Vancouver, British Columbia
May 15-17, 1996
Nancy Cline, Presiding President ARL
and Carolynne Presser, President CARL
MS. CLINE: As leaders of the two nations' research libraries and also leaders within our respective institutions, I think it's fair to say that the members of ARL and CARL are acutely aware of the forces for change. Thinking back to our first session this morning, "Change in Higher Education," I think it's also fair to say that we are, in many cases, the agents causing much of the change with which we are dealing.
The challenge I believe many of us are facing is how to take the entirety of an organization and develop it in such a way that we are able to respond quickly and effectively, whether this includes redefining roles or defining responsibilities differently--and that can be personal as well as organizational responsibilities--so that we can be agile and nimble when dealing with change.
In this morning's session we had the opportunity to focus on some of the complex changes that are taking place in research institutions, particularly in higher education, and to see to some extent how those challenges are being faced and met.
We have now before us four distinguished colleagues who will represent very different points of view. These presenters will discuss successful approaches to developing agility and flexibility within organizations so that the changing demands of technologies, management styles, and the ever-renewing expectations of our user communities are met.
I look forward to learning from the various perspectives that will be presented to us. Carolynne will now give us some details on our speakers and the process to follow.
MS. PRESSER: Thank you.
Each of our four speakers this afternoon will provide a brief description of the approach they believe can be used to leverage the talent that resides within our organizations, so I want you to think of their presentations as a marketing pitch, an infomercial, if you wish. We'll follow with two 45-minute breakout sessions for which you'll be able to choose two of the initiatives that you've heard today.
We will start with Professor Charles Manz (Chuck) who is Professor of Management at Arizona State University. He has his B.A. and M.B.A. from Michigan State and a Ph.D. from Penn State. His areas of interest include employee self-leadership and self-managing work teams. He is also the author of many articles and several books, including Super Leadership: Leading Others to Lead Themselves. I found this quote in an article written by Chuck, "The most appropriate leader today is one who can lead others to lead themselves. The more traditional image of a leader as a striking figure on a rearing white horse crying `Follow me' may represent an incomplete view of leadership."
Next on our list is Charlan Nemeth. Charlan is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Berkley and received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Cornell. Her courses cover social psychology, group dynamics, influence, processes in group decision-making, and the social psychology of creativity. Charlan has written and spoken extensively on the positive contribution of dissent within groups and the role of the minority voice in creativity. Her focus today is on how to nurture flexibility in the organization by working at the individual level.
Our third speaker this afternoon is Professor André Delbecq, who is from the School of Business Administration at Santa Clara University in California and holds degrees from the University of Toledo and Indiana University. One of his areas of research has been organizational design for facilitating innovation. He has been involved in studies of innovation in the high-technology industries in Silicon Valley, from which he has identified practices that help increase the rate of successful innovation.
Our final presentation today is from Jim Harris, whom we heard from this morning in Program Session I, and who needs no introduction. He will be outlining for us a holistic approach for sustained success.
Welcome to all of our speakers.