Managing Stress and Conflict in Libraries

Over lunch with coworkers, a disgruntled employee suddenly brandishes a small caliber handgun from his coat pocket, bragging loudly about what he will do if he receives another poor evaluation from his boss. When asked to leave at closing time, a regular customer, appearing uncharacteristically unkempt and extremely agitated, launches into a verbal tirade against the lone employee on duty. A supervisor relentlessly belittles and humiliates the newest employee, resulting in poor performance and an accelerating rate of absenteeism throughout the department. As troubling as they are, incidents such as these are not altogether uncommon in the twenty-first century workplace, and the library is no exception. Refuting the popular stereotype of the library as a locus of tranquility, each of these scenarios could occur just as easily in a library as in any other workplace. Library workers must deal with constantly changing technology, shrinking budgets, outsourcing, excessive workload, and burnout, all of which can precipitate internal stress and conflict. In addition, libraries are vulnerable to stress from external sources as a result of their accessibility to the general public, welcoming atmosphere, and service ethic. This book was written to help employees and managers of libraries and information centers, as well as human resources personnel, union officers, and health and safety supervisors to identify, understand, solve, and prevent incidents of workplace aggression and violence. The book's author, Sheila Pantry, specializes in worldwide occupational health and safety work practice and manages an independent consultancy business. She is a popular lecturer and writer, having written more than a dozen titles on information management and occupational health. Managing Stress and Conflict in Libraries is a revision of her 1996 publication, Dealing with Aggression and Violence in Your Workplace [1]. This slim volume consists of ten chapters, plus appendixes with relevant UK legislation, websites, and resource centers; a ten-page bibliography; and index. The chapters are brief, with abundant headings and ample use of bulleted lists and tables, making the book quite readable. Each chapter begins by highlighting the main points of the chapter and ends with questions for reflection. The book opens with an overview of the worldwide concern about aggression, bullying, conflict, and violence in the workplace, including working definitions of relevant terms from major European and British governmental bodies. The author cites findings released in 2006 from the “Dignity at Work Partnership,” conducted in the United Kingdom, to date the world's largest workplace anti-bullying research project. This project issued a number of key recommendations, including adopting a zero tolerance approach to workplace violence, creating anti-bullying and harassment policies, and training managers in mediation and conflict resolution. The book then discusses the various causes and forms of workplace bullying, aggression, and violence, followed by a description of the short- and long-term physical and psychological effects. Next, the author presents the business case for dealing with workplace violence, citing the costs of high staff turnover, increased absenteeism, increased insurance rates, loss of productivity, damage to the organization's reputation, and risk of litigation. The most compelling case for combating workplace violence, however, may be the force of law. In the United Kingdom, employers are assigned a duty of care for their staff and the public and, if employing five or more people, must complete a written assessment of risks associated with employment. The author maintains that workplace aggression, bullying, and violence are occupational hazards not unlike physical aspects of the workplace such as dangerous equipment, heavy lifting, and poor ventilation and therefore should be included in the risk assessment. Two chapters are devoted to conducting a risk assessment and include sample forms. Subsequent chapters provide a wealth of information on recent legislation passed in the United Kingdom relevant to issues of workplace violence. They also provide sources of guidance and advice from government bodies and independent organizations. Unfortunately, the information on legislation has limited usefulness for readers outside the United Kingdom, except to prompt readers to track down comparable legislation in their countries. Options for preventive measures are listed, ranging from self-defense training and mediation skills to environmental considerations and security systems. Advice is given on what to do in the face of an actual physical attack, as well as what forms of immediate and long-term support to expect after an incident. The closing chapter, “You Are Not Alone,” contains eleven case studies submitted by actual individuals working in a variety of library environments. They convey tragic stories of stress caused by bullying, long-standing sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and, in several cases, failure of the organization to effect change despite repeated complaints. The impact of the case studies could be strengthened if they were provided earlier in the book or integrated into the text and if they included a commentary by the author with suggestions for handling the situations. Despite its heavy focus on the United Kingdom, the book offers valuable advice that can be applied to any institution. In addition to conducting a workplace risk assessment, it stresses the need for creating pertinent policies that are communicated to all staff and subject to regular review. An outline of sample policies would have been a valuable addition to this section. A workplace culture must be created in which bullying and aggression are not tolerated, with managers leading by example. Perhaps most importantly, the author stresses the responsibility of individual employees for knowing the bounds of acceptable behavior in their workplaces, the legislation available to protect them, and the kind of support they should expect from their employers. Its title notwithstanding, this book focuses primarily on the more extreme manifestations of aggression and violence that occur relatively infrequently and tends to neglect the far more common and less volatile forms of conflict and stress that occur in everyday work life. The text might flow more coherently if the discussion of less violent forms of workplace stress and conflict, which can often be relieved through intervention by a skillful manager, were separated from the discussion of more violent occurrences that are more likely to involve criminal investigations and court proceedings. Readers seeking information on coping with more prosaic forms of stress and conflict in libraries might want to consult Managing Change: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians [2] or Conflict Management for Libraries: Strategies for a Positive, Productive Workplace [3]. The book is recommended for large collections, particularly in the United Kingdom.