Coding with Those Who Show Up
Two Methodologies on Technical Committee Work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v43i4.16355Keywords:
Laissez-faire leadership, management, website, teams, technical work, committeesAbstract
This paper considers our library’s attempt at applying a “laissez-faire leadership” model to technical committee work. Since its introduction in the 1990s, scholarship on laissez-faire leadership has historically viewed the concept very negatively. However, we argue here that many of these perspectives are straw man arguments that do not adequately consider the possibilities of a laissez-faire model. Following some dissenting voices in the literature, we would like to reclaim the laissez-faire model as a way to facilitate library technical work under certain very specific circumstances. This paper will describe the organizational context where these laissez-faire methods worked for us. Our conclusion is that this approach can promote autonomy, responsibility, and productivity. We feel that this reevaluation of this concept can provide an important framework for self-organization when doing technical work.
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