be willing to say something to the mediator it would not be willing to say in the
presence of the other party.
Mediation should be introduced when conflict resolution alternatives within the work
structure have not been successful. The introduction of a third party, while assisting in
the mediation role, claims the inability of the organization to handle the issue. It is best
then, whenever possible, the keep conflict resolution in house. One way of doing this is
to provide conflict resolution training.
Conflict Resolution – Communication is Key
Conflict resolution training falls into two categories: training people to effectively
settle their differences and training people to act as neutral third parties in helping
others achieve collaborative resolutions (Tyler). One major benefit of conflict training
resolution is its ability to teach communication skills. Teaching employees how to
communicate better is a key component of conflict resolution training. Participants
should learn to clearly state their needs, actively listen and calmly state their opinions
(Tyler). It is important for management to remember that while constructive conflict can
be good for the workplace, managers must know how to control it. It is also important
management knows that conflict is not only inevitable, but also necessary to an
organization’s ability to deal with change.
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Creativity. Innovation. Passion. These words represent the standard demands of
the modern workplace. Individuals develop new ideas that clash with the tried and true.
Department innovators step on toes outside their functional domain. Work teams bicker
as they divvy up responsibility (Van Slyke). To deal with these fluctuating and often
upsetting issues as change occurs in and around the work environment, a manager
must develop good people skills. Fair, sensible, and ethical tactics encourage a
productive, harmonious workplace (Harmony in the Workplace). How supervisors
manage conflict in the workplace is critical to maintaining a creative, collaborative
culture (Van Slyke).
Forward-thinking Catalysts
Collaboration is the essential feature of management (Wiemers), but it is clear
that conflict and communication are also integral to the successful functioning of a
seamless environment that meets and exceeds the needs of its clientele. Managers
must strive to employ collaborative methods, respect, listen to, and validate employees
as they complete their tasks, develop a continued path of learning (both for themselves
and others in the organization), and expect and welcome change as a vital part of an
organization’s continued growth. Managers must aspire to become catalysts for change
by creating environments that welcome it through collaboration, conflict and
communication.
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