My profession in general (hereinafter MPIG) hasn’t quite figured out what to do with its young professionals. It wants to harness our creativity, expertise, and energy, but isn’t quite ready to entrust us with actual decisions. Thus, lower-middle managers in MPIG who would like to effect a change are often invited to “make a proposal” and/or “lead a task force” that will take their organizations forward.
In my experience, these are code words for “you will be responsible for the success of this project, but you have no real authority to plan or implement it,” with an underlying current of “we aren’t quite sure what you do, please explain.” In the tenure-track environment, young professionals are encouraged to take this bait early and often in the interest of career development.
I see two problems with this situation. First, it is a fast track to burnout for our most promising professionals. Second, MPIG is aging rapidly and losing much of its upper management in the process. Low-level administrata such as running task forces and writing proposals isn’t preparing us for the real challenges and consequences of managing projects, budgets, politics, and personnel.
Many of our deans and department heads had 20 years or more in the profession before they attained their present position. I believe most people now ascending the ranks will not have that kind of experience and institutional memory when the time comes for them to take the reins. That scenario has certain advantages, but as long as autonomy remains the exclusive province of upper management, we can look forward to an entire generation of academic library leaders without any substantive leadership experience. But man, we’ll be able to write kickass proposals.
February 28, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I, too, am sometimes frustrated by the, “You have really good ideas” speech which is followed by crickets chirping. I have great ideas? Wonderful. Can we actual do something with them?
February 28, 2006 at 8:25 pm
I got here through Jane’s blog, who linked to this. Definitely a good share of food for thought here. The gist of it is so true, and then people wonder why Gen-Xers and younger resent the older generations, or at why the younger folk are counting until the old ones retire (which, at the rate things are going looks more like “you will get my administrative job when you pry my cold, dead carcass off my desk.” But that is another story). You do make an important point that needs to be made: we need to be given responsibility, and if you want us to do something, give us the authority to implement it while you are it. It can be frustrating indeed. Best, and keep on blogging.
February 28, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Um, yup, just told that I need to join with some others to create a proposal to buy some furniture pieces. Taskforce and proposal all rolled up in one. Would it be awful to keep a general document and just customize it each time I’m asked to write Another Stinking Proposal?
March 1, 2006 at 8:03 am
This is something of a variation on the theme of my Seussian post from a couple of days ago, where administration is reluctant to admit that younger professionals actually possess the ability to handle major projects. Similarly, in my last job, I was not trusted by certain seasoned librarians until I had the degree in hand – regardless of my personal skillset. Our challenge is to communicate this constructively without appearing to be threatening mutiny.