Colleen S. Harris, 2012 Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Libraries presentation, Limerick, Ireland.

1. Impact of Unfinished Business:
The Zeigarnik Effect, Organizational
Effectiveness, and Academic Library
Management Practices
Colleen S. Harris
Assistant Professor & Head of Access Services
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
colleen-harris@utc.edu

2. Bluma Zeigarnik, 1927
CC license at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoetnet/5337695316/

3. The Zeigarnik Effect
• The tendency to experience intrusive
thoughts about an objective that was
once pursued and left incomplete.
– (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008)
• “Need” to complete a task once
initiated; lack of closure promotes
continued task related cognitive effort.
– (Greist-Bousquet& Schiffman, 1992)

4. Organizational Change & Development
• Evolutionary change
– Natural developments prompting change
• Revolutionary change
– External developments requiring
organizations to change to survive (Burke,
W. W., 2011)

5. Why Libraries?
• Professional context
• Access
• Multi-project environment
• Possible management issue
• Possible success issue

6. Library 1 Basics
• Library at a mid-size (10-15k) public
university in the South
• 16 librarians, 14 staff
• Flat organizational structure
• Institutionalized transparency

7. Library 1: Organizational Change
• New building
• Org chart in flux: (every new position
gets thrown out and matched to goals)
• Institutionalized goal setting & tracking
practices
• Institutionalized transparency

8. Library 1 unfinished objectives
& consequences
• Unfinished objectives:
– Tracked at 6 month review and annual review
– Closed as “abandoned” or tracked on
performance reviews
• Consequences
– Institutionalized in performance review system
– Decisions by consensus

9. Library 2 Basics
• Library at a large (30-40k) public
research university in the South
• 40+ librarians, 80+ staff
• Highly hierarchical organizational
structure

10. Library 2: Organizational Change
• New building
• Goal setting and tracking left to
individuals
– No institutionalized reporting mechanism
• Institutionalized silo-ing
– Size
– Competition

11. Library 2 unfinished objectives
& consequences
• Unfinished objectives
– Not tracked, leading to overcommitment
– Occasionally forgotten until they come up
in the context of a new project
• Consequences
– Only if visible; temporary and uneven

12. Mitigating Factors
• Transparency/Information sharing
• Organizational clarity (in terms of goals,
performance management, etc.)
• Cooperation

13. Limitations
• Convenience sample
• Difference in size
• Differences in available documentation
(transparency factor)
• Focus on processes/work & not
individuals

14. Implications
• In times of budget cuts
– Increased canceled projects; longer
turnaround time for projects and work
• For organizational development
– Need for a mechanism for formal closure to
unfinished tasks
– Dangers of leaving goal setting, tracking,
and reporting decisions to individuals or
departments

15. Implications (continued)
• For professional practice
– Commitments to transparency and iterative
goal/task reviews
• Questioning the multi-tasking
professional as a development goal
• For individuals
– Cognitive load/ cognitive stress

16. Future Research
• Small-n Action Research agenda
• Developing best practices libraries
• Large-n survey agenda
• Control for size and organizational
culture effects

17. Colleen S. Harris
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Lupton Library
colleen-harris@utc.edu
@warmaiden (Twitter & other social networks)