Managing Archives in a Time of Change

1
Managing Archives in a Time of Change

• Michael J. Kurtz, Assistant Archivist for Records
  Services
• National Archives and Records Administration
• Joint Conference of NAGRARA, CoSA and SAA
• August 5, 2006

2
Leadership in Management
Innate or Learned?
Roles, Responsibilities, Skills
Management Organize, plan, budget, staff
Leadership Vision, goals, communication
Skills Education, training, practice, motivation
August 2006
3
Organizational Culture
Context for Leadership
Websters A complex of typical behaviors or
standardized social characteristics peculiar to a
specific group, occupation, or profession, sex,
age, or grade.
Websters
How we do things here.
Leadership style and organizational culture In
sync?
August 2006
4
Paradigm
Managing Organizational Complexity
Change factors
Workplace revolution
Web of relationship
Systems
Leader/manager in the middle
Internal/external relationships
August 2006
5
Brief Bibliography
SAA Archives Seminar
Classic Texts
Peter Drucker Management Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, New York Harper and Row. Henry Mintzberg The Nature of Managerial Work, New York Harper and Row, 1973.
Literacy/Archival Management Texts
G. Edward Evans, et al., Management Basics for Information Professionals, New York Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2000. Michael J. Kurtz, Managing Archival and Manuscript Repositories, Chicago SAA, 2004.
Helpful Compilations
Harvard Business Review on Management, New York Harper and Row, 1995. Harvard Business Review on Effective Communications, Cambridge Harvard Business Review Paperback, 1999. Harvard Business Review on Human Relations, New York Harper and Press, 1975.
Read Ahead
Daniel Goleman, Leadership that Gets Results, in Harvard Business Review, vol. 78, No. 2 March-April 2000 80-83. Gary L. Neilson, et al., The Passive-Aggressive Organization, in Harvard Business Review, October 2005, 83-92.
6
Seven Major Organizational Types
HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS
UNHEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS
PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE
RESILIENT
Congenial and seemingly conflict-free, this
organization builds consensus easily but
struggles to implement agreed-upon plans.
Flexible enough to adapt quickly to external
market shifts, yet steadfastly focused on and
aligned behind a coherent business strategy.
JUST-IN-TIME
Inconsistently prepared for change, but can turn
on a dime when necessary, without losing sight of
the big picture.
OUTGROWN
Too large and complex to be effectively
controlled by a small team, it has yet to
"democratize" decision-making authority.
Inconclusive
MILITARY PRECISION
Often driven by a small, involved senior team, it
succeeds through superior execution and the
efficiency of its operating model.
OVERMANAGED
Multiple layers of management create "analysis
paralysis" in a frequently bureaucratic and
highly political environment.
FITS-AND-STARTS
Contains scores of smart, motivated and talented
people who rarely pull in the same direction at
the same time.
Gary L. Neilson et al., The Passive-Aggressive
Organization, in Harvard Business Review,
October 2005, p. 85.