7/29/2019 1821850

1/3

SUSTAINABLE LIBRARY IMPERATIVE

Sustainability by engagementJames W. Marcum

Fairleigh Dickinson University Library, Teaneck and Madison, New Jersey, USA

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define engagement and propose the utility of the concept indeveloping sustainable libraries.

Design/methodology/approach The paper compares traditional motivation practices withmethods of engagement for relevance in organizations where knowledge work is dominant or important.

Findings The paper finds evidence that motivation, relying on rewards, is not productive in suchorganizations.

Practical applications It is argued that traditional motivation practices are not productive withknowledge workers and that engagement ideas have the potential of attracting greater staffcommitment.

Originality/value The proposal is for directors and managers that engagement methods have thepotential of attracting greater staff commitment to the organization and its work.

Keywords Economic sustainability, Literacy, Libraries

As we continue to explore the meanings and importance of sustainability we recallvarious steps in the process: design, partnering, and fostering appropriate mental models,for example. Nothing, however, is more important than nurturing a high level of staffengagement. Some explanation is in order; there are several dimensions to the argument:

Why engagement?We live and work in a time and domain where knowledge work is more characteristicthan routine work. We also live in a time of inescapable media-enhanced informationand mass communication, attributed by Putnam (2000) as a root cause for periods ofdecline of civic and political involvement. The concept of engagement has emerged inthe past decade as the key ingredient in civic and political involvement (Zukin et al.,2006); as a useful barometer in student success (Carini et al., 2006); and as a crucialworkplace component of effective organizations (Fairfield et al., 2009).

Summarizing an extensive literature, we can say that engagement involveslearning, persistence, a social context, a high sense of empowerment andself-organization, and an evident sense of confidence and self-efficacy. A middle

ground is appropriate, one that can be embodied and maintained, as Jackson Kytle(2000) makes clear. Neither Maslows peak experiences nor Csikszentmihalyis flow canbe sustained over time. An engaged life must be carefully constructed by eachindividual and must reflect their unique, persistent commitment.

Engagement, not motivationEngagement is something different from employee motivation, by the way. The latteris a much over-used and abused but deeply engrained attitude governing our

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0888-045X.htm

BL22,3

76

Received June 2009Revised June 2009Accepted June 2009

The Bottom Line: Managing Library

Finances

Vol. 22 No. 3, 2009

pp. 76-78

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0888-045X

DOI 10.1108/08880450910999622

7/29/2019 1821850

2/3

assumptions about learning, child-rearing, and employment. But the assumptions areflawed, driven by the desire of parents, teachers, and supervisors to get others to dowhat they wish for them to do. Reliance on rewards and punishment characterizemotivational practices, despite countless studies (Kohn, 1993) that rewards kill interest

by signaling that the task or desired behavior is not inherently worth doing on its ownmerits. The carrot and stick approach makes the point: what resides between them?Some form of dumb beast (Levinson, 1973); hardly a useful model for knowledge workand building knowledge and intellectual capital.

Engaging sustainabilityThere is wide recognition that sustainability already is a matter of concern to growingnumbers in the workplace. People like to work for organizations that do good, thatmake things better rather than contributing to the problem (Gardner, 2002). There aremany avenues available to those desiring to contribute to the solution. A recent reviewof progress in the US since 2002 finds that demonstrable progress has occurred in local

government, brownfields redevelopment, education, religious organizations, andbusiness and industry. But the ultimate challenge of making the nation sustainableremains well beyond our reach. Enormous challenges remain in consumer behavior,natural resource management, transportation, and waste and toxic chemicals(Dernbach, 2009, pp. 3-26).

Academics have a comparably higher level of concern about the challenges ofsustainability, and professors and universities are on the scene but not yet having theimpact of their potential. As with so many institutions and professions, traditionalpractices such as expectations required for tenure hinder that possibility (Zilahyand Huisingh, 2009).

The role of literacy as a factor in human motivation and engagement adds aparticular cogency for libraries, as partners in the education process. The importanceof reading, particularly at certain stages in human development, has great impact onattitudes and perceptions (Verhoeven and Snow, 2001), raising for us again theimportance of reading skills for the kind of society we want for ourselves and ourprogeny.

For two presidential administrations, starting in 2002, the government actuallyworked to reduce public access to information (Bruch et al., 2009), a sad commentary onthe state of the nation. Hopefully, that is changing under the Obama administration.Certainly, openness and transparency in governmental activities is fundamental toencouraging people to get involved. Acknowledging the problem is the first step todoing something, and the library profession deserves great credit for leading the fightfor individual privacy and public openness. But the greater challenges lie ahead.

Leaders cannot do it; organizations cannot do what needs to be done. A major shift inpersonal attitudes and behaviors must take place; that requires widespreadengagement in the work. Librarians are strategically placed to help make that happen.

References

Bruch, C., Irwin, F. and Bass, G.D. (2009), Public access to information, participation, andjustice, in Dernbach, J.C. (Ed.), Agenda for a Sustainable America, ELI Press, Washington,DC, pp. 459-78.

Sustainability byengagement

77

7/29/2019 1821850

3/3

Carini, R.M., Kuh, G.D. and Klein, S.P. (2006), Student engagement and student learning: testingthe linkages, Research in Higher Education, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. 1-32.

Dernbach, J.C. (Ed.) (2009), Agenda for a Sustainable America, ELI Press, Washington, DC.

Fairfield, K.D., Knowles, R.N., Russell, W.G., Wirtenberg, J., Mahurkar-Rao, S. and Judd, O.D.

(2009), Employee engagement for a sustainable enterprise, in Wirtenberg, J., Russell, W.G.and Lipsky, D. (Eds), The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: When it all Comes Together,Greenleaf/Amacom, New York, NY, pp. 141-61.

Gardner, H. (2002), Good work, well done: a psychological study, The Chronicle Review, Vol. 148No. i24.

Kohn, A. (1993), Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, As, Praise,and Other Bribes, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.

Kytle, J. (2000), On constructing an engaged life, in Miller, M. and West, A.N. (Eds), Spirituality,Ethics, and Relationship in Adulthood, Psychosocial Press/International Universities Press,Madison, CT, pp. 231-54.

Levinson, H. (1973), Asinine ideas toward motivation, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 51 No. 1,pp. 70-6.

Putnam, R.D. (2000), Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simonand Schuster, New York, NY.

Verhoeven, L. and Snow, C. (Eds) (2001), Literacy and Motivation: Reading Engagement inIndividuals and Groups, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.

Zilahy, G. and Huisingh, D. (2009), The roles of academia in regional sustainability initiatives,Journal of Cleaner Productivity, Vol. 17 No. 12, pp. 1057-66.

Zukin, C., Keeter, S., Andolina, M., Jenkins, K. and Delli Carpini, M.X. (2006), A New Engagement?Political Participation, Civic Life, and the Changing American Citizen, Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford.

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.comOr visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

BL22,3

78