An Experimental Study On Library's Internal Managerial Communication Issues

Communication is one of the most important components in management activities. One of the biggest challenges faced by library workplace today is how to inspire the employee's enthusiasm and to inform them to be more responsible and confident in the library community. An effective communication in library is to make the organization substantial and prosperous. Furthermore, many researches have been done on enterprise sectors in terms of managerial communication issues. From the previous researches, it has been proved that the communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment are highly correlated. This paper explores both quantitative and qualitative studies which were conducted by questionnaires survey, interviews, observations, and literature searches.The paper consists of nine chapters. The main contents are as followings: introduction, summary of the survey; the analysis of the communication satisfaction from different groups of librarian; the pivotal factors and obstacles of library internal communication; analyzing the relationships of top-level managers and library internal communication; communication media and channels within library environment and so on. For this analysis, different kinds of control variables such as gender, age, education level, professional title, job title, working years and so on are considered. Some trends and features are discovered from the survey results.The following five aspects are considered in analyzing the librarian's communication satisfaction and related factors: the overall organizational communication atmosphere; the manner of openness for information exchange process within library; the degree of ease and difficulty to obtain job-related information; the communication consciousness, attitude and initiatives of the direct managers; the relationships of colleagues and so on. Nowadays, the major incentives include monetary rewards and awards in kind and praises as well. Achieving the better communication satisfaction is one of the awards in kind and praises.In the chapter of analyzing the communication obstacles and relevant factors, some issues are discussed both from the viewpoint of organization and individuals based on the survey results. Since the internal communication is most likely to be affected by other organizational variables, the paper then compares different organizational structures with business process to observe how they affect the internal communication process.Senior management is the other main factor to give influence to internal communication. Based on the survey of library top managers, different kinds of conditions need to be considered such as the manager's leadership behavior, styles of communication, skills of communication, ability of communication, the preference in using communication vehicles, the consciousness coherence with subordinates, personalities and so on. According to psychologists, the leadership skills and abilities can be improved by learning and training. This paper provides some suggestions on how to improve the manager's leadership skills by analyzing the training practices of library professionals in different countries. This paper also discusses how to introduce management techniques into library school curricula.In order to analyze the media and channels for information exchange in today's libraries, the paper distinguishes the differences between communication media and communication channels. It also compares the traditional media and new media, the formal communication channels and informal channels. Both the advantages and disadvantages are presented. In the mean time, the theory of communication media richness is introduced. Based on that theory, the media choices and considerations in library circumstances are discussed.Based on the multidimensional approaches to library internal communication issues, the paper last but not least, intends to establish a conceptual model for the library internal managerial communication system. The model consists of three main sub-systems: management information system, cooperation system, and evaluation system. The management information system is designed to effectively manage the various information flows which is coming along management process. It can also ensure the information to flow smoothly from different directions. The function of cooperation system is designed to promote the internal communication behaviors by various communication vehicles as well as certain regulations. The function of evaluation system is designed to diagnose and find solutions to internal communication issues. Its objective is to discover the problems and obstacles existing in the information exchanging process, and figure out the strategies and measures to solve those problems. A case study of communication audits conducted by an American university library is introduced for reference. To sum up, the three sub-systems, supported by certain organizational structure, culture and sub-culture, are working together to promote the library internal communication process more efficient and smooth.