Friday, November 26, 2010
19th November, The way ahead, international vs. African Librarianship
African librarianship is intertwined in the international librarianship. We as Africans should realise that there is a big space for us in the international arena where we can contribute, learn and create new knowledge. It is therefore our responsibility to put Africa in the global map.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
16th November, Multiculturalism in the workplace
The visit to Constitutional Hill reminded us of the bitter painful past; we need to nurture and protect this democracy because never again should we as South African citizens should we destroy human dignity.
"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another…"
Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Address, Pretoria 9 May 1994.
15th November, Dynamic organisation
P = Political environment
E= Economical
N = Natural environment
S = Social Demographics
T = Technological Developments.
Conduct a SWOT analysis, know your competitors and analyse the expectations of the stakeholders. By doing this critical exercise you then have a clear understanding of your target market, their needs and expectations.
This is the stage where you have enough information to come up with a suitable Vision, Mission, Values, Organisation’s overall objectives, Division’s Objectives, Departmental Objectives, Team and individual KPA’s which includes performance and personal development.
12th, Knowledge Management, Web 2.0. social media and other tools
organizational learning. Organisations should aim at leveraging the expertise of people across the organization. Managing business environments and allowing employees to obtain relevant ideas appropriate to their work solving problems. Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce such as the know-how possessed by key individuals. The government should begin increasing network connectivity. Rewards can be used as motivation for knowledge sharing.
Storytelling could also use as a method of transferring tacit knowledge. Communities of practice, best practice, competence management and coaching, mentoring relationships should be encouraged. Bjarke Gotfredsen demonstrated how Web 2.0 tools that are (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc.) can be used to better incorporate knowledge management in companies.
Monday, November 15, 2010
11th,Strategic Organisation in Practice
10th, Maximising Human Capital
9th, Organisational Leadership
Leadership styles varies from situation to situation, normally early stage of organisation would be autocratic style (Telling), from 6-20 years persuasive style (Selling), 25-45 years consultative style (Consulting) and 45-60 years democratic (Joining) often we thought the style is related by a leader’s personality. As South Africans we should shape our leadership around the concept of Ubuntu as this defines us as nation. It is important to realise that at times it is required that one put on a leadership cap, that is where he pay attention to new trends, and craft visions.
They lead by principles rather than policies. In case where he puts on a management cap, then operation process have to be actioned in order to achieve the organization goals as prescribed by the strategic plan. I have mastered the art of coaching and mentoring and I am going to practice at my workplace. Self awareness is important in ones career and personal growth. It is crucial that Human capital is maximized.
8th, South African LIS context. Group Dynamics Simulation Games
The president of LIASA Naomi Haasbroek unpacked the vision and mission of LIASA and its role in the South Africa in the 21st century. Since LIASA’s inception in 1997 the objective was to unify librarians from all different spheres to speak in one voice, this is still relevant today. Librarians should support and nurture their profession especially because there is a decline of the profession and shortage of qualified librarians. Therefore it is important that each and every librarian should begin to answer the following question:
what are you doing to the profession?
Rene Schoombee what a passionate and innovative librarian. She is living the act of advocacy by educating the community which is the essentials of information society. According to Rene no circumstances, resources and lack of rewards should stop us from becoming true library advocates. By doing so we will be living for a purpose and that is more fulfilling than any reward, and door will open in an amazing ways.
It is very clear that librarianship is evolving. If we stay where we are surrounded by books, we will definitely face out as a profession. We have to go out there and find the future products and find clients because neither the products nor the clients are in the library.
PAMOJA, Learning through play, without realising we have acquired the importance of roles of positions. Knowing and understanding the purpose, policies and procedures that govern your industry is important. Negotiation skills, communication skills, value system and the culture of ones organization because we remain ambassadors’ of our organizations so we must represent our organizations with pride and dignity.
7th, HBDI Personal and group profiling and CAMPBELL Leadership descriptor Tool
Reflecting on exercises of learning about self from Campbell leadership descriptor tool, it helped me to discover my areas of development and how I should draw self plan on how to practically work on these areas systematically. I was also able to indentify my strength and how to sustain these areas. It was also interesting to discover that the is no perfect leader and that we need to complement each other, because even bad leaders are excelled in other areas. Lastly I have learned that self retrospective is crucially important increasing ones self knowledge and emotional intelligence. What was interesting is that as much as work is important having FUN (personal energy) is equally important and necessary.
6th, WEB 2.0 Technology in the workplace
I have realized how fellow librarians are concerned about keep track of new technological trends, that is, web 2.0. They take time and efforts to and explore these tools in order to develop other. These colleagues also took time to analyse, their daily duties and investigated how these tools can change and improve the way they work. For example Johan van Wyk and Antoinette Lourens presented a clear distinction among web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. And how we could practically apply to our works situation. And this is something that they have tried and tested so we could their blogs and wikis as reference. I was also impressed with the way they prepared their training program.
- My intention is to critically analyse the content of my existing Blogs, i.e. MPhil entrepreneurship and EMPS.
- I am going to embark into marketing my blogs to the targeted clientele.
- I am going to encourage and train the web 2.0/ 3.0 tools other information specialist in the EMS faculty library.
- I will frequently visit and post on my Blogs
To reinforce my management and leadership skills - I am going to be involved in the management performance systems as tool that will manage talent in EMS faculty library.
- Since I am passionate about coaching and mentorship I am going to develop and structure my programs.
- I am going to draw a personal goal plan and manage my career development.
Reflecting on exercises from Campbell leadership descriptor tool, it helped me to discover my areas of development and how I should draw self goal plan on how to practically work on these areas systematically. I was also able to indentify my strength and how to sustain these areas. It was also interesting to discover that the is no perfect leader and that we need to complement each other, because even bad leaders excelled in other areas. Lastly I have learned that self retrospective is crucially important increasing ones self knowledge and emotional intelligence. What was interesting is that as much as work is important having FUN (personal energy) is equally important and necessary.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Day 1, 5th November 2010
My EXPECTATIONS:
- I would like to learn new practical ways that I could apply to my everyday job, ways that will help me to work efficiently and effectively.
- I would also want to reflect to my management and leadership style, with the intention of developing where necessary.
This is because:
From January 2010 my tasks were to manage the EMS library. I had to administer and review library programs, look into policies, procedures and resolving issues regarding library operations and staff. I had to work very closely with the office that looks into the library quality surveys and audits to identify library issues and customers’ needs, and plan for responding to the identified needs.I managed staff responsible for function of a library. Make sure that the staff is well trained to perform their job e.g. shelving, researching, and preservation etc.
I motivate, develop and direct EMS library staff as they work. I had to identify the best people for the job. As well as identifying problems and review related information and evaluate options and implement solutions
I am also responsible for Business Management Department, which is also regarded to be the best in South Africa especially in their MPHIL and DPHIL in ENTREPRENEURSHIP programs. The lecturers are very busy and they expect their student to produce colloquiums, dissertations and thesis of high standard. To support these students one need to be well equipped around research techniques, marketing, integrating web 2.0 tools and negotiation.
I have also taken a role of mentoring junior information specialist in the EMS faculty library. For me this is crucially important as it takes time to master the art of becoming a refined information specialist whose responsibilities are to adapt within the ever changing information environment and to develop training programs that will meet this dynamic environment. For example more and more as information specialist we are faced with the e-teaching and learning dynamics so our training programs should be designed in such a way that it integrates with the curriculum and it also demonstrate the objectives/outcomes of your training program.