A very brief slide deck on the basics of conflict, with library-themed examples. Presented to Atlanta Emerging Librarians for the panel "You Got the Job – Now What? Rising to the Challenge in Your New Library Position"

1. Conflict!
You Got the Job – Now What? Rising to the
Challenge in Your New Library Position
Atlanta Emerging Librarians
2014-10-25

2. Cliff’s to-do list for new library jobs
1. Make a 3-ring binder called “Promotion & Tenure ”
where you keep record of every accomplishment and
compliment. Update it (and your CV) on the first of
every month.
2. Get an organizational system and stick with it. I
recommend Getting Things Done, but use whatever
helps you get tasks out of your mind and into a
system.
3. Constantly work on improving your soft skills. People
remember how you make them feel. Getting and
keeping a job depends on human interaction.
4. Interview your colleagues. Everyone loves to talk
about themselves – find out about work
backgrounds, goals, career choices, professional
philosophy, etc. Work-related talk reveals a lot.
5. Ask your boss, coworkers, and employees about their
conflict styles – listen to what they say and then
observe how they behave.

3. “I should like to ask you to agree for
the moment to think of conflict as
neither good nor bad; to consider it
without ethical prejudgment; to
think of it not as warfare, but as the
appearance of difference,
difference of opinions, of interests.
For that is what conflict means—
difference. … As conflict is here in
the world, as we cannot avoid it, we
should, I think, use it. Instead of
condemning it, we should set it to
work for us.” – Mary Parker Follett,
1926

4. Conflict is a central part of the human experience
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbunday/2370697445/

5. But we avoid it because sometimes it hurts
https://www.flickr.com/photos/francisco_osorio/6110603840/

6. Types of Conflict

7. Pseudoconflict
https://www.flickr.com/photos/soukup/5157560198/

8. Simple Conflict
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurt-b/12597412465/

9. Ego Conflict
https://www.flickr.com/photos/90461913@N00/7053975627/

10. Responses to Conflict

11. Avoidance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12023825@N04/2898021822/

12. Domination/Competition
https://www.flickr.com/photos/instantvantage/6450325837/

13. Accommodation
https://www.flickr.com/photos/120077902@N02/13236406853/

14. Compromise
https://www.flickr.com/photos/95213174@N08/10329928973

15. Consensus

16. Scenario 1
• You’re the digitization librarian. The repository
librarian asked for a faculty member’s article to be
scanned, but is angry when the article is delivered
as a plain PDF without optical character
recognition.
• Who is in conflict?
• What kind of conflict is it?
• What response to the conflict would you choose?

17. Scenario 2
• Your fellow reference librarian is having a rough
week and responded curtly to a request from the
department head for more information on a
project. Later you hear the department head
saying how surprised she was at the use of that
tone with someone of her rank.
• Who is in conflict?
• What kind of conflict is it?
• What response to the conflict would you choose?

18. Scenario 3
• You’re a metadata librarian working with a team of
technology and reference librarians to update your
cataloging procedures. The reference librarians
want to keep geographic subdivisions, while the
technology librarians want to get rid of geographic
subdivisions.
• Who is in conflict?
• What kind of conflict is it?
• What response to the conflict would you choose?

19. Practice!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/13603486304/

20. Suggested Readings
• Allen, David. (2002). Getting Things Done: The Art
of Stress-Free Productivity.
• Beebe, Steven A. & Masterson, John T. (2011).
Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and
Practices.
• Carnegie, Dale. (1998). How to Win Friends and
Influence People.
• Crowley, Katherine, & Elster, Kathi. (2007) Working
With You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from
Emotional Traps at Work.
• Rahim, M. Afzalur. (2010). Managing Conflict in
Organizations.