Managers or Colleagues?

Abstract

The recent literature on professional service organizations suggests that increasingly assertive management roles are being developed. A central proposition is that established collegial systems, which tended to down-play differences in authority and protect the status quo, are now giving way to more formalized divisions between administrative elite and junior, rank-and-file, staffs (Friedson 1994). In the UK public sector, although much has been written on the issue of new management regimes, it is not clear how far this scenario of changing intra-professional relations is valid. Focusing on the under-researched case of university libraries, this article addresses this issue. Data from an intensive study of six institutions reveals that there have been significant pressures for change. In a context of heightened accountability, ‘practitioner management’ roles have been created and senior staffs are now more concerned with the supervision and direction of their junior colleagues. The article also finds that these changes have so far been uneven and negotiated, revealing important sources of inertia and continuity in professional organizations. Finally, the article focuses on some of the wider implications of change.

Keywords:

• Libraries
• management
• professionals
• public sector