Introducing the team approach


To help the transition to having a team, interventions are necessary as well as individual interventions. A model of the team’s progression to High Performance is helpful. In practice, few teams quickly progress from one extreme to the other; most commonly, teams mature slowly along the spectrum of change (Hanlan, 2004). In designing team transitions and in developing the corresponding interventions, it is helpful to categorize the teams´ initial placement on this development spectrum. In the case of ad hoc teams, individuals´ preconceptions and contextual connections will be major factors in the team´s placement on the spectrum. However, in times of urgent need for change, most teams are not formed ad hoc; they are reformations of existing teams. The change pressures that trigger the need for significant change also bias a design for team re-formation rather than new team formation. In preparing for the transition of having a team, preliminary assessment of a team´s developmental progress helps to define an appropriate and effective intervention strategy (Hanlan, 2004). In using the team structure the first thing to do is to inform those involved about the impending changes. The members of the Rising Centre University Library (RCUL) should be first informed about the proposed plan to use the team approach particularly the face-to-face frontline services. The members of RCUL should then be informed about the need for team structures and how would it benefit their productivity and efficiency.  A concrete plan of action should be presented to the personnel of the library; it will detail their new jobs and responsibilities.


How the team structure would benefit RCUL


A team has no arbitrary boundaries of size or unction. Rather, the dynamics of interaction of the team members defines the boundaries of the team. In successful team efforts, particularly those involving hundreds of employees, it is common for participants to consider themselves members of the overall team as well as members of sub teams (Biech, 2001). For these purposes, as long as the interactions of the team members are similar in the overall team as they are in the sub team both groupings are considered teams. Clearly, the nature of the teams´ work may determine the size and function of the individuals´ interaction and therefore the team. In some efforts, however, the teams work hard to keep their interpersonal relationships the same between all members of their sub teams. As a team effort increased significantly in size, the teams continually reorganized themselves to keep the sub teams small, while creating interdependent integration teams to maintain daily interaction with all other members. In that instance, the dynamics of team development were applicable for individual workgroups in particular as well as for the overall effort (Biech, 2001).  The team structure would reduce the stress being faced by the personnel of RCUL. The team structure would lessen the load on each member since each member would be given an equal but vital part. It would promote the need for camaraderie between the different members of the organization. Once more than one person gets to man the customer service or checkout services, there would be lesser lines and productivity would be at a higher level. 


Face to face frontline service


One thing becomes clear as people would think about how information is delivered: there is no longer a one-size-fits-all type of information delivery. The librarian in this new century must be willing to be flexible, to understand the clients’ interests and information needs, and to adjust his or her prior thinking about information delivery to match those interests and needs. Just how important that adjustment is for the librarian can be seen as the place of librarianship in society today (Scammell, 2001). Within the information industry, it would seem that there is general agreement that the thing called specialist librarianship has grown out of the long tradition of library service as practiced for many years, probably centuries, but which was first formalized and structured as a profession in the late years of the 19th century. That tradition was one that was seriously, perhaps even strenuously, connected to education and, as a result, librarians were taught that their first role was that of teacher, to be the educator who taught the expectant users how to search for and retrieve the information he or she was seeking. As part of that tradition, however, those who practiced librarianship also made a commitment to take care of and, usually, to protect the artifact in which the information was contained so that librarians were warehouse managers as well as educators (Scammell, 2001).


 


That situation has changed drastically, and the librarian is called upon not only to continue to do those things, but to become knowledgeable about information as it appears in many others formats as well. So librarianship has moved from library work to information management and librarians must now understand the concepts of information delivery in many guises. In fact, what was referred to as an information continuum earlier could now be-particularly for special librarians an information spectrum, for the special library tradition was, and continues to be, quite different from that practiced by other librarians (Matthews, 2005). The specialist librarian is an information worker whose primary job was to get the information the client required, and whether it was contained in a book or document found within the premises of the parent organization, or whether it was located outside the organization, the specialist librarian’s job was never to teach the user how to find the information. It was to find the information. The special library of the 21st century combines so-called traditional librarianship with equal attention to the demands of an information-hungry, always-demanding clientele. In fact, it is in specialized librarianship that people find so much attention being given to customer service/client relationship management (Matthews, 2005). Libraries are evolving and focusing on providing excellent service as well as on making sure that the true needs of the clients are known and provided. Aside from specialized libraries one change to library services is the use of face to face frontline service. RCUL wants to make use of such service to create a single front desk for reference and circulation. In such service there will be merging of loans and Information desks to form a single frontline, face-to-face, service point. Doing this would give clients an easier to ask for a book then take it out when they need it. It would entice more people to return to RCUL and it would give more people a chance to attain the information they need.


Advantage of the frontline service


The frontline service would reduce lines at RCUL. Since there would be a singular desk lines would be avoided. Clients don’t have to go to various parts of the library just to check out the book they need or ask something about a certain book. The frontline service would reduce the expenses made by RCUL. There would be lesser need for supplies since the desk is located in only one area. The frontline service would give ease and comfort to the clients. It would encourage them to return and ask more people to come to RCUL. Lastly the frontline service would serve as a test case for future changes in the policies, procedures or strategies of RCUL The success or failure of the frontline service would help in determining future changes in RCUL. It would help in determining whether RCUL should consider future changes in its policies, processes, technologies, procedures or strategies.


 


Disadvantage of the frontline service


The main disadvantage of the frontline service is the mix up that might occur as the service is provided. During delivery of service, there would be times that confusion among the groups would happen. This can get worse if a client adds to the confusion. Another disadvantage of the frontline service is the lack of separating space for clients. There might be times where there is too much client and since the desk is minimized the space for waiting clients will reduce. There might be clients who ask too much or clients who loan much books, this takes some time and thus creating an increased volume of waiting clients.


The kind of team needed


The extent to which team members rely on each other and must communicate with each other is central to the level of coordination required for effective performance. As the requirement for coordination increases, so does the importance of shared ideas among team members. Members of interdependent teams must receive adequate training, in particular more cross-training to assure development of shared mental models (Brannick, Prince & Salas, 1997).  Teams that routinely interact are more likely to develop ideas as a result of consistent communication and feedback. In addition to developing measures of process and outcome, identification of learning requirements and necessary developmental feedback is also dependent on a measurement system that can discriminate between individual- and team-level deficiencies. The nature of interdependent teams is such that they require individuals to perform some tasks that are specific to their particular position in the team, while sharing certain task responsibilities with other team members (Brannick, Prince & Salas, 1997). Interdependent teams should be the one that RCUL use. There would be two teams. One who would focus on providing customer service, the other would focus on circulation. These two teams should be interdependent and would have all means to communicate with each other. The two teams would constantly consult each other with regards to issues related to the services provided by RCUL. All available means of communication and interaction would be provided to both teams. The two teams would be formed from the capabilities of each personnel of RCUL.


Choosing the groupings


A new focus on maintaining core businesses and outsourcing other activities has led to the downsizing of many HR departments, with various recruitment and selection functions contracted out to external vendors. The trend toward integration across business functions presses for a synthesis of recruitment and selection activities. Formerly competing organizations have developed strategic alliances for recruitment and selection in order to increase flexibility and adaptability in hiring and employment. As a result of such changes, the role of the HR professional in recruitment and selection has itself changed dramatically (Zwell, 2000). Most jobs will be done better if filled by people selected because of their relevant traits. Finding a relevant basis requires thought and work, but focusing on designing, developing, or using procedures for personnel decisions should not obscure the importance of other management tools.  Observational and interview methods are useful when studying a single job where adequate information can be obtained from a few experts. When simultaneously studying sets of related jobs, especially in multiple locations, survey research may be the preferred method of collecting observations (Guion, 1998). The content of selection procedures defended on the basis of content validity must match the content defined by the job analysis. Selection procedures defended only on the basis of content validity may be used only with a minimum cutting score; although words in the Guidelines refer to circumstances where ranking is permitted, the words necessarily imply criterion-related data (Guion, 1998).  Strategic selection will be done by the selection team of RCUL in dividing the personnel to groups they should belong to. The selection team will be composed of the management chosen leaders of the two groups as well as some members of the administration. The selection process will make use of interactive means of tests as well as analysis of the capabilities of the personnel. The selection team of RCUL will give various types of questions to the personnel and each will be given considerable time to provide answer to the questions. The questions of the selection team of RCUL will focus on determining the work ethic of the personnel, how the applicants deal with all kinds of clients, how does the applicant survive a stressful event and how the applicants handle various situations in the library.  The selection team will then analyze the different capabilities of each personnel. As soon as proper groupings have been made the selection team would announce the members of each team and their responsibilities. There can be different selection procedures but it will not be valid if it does not give RCUL the most acceptable members for each group.  The selection procedure of the RCUL will focus on knowing the personnel thoroughly and it will help in identifying what group should the personnel belong.  The selection procedure will carefully dissect the personnel and will then analyze the personnel’s qualities that set him apart from the others.  The selection procedure will be aligned with the purpose of the selection process. The selection procedure will make use of various communication techniques ranging from personal communication to the use of advanced selection technologies such as interactive and automated communication systems during the selection process as well as during the announcement of the result.


Training the team


Organizational team members must have two general types of skills. Task work skills refer to those skills needed by team members to master the actual task (Kraiger, 2002). Because team members must coordinate their actions and work interdependently, they must also possess teamwork skills, which are the behavioral, cognitive, and attitudinal skills needed to communicate, interact, and coordinate tasks effectively with other team members. Although task work skills are the foundation for the operational side of performance, teamwork skills are the foundation for the necessary synchronization, integration, and social interactions that must occur between members for the team to complete the assigned goal. Both task work and teamwork skills need to be designed into a team training system. That is, individual proficiency is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for effective teamwork. Unless there is a systematic analysis of training needs, the training is guaranteed to fail (Kraiger, 2002). RCUL will use off the job training as well as on the job training. Off the job training will focus on acquiring knowledge about teamwork, the concept of working as a team, the need for interdependency and a greater understanding of the changes that will be implemented. Off the job training will prepare both teams for the centralized desk, the new expectations and the probable problems they might face. On the job training will be the experiences they will acquire as the face to face frontline service is used. On the job training will help both teams to continuously improve their service and avoid the common pitfalls they encounter as they perform their task and responsibilities.  


 


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