Activity 4 – Marco

What PD happens in your workplace? What strategies does your organization have in place to encourage development, change and innovation?

My workplace is also an academic library. I worked in its system division which is responsible for maintaining the computer system of library.

In a certain extent, professional development is implemented in my workplace. Our supervisors encouraged staffs to speak up and discuss anything on the discussion broad. As I had mentioned in activity 1, we mainly discus the stuffs related to works. We can talk everytime and everywhere. It is beneficial for strengthening the relationship between supervisors and others and developing profession.

According to Shortland-Jones, Alderson, & Baker (2001), the table showed below is expressing the elements of helping change in an organization. In this week activity, I would discuss how my work organization develops change strategies with applying this model. 

The table indicated that change is consisted of 6 elements which are vision, skills, incentives, resources, action plan and collegiality. For vision, our library has a clear vision which is everything user-oriented. On the other word, it emphasizes that we are not only working for the library, but also serving our users. It is clear for us. Therefore, it avoids non necessary confusion. For skill, we can ask and discuss our problem related to work in the discussion broad. It allows us to share skill and knowledge in a platform. However, I think it is not enough for staffs learning the working skills. In my opinions, I think my organization should have some learning programs for staffs learning the related skills. It could help totally avoid their anxiety. For incentives, I think bonus system should be introduced to my organization. In fact, my organization has not this kind of system to increase the incentives of staffs. It would affect the incentives of staffs and even make resistance. Therefore, I think appropriate award is necessary for increasing their incentives. For example, money reward, annual leave and allowance can increase their motivation. For resources, I think the resources of my department are enough in a certain extent. HKU Libraries has enough funding in my department. As our department is responsible for maintaining the computer system of library, many computers needed to keep updated in order to ensure those computers are running smoothly. My department has kept their computer systems updated and it is beneficial for the department avoiding frustration. For the action plan, my department has an annual action plan which kept annual updated. It is complex and it indicates every plan of action clearly. The details of the plan are also included on the plan. It could help avoid treadmill. For collegiality, our department has annual dinner which could help strengthen the relationship between supervisors and others. Also, the discussion broad also helps it and it could enhance the relationship of each others.