Leadership

Leadership: the Challenge for the Information Profession by Sue Roberts and Jennifer Rowley. Facet: 2008. £39.95 (pbk) ISBN 978-1-85604-609-1

Whole forests have been devoted to describing the differences between leadership and management in an apparently unending and perhaps ultimately fruitless debate. While Rowley and Robertson recognise and describe this dichotomy they wisely ignore it and concentrate on an examination of leadership, for they have written of management before. Setting aside any notion of unbecoming false modesty they quickly declare that this new work is “a companion volume to the widely acclaimed Managing Information Services (2004) by the same authors”. They argue that leadership is beneficial at all levels of the organisation and that leadership development should be consciously developed from early in one’s career.

In good librarianly style they move from the general to the particular. A background chapter is followed by two chapters on theories of leadership, considering traits and styles, transformational leadership and the various tests from Myers and Briggs onwards. There is then a set of chapters on specific aspects of leadership, which draw on different literatures and perspectives to explore approaches to promoting change; to cover the ‘people’ aspects, such as team building; then going on to vision and mission, policies, value and culture; then commenting on how individuals can undertake development and evaluating a range of leadership programmes within the profession. The final chapter considers the role of the leader in influencing non-professionals – typically other stakeholders in the organisation of which the library is part.

The strength of the book lies in its structure rather than its originality. It is quite clear that a great deal of productive thought has gone into this and it sets the book apart as being distinctively useful. Each chapter has a set of learning objectives. The text is then peppered with a set of questions on which to reflect (often associated with a table or set of information). Chapters conclude with review questions and challenges aimed at the reader as a set of reflective tasks. Notably good layout design makes all of this straightforward to follow and encourages participation in the activities. Most chapters have individual short case study interviews covering a wide range of information professionals. These are perhaps too short to be really useful and arguably add more in variety than value to the whole. There are good lists of additional reading throughout. Sadly like all such books it neglects to include the works of Scott Adams. Dilbert has as much to say about corporate culture, values and leadership as any of the books which quite properly figure in the reading lists

The work is thorough, serious and almost comprehensive in terms of the literature review. It is even handed in describing the debates which litter the topic, ranging from the leaders are born not made approach to questioning whether gender differences influence management style. Although described in a short section, the book perhaps underestimates the importance of working with the grain of organisational culture and values. It does not do justice to the role of the leader as “high priest” who both creates and perpetuates myths through storytelling. Although the issues are mentioned, the book is at its weakest on the relationships between leaders and followers. To be fair this may reflect a weakness in the literature as a whole. There is a brief section on “followership”, but it ignores (as do most leadership texts) the critical issue of the role of the deputy/chief of staff who covers the missing attributes and/or flaws in the leader. It has also often been remarked that any good army is run by its Sergeant-Majors and that the most important single command a subaltern must learn as an aspiring leader is “Carry on Sergeant-Major”. Even for more experienced leaders, persuading at least a critical mass of this key staff group that change is necessary or desirable or even inevitable is a basic and essential task, for it is they who will make the changes succeed or fail.

But all in all this is a very good workmanlike and competent book which can be recommended to any reflective practitioner. If it offers no new fundamental insights, it is interestingly and originally structured in ways which encourage reflection and self-evaluation. It is also worth noting with approval a short section on the importance of professional ethics. And almost in passing it offers a long overdue compliment. Describing the great professional leaders it mentions only two as examples; Melville Dewey and Maurice Line. This recognition of the latter’s huge influence is proof that the authors know leadership when they see it.