New iteration: Solutions for Challenging Workplace Relationships eCourse

Chicago—ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions announces a new iteration of our popular eCourse, Solutions for Challenging Workplace Relationships: Working through Incivility and Conflict with Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Richard Moniz and Jo Henry will serve as the instructors for a 5-week facilitated eCourse starting on Monday, April 8, 2019.

Staff relations in any workplace can break down—including in libraries. Different personality types, different workstyles, and high anxiety levels can lead to staff problems and a more stressful work environment. By learning how to recognize these issues and implement strategies to improve these relationships, you can better meet your library’s goals and maintain a welcoming, successful library environment not only for your staff but for your patrons. 

This 5-week eCourse addresses some of the thorniest problems that library staff may face such as lack of civility, bullying, mobbing, dysfunctional culture, emotional intelligence shortcomings, and challenges associated with conflict management. Using The Dysfunctional Library: Challenges and Solutions to Workplace Relationships as the core text, Dr. Richard Moniz and Jo Henry—your course facilitators and the authors of this book—engage you in discussion centered on overcoming a dysfunctional culture to create a welcoming environment and provide you with practical solutions to manage conflict and reduce staff stress. While librarians involved in management would benefit most from the course, any library staff member could learn and share useful information on how to deal with challenging workplace scenarios. 

eCourse Outline

Week 1: Introduction; Emotional Intelligence: Start with Yourself

In addition to assigned readings and viewing short recorded video introductions from each of the instructors, participants will be given an exercise to determine what their strengths and weaknesses are related to emotional intelligence and discuss why they might need to be aware of these when facing workplace challenges.

Week 2: The Dysfunctional Library

In addition to readings and a brief recorded video presentation on the topic and data collected through a survey of 4,000 library staff, participants will engage in asynchronous discussion on the topic of dysfunctional culture. Participants will brainstorm and share possible solutions to issues associated with workplace culture alongside those identified by the instructors.

Week 3: Incivility on the Library Workplace; Toxic Behaviors of Staff; Organizational Deviance and Workplace Politics

In addition to a short-recorded video presentation offering data on its prevalence and some solutions, participants will discuss general incivility as well as major problems or issues faced in the workplace such as mobbing and bullying with an emphasis on self-care and solutions.

Week 4: Communication Issues

Since communication issues are such a significant challenge in many workplaces, an entire week will be devoted to highlighting associated issues and exploring solutions. A short-recorded video presentation highlighting the various communication challenges faced in modern libraries will be followed by asynchronous discussion of the topic.

Week 5: Conflict Management

Wrapping up the course in week five, the instructors will present the different types of conflicts that can arise in the library workplace and how they may be managed. The class as a whole will share and brainstorm solutions for confronting and managing conflict.

About the Instructors

Richard Moniz, EdD, is Head Librarian at Horry Georgetown Technical College. He served as Director of Library Services for Johnson & Wales University's Miami campus from 1997–2004 and was the Director of Library Services at Johnson & Wales University's Charlotte campus from 2004-2018. He has also, in the past, simultaneously served as Head of Information Technology Services for Johnson & Wales in Miami and taught classes on subjects such as computer science, world history, US history, and American government. Additionally, since 2006, he has taught for the MLIS program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Courses taught have included Information Sources and Services, Special Libraries, Library Administration, Information Sources in the Professions, and Online Bibliographic Information Retrieval. Dr. Moniz has published in numerous places. He is sole author of the 2010 textbook Practical and Effective Management of Libraries, coauthor of Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison, and coauthor and coeditor of The Personal Librarian: Enhancing the Student Experience. He is actively engaged in the profession and has held a number of committee and board responsibilities within the ALA, LLAMA (Library Leadership and Management Association), ACRL, CLS (College Libraries), and Metrolina Library Association (including serving as President of this organization) in addition to other nonprofit organizations such as Carolina Raptor Center, Charlotte Museum of History, and Charlotte's Arts and Science Council.

Jo Henry serves as a librarian with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Previously, she was the information services librarian at South Piedmont Community College. She obtained a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a Master of Public Administration from Georgia Southern University. She has published in Public Services Quarterly, Library Review, Community and Junior College Libraries, and College and Research Library News, and has presented at the Metrolina Information Literacy Conference, North Carolina Library Association Conference, and the ALA Annual Conference. She currently serves on the Metrolina Library Association board. She is coauthor of The Mindful Librarian: Connecting the Practice of Mindfulness to Librarianship (2016), Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison (2014), and The Personal Librarian: Enhancing the Student Experience (2014).

Registration for this ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions facilitated eCourse, which begins on April 8, 2019, can be purchased at the ALA Store. Participants in this course will need regular access to a computer with an internet connection for online message board participation, viewing online video, listening to streaming audio (MP3 files), and downloading and viewing PDF and PowerPoint files.

ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions (ELS) produces high-quality professional development events and materials for the library profession. ELS events cover modern issues on a wide variety of topics in formats that include live workshops, asynchronous eCourses, and print publications. We help ensure that today’s library employees have access to the professional development opportunities they need, whether they are brushing up on the basics or expanding their horizons with cutting-edge tools. Contact us at elsmarketing@ala.org.

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