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The title, Managing in the Info Era in the knowledge-based economy, workers will be valued for their ability to create, judge, imagine and build relationships” applies to school libraries as schools and the libraries “trade” in a knowledge-based economy. Additionally, schools are part of a large organisation, contain many people and incur management issues. Accordingly, the content of Colvin’s article relates to school libraries raises the following:

• It is the teacher librarian’s job to manage the library as one organisation within a larger one, promote the library as an information specialist and to liaise with the Principal, executive, teaching colleagues, administrative staff, parents and students. Every person in the school deals with knowledge – therefore, this should be a large job.
• Value, economic systems and tradition – In a capitalist society, maximum profit (and shareholders) is the aim. The boss, is usually puts up the capital in the beginning, takes risks setting up the continuing the business, and employs others as workers to make profits. Traditionally, it is the owner that is the ideas and creative person. They come up with the valued ideas and have been generally more educated – dealing in knowledge. Those who are the workers, in the past, have been stuck with the repetitive, manual labour jobs – those that do not have to make decisions and do not possess a lot of creativity.
• It follows that the more knowledge, the higher up the ladder in terms of education and opportunities a person can travel. This is a possibility. However, everyone fulfills a role in society and progress dictates that most roles in society require literacy and some form of knowledge – even the manual employment. For example, even the woodwork requires knowledge about the various properties of different types of wood.
• Personal experience – Many years ago now, I worked as a legal secretary. It consisted of repetitive tasks and possessed a glass ceiling. Initially, there were no real avenues for promotion unless I went to complete a law degree. I valued my job as a means to make a living but did not obtain any job satisfaction or find it personally rewarding – I did not particularly look forward to work. Toward the end of my time as a legal secretary (13 years), more outlets began opening up for progress and roles to change such as a conveyancer’s qualification was introduced into universities.
• Large organisations – Colvin mentions “iron authority and shared values” are the two elements – the adhesive that allowed people to function. When applying this to schools, all staff and teachers focus on shared values. However, the students, who really could be thought of as more consumers in this context – need to follow routines and instructions but to a large extent will keep the values instilled in them from home. Nevertheless, shared values are a large part of what gives an organisation purpose and allows it to function. Iron authority is a different story. As our society progresses and everyone is thought of as an individual and the trend for less hierarchy comes into play, the iron authority has become weakened in organisations.

Colvin was right in that Taylor was wrong! Nobody likes to be thought of as stupid. Colvin’s article relates to school libraries because teacher librarians work in an information era and we need to know how to manage and lead in our role and in the organisations we are apart of. Teacher librarians, as other managers, need to recognise that although every human is different, there are many qualities that are the same too such as respecting those differences and valuing each for their diversity. Treating every person in a respectful manner will elicit better loyalty, creativity and hopefully productivity than when they are treated otherwise. He was correct in asserting that the better managers in the knowledge-based economy and in the information era will find they have a competitive advantage as employees will try that bit harder if they feel valued and generally more positive about their position.

Reference

Colvin, G. (2000). Managing in the info era. Fortune, 141(5). http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/03/06/275231/index.htm?iid=sr-link1.

Tumisu. (?). Pixabay Images. <a href=”https://pixabay.com/users/Tumisu/”>Tumisu</a> / Pixabay. All images are used in accordance with Pixabay licence requirements.