College and Research Libraries Measuring Levels of Work in Academic Libraries: A Time Based Approach Donald P. Gould Librarianship has failed to resolve the issue of the differentiation between professional and non- professional work or to analyze what constitutes each level of work. ·Using Stratified Systems Theory, which focuses on the relationship between manager and subordinate in the bureau- cratic structure, a study was conducted to measure the level of responsibility in the work of thirty-seven professional and nonprofessional positions in four academic library technical ser- vices departments. Three levels of work were measured in "time-spans of discretion" of be- tween two weeks and eighteen months, corresponding to work strata 1 through 3. Results also showed an overlap in levels of responsibility between professional and nonprofessional posi- tions at the Stratum 2 level. In addition, a high correlation was found between level of work measured and what the subordinate felt was a fair rate of pay for the work performed. uring much of its modern his- tory, the library profession has been concerned with questions about what differentiates the various levels of work in libraries, and to what extent librarians can consider them- selves professionals. These issues, and the attempt to analyze what constitutes each level of work, have been addressed from several perspectives over the years, with no clear resolution. As far back as 1922, Elizabeth M. Coulter, a reference li- brarian at the University of California, wrote that proper recognition would come to librarians if, among other things, pro- fessional and clerical duties were differen- tiated.1 Mary Lee Bundy and Paul Wasserman summed up the problem of utilization of professionals and nonprofessionals by noting the failure of libraries to analyze systematically their personnel structures and requirements. As a result, many li- brarians are employed in work that does not '' c:all for their full range of prepara- tion. " 2 Lester Asheim called for a thor- ough revision of job descriptions and job classification schemes ''by some new ap- proach in an effort to more fully utilize the particular talents and qualifications of every staff member. '' 3 More than a decade and a half have passed since Asheim' s statement, but lit- tle real progress has been made in analyz- ing personnel structures. The changes that have taken place have resulted more from the impact of technology and fund- ing cuts than from serious research into the nature of work roles in libraries. The challenge to improve the management · and effectiveness of libraries is no less ur- gent today. Indeed, issues such as compa- rable worth, collective bargaining, and erosion of financial support make it imper- ative that library managers seek new solu- tions. This article reports the results of a doc- toral dissertation. It is the first such study of levels of work in libraries and the first study known to use this particular theo- retical approach on a cross-institutional basis. As such, it is necessarily oriented to Donald P. Gould is a library and information systems consultant, 1125 South Westmoreland Ave. #4A, Los Angeles, California 90006. 236 methodological concerns as well as the at- tempt to examine the issue of levels of work in libraries. The intent is to make a contribution to the research base of librari- anship and provide an academic research agenda. Just as important is the hope that the results of this, and subsequent stud- ies, will lead to improvements in the prac- tice of librarianship and the management of libraries. DIFFERENTIATING LEVELS OF LIBRARY WORK Charles C. Williamson's landmark re- port in 1923, Training for Library Seroice, used the terms ''professional'' and '' cleri- cal,'' but pointed out that ''the distinction between the two is only vaguely under- stood and seldom applied in library orga- nization and practice.'' He went on to cas- tigate library administrators for not clarifying the qualifications needed for dif- ferent types of work. 4 Two years later George A. Works noted the insufficient distinction made in libraries between cleri- cal and professional types of service. 5 More recently Asheim6 and Dale E. Shaf- fer7 recommended better ways to distin- guish between the professional and non- professional tasks performed in libraries. Olga B. Bishop further documented the failure to separate professional from non- professional duties. 8 Much of the effort in differentiating pro- fessional from nonprofessional work has concentrated on developing position clas- sification and pay plans for compensation purposes and lists of appropriate duties. Beginning with the lists published by the American Library Association in 1927 9 and 192910 and the California Library As- sociation in 1932, 11 a succession of plans and lists were issued, culminating in the 1970 Library Education and Manpower state- ment, which recomm~nded ''categories of library personnel, and levels of training and education appropriate to the prepara- tion of personnel for these categories. " 12 The document was revised in 1976, and the resulting Library Education and Person- nel Utilization statement is currently con- sidered official policy by ALA. The ALA statement recognizes three levels of nonprofessional personnel- Measuring Levels of Work 237 clerks (high school education), assistants (two years of college), and associates (bachelor's degree)-in addition to the professional positions requiring the mas- ter's degree. The statement avoids listing duties appropriate to each level, concen- trating instead on a descriptive approach by providing a brief analysis of the "na- ture of responsibilities" required for the positions. 1 WORK ANALYSIS IN LIBRARIES The analysis of work in libraries has con- centrated on the activities performed, us- ing standard task analysis techniques. This traditional job evaluation approach attempts to provide a means for deriving indexes of relative job values within an or- ganization by various rating schemes. Ex- amples include such studies as the Illinois Library Task Analysis Project, 14 Charlotte Mugnier' s study of paraprofessionals in public libraries, 15 and the health sciences library personnel study by Leslie-Beth Roth en burg and others. 16 Traditional task analysis and job evalua- tion schemes have several serious draw- backs. For example, the assessments are made by persons, both inside and outside the organization, who are not held ac- countable for the work of the person or po- sition being analyzed. As will be exam- ined below, the way that work is delegated-the realities of specific ac- countability and authority-is what sets the level of responsibility in work, 17 not the activity in and of itself. It is the goal of the activity, the output or result, as judged by the person who is to be held account- able for the work being performed that sets the level of work. The studies cited above have been useful for compiling lists of activities but have yielded little in the way of results that are generalizable, or not institution-specific, and have contrib- uted little to a fundamental understand- ing of the meaning of levels of responsibil- ity in work. In this paper, the terms level of work and level of responsibility are inter- changeable and refer to the relative posi- tion within an organization, with higher- level work being deemed "more responsible.'' 238 College & Research Libraries THE ISSUE OF PAY IN LIBRARY WORK Although the earlier attempts to differ- entiate professional from nonprofessional work revolved around position classifica- tion and pay plans, there has been a curi- ous lack of research into the issue of pay itself. Those studies that have been done, such as Richard B. Eggleton's in 1978, have focused on pay as one element in the job satisfaction equation 18 and shown it to be a chief source of dissatisfaction among librarians. It is not surprising that librarianship has avoided such studies when considering the general paucity of substantive social science research on the question of pay. 19 Despite the overwhelming importance of pay as the primary system for reward and compensation in work, 20 modern organi- zational theorists have tended to view the pay question within the context of gener- alized psychological theories of motiva- tion or satisfaction. 21 LIBRARIES AS .~UREAUCRACIES Libraries belong to that class of social or- ganization known as bureaucracies, a type of employment system in which people are hired to produce an output, a result, in return for a wage or salary. About 90 per- cent of the work force in industrialized countries is employed in bureaucracies ranging from government agencies to schools, factories, small and large busi- nesses, hospitals, etc. Furthermore, these social institutions are organized hierarchi- cally, in which persons within the organi- zation are ranked one above the other. This hierarchy of levels has generally been taken for granted. It is understood that the people at the top of the organization re- ceive significantly higher levels of respon- sibility, earnings, and status than people at the lower levels. 22 It might be questioned whether libraries can be considered typical bureaucracies in view of the fact that they employ large numbers of "professionals," but many hi- erarchically structured organizations em- ploy professionals: hospitals, schools, so- cial service agencies, and even businesses . with research divisions. It cannot be suc- cessfully argued that libraries are exempt May 1985 from consideration as bureaucracies sim- ply because of their "unique" staffing pat- terns. If these staffing patterns are unique, then the role relationships therein need to be studied as they relate to the goals of the bureaucratic organization within which they exist. In fact, several library thinkers have examined this conflict between pro- fessional and bureaucratic authority, con- cluding that the professional function is weak to the point of ineffectiveness. 23' 24 The structure and nature of work in bu- reaucratic organizations are the direct con- cern of the theoretical approach devel- oped over the past forty years by Elliott Jaques at Brunei University in Great Brit- ain. Jaques' theory, known as "stratified systems theory,'' seeks to understand the nature of work and human capability for work within the context of hierarchically structured organizations commonly called bureaucracies. For Jaques, bureaucracies, or what he also refers to as employment hierarchies, are a natural social phenome- non that arose out of society's need to em- ploy people to get work done. Stratification and managerial control are vital aspects of bureaucratic functioning, and it is the manager-subordinate rela- tionship that constitutes the basic social structure of bureaucratic systems. All work is managerially assigned or sanc- tioned and contains both prescribed limits of expense, quality and time, to which the subordinate must adhere, and a discre- tionary aspect. 25 Jaques' definition of work is vital to an understanding of his theoretical ap- proach: It is the exercise of discretion within prescribed limits of expense, qual- ity, and time. The limits are established, either explicitly or implicitly, by the em- ploying authority (board of directors, trustees, voters, etc.) and are delegated downward through the managerial struc- ture. 26 The exercise of discretion means acting in a climate of uncertainty, making judgments, deciding on alternative means for accomplishing the job. It requires the person to tolerate uncertainty and anxiety about the results of the work. It is the dis- cretionary aspect of work that requires a balance between analysis and intuition in the ''continuing process of sensing a po- tential problem, defining it and construct- ing a solution. " 27 The longer the period of time that a person must stand up to uncer- tainty and anxiety, the greater the psycho- logical feeling of the weight of responsibil- ity, and thus the greater the level of work. For Jaques, all work is goal-oriented. Furthermore, the achievement of the goal must have a realistic, objective time limit, a ''target completion time.' ' 28 As the pe- riod of time between the initiation of a task and its expected completion increases, the path to completion gets longer and more complex and the number of obstacles and amount of information to be gathered and processed increases, as do the number of tasks to be organized and handled. This discovery led Jaques to develop a measure for determining the level of re- sponsibility in any work role, which he called the "time-span of discretion." Since all work is managerially assigned or sanctioned, the time-span of any role may therefore be objectively measured by get- ting the manager to determine the longest forward target completion time for any single task assigned to a subordinate. It is the manager, the person who will be held accountable for the work of a subordinate, who determines the time-span, and thus the level of responsibility in any work role. It is the single longest period of time for any single task that sets the level of work. The essence of the time-span of discre- tion measure is to examine the task con- tent of the work and arrive at accurate, re- liable work measures that can be objectively understood by a third party and are both generalizable and not institution-specific. The level of responsi- bility in a role is not dependent upon the number of subordinates, length of train- ing, education, or skill, or any of the myr- iad factors upon which traditional job evaluation techniques usually rely. Thus, for example, the measure for determining level of responsibility in professional work is the same as for managerial work and provides a basis for comparison of these seemingly different roles. Other factors are also valid concerns, but for purposes of establishing level of work it is the time- span of discretion that is the single, measureable factor. Measuring Levels of Work 239 Much of the early criticism of Jaques' theory revolved around his failure to pro- vide sufficient empirical evidence to sup- port his claims. 29 Hard data continues to be a problem because of the proprietary nature of many of the studies conducted for businesses and government agencies. Paul Goodman challenged Jaques' con- cept of time-span, but he failed to under- stand the very concept by seeking to "measure" time-span with a single-item questionnaire. 30 MANAGER-SUBORDINATE RELATIONSHIP Jaques believes that the first problem of bureaucratic organizations has been the failure to describe and specify adequately the main role relationships. He sees the key relationship, the one on which the bu- reaucratic hierarchy is built,. as the manager-subordinate relationship. Man- agers must be held accountable not only for their own work, but the work of their · subordinates, else the work will not get done. Problems arise when managers are not given the authority required to carry out their duties. 31 To do this, the manager must have at least minimal authority to veto new appointments, decide perfor- mance appraisals, and deselect unsuitable subordinates. Jaques' definition is re- markably simple and effective in explain- ing the complex social relationship be- tween manager and subordinate and is the first to provide a clear and concise defi- nition of managerial work. Jaques' theory also examines horizontal role relationships and those of nonmana- gerial positions such as professionals and technical specialists. The need to under- stand and clarify these relationships in terms of the functioning of the bureau- cracy is no less critical. In fact, the failure to understand the different organizational role requirements for managers, technical specialists, and professionals has exacer- bated the problems faced by many organi- zations, including libraries. 32 STRATIFICATION IN BUREAUCRACIES Stratified systems theory proposes that human work-capacity, the ability to en- gage in goal-directed behavior in work 240 College & Research Libraries roles, is a function of the length of the pe- riod that a person is capable of managing activity through time. Furthermore, the very nature of work-capacity, unlike intel- ligence as measured by IQ tests, is viewed as discontinuous; 33 that is, there are changes in the way people at different time-span levels actually work. These dif- ferences occur in their perception of tasks, the planning and organization of their work, their accumulation of experiences, and "in the fullest sense, qualitative dif- ferences in the way they picture the world in which they are working. ''34 The content of any work activity is distinctly different from the purpose or goal of that activity, and it cannot be assumed that any two people with the same 1ob title are doing the same level of work. 5 The results of applying the time-span of discretion measure led to the discovery of stratification in bureaucratic organiza- tions. It revealed a pattern of discontinu- ous levels of work. These levels fall at reg- ular intervals of three months, one year, two years, five years, ten years, and twenty years. Evidence points to the exis- tence of even higher levels of fifty and one hundred years (see table 1). These levels of stratification, corresponding to levels of work and responsibility, suggest the exis- tence of an optimal structure of working levels within bureaucratic hierarchies. As stated above, the way in which two people perceive the same problem or ac- tivity will vary according to differences in their ability to draw abstractions over time. These individual differences in lev- els of abstraction (levels of work-capacity) are also observable in the depth-structure of bureaucratic hierarchies. Work require- ments at each of the levels-that is, what is required to accomplish the goals of the job-are similarly discontinuous. Ralph Rowbottom and David Billis found that successively higher strata are judged to be more responsible and that there are signif- icant differences of responsibility even within strata, forming a continuous scale of increasing levels of work. 36 Ideally, a person's capability at a point in time will match the work level of his or her current job. The work strata are described below, and complete descriptions are provided in May1985 Rowbottom and Billis' The Stratification of Work and Organizational Design and Jaques' Free Enterprise, Fair Employment. 37 • Stratum 1-Prescribed Output (time- span of one day to three months): The output required is very concrete, com- pletely prescribed, or able to be pre- scribed, as are the specific circum- stances in which the tasks sliould be pursued. The work is anchored in rules. No decisions are made by the worker about what is to be done, only on how to go about it, by what method, and with what priority. • Stratum 2-Situational Response (time- span of three to twelve months): Objec- tives must be judged according to the needs of each specific, concrete situa- tion that arises. The work at this level, rather than solely producing a specific output or providing a prescribed ser- vice, consists of producing an appraisal or making an assessment. There is greater complexity than at Stratum 1, requiring the ability to handle a number of problems at one time and to work on them intermittently. This is the first-line managerial, professional, and technical level. • Stratum 3-Systematic Service Provi- sion (time-span of one to two years); The work goes beyond specific, con- crete, case-by-case situations, to a need for envisioning a continuing sequence of situations. It involves problem solv- ing and the development of systems and procedures that prescribe the way work in Strata 1 and 2 is to be carried out. Ambiguity is increased over that in Stratum 2. • Stratum 4-Comprehensive Service Provision (time-span of two to five years): Work at this level requires the application of intuitive judgment to de- tect gaps in services, the ability to main- tain mental contact with what exists but to detach from the day-to-day situation and develop new ideas that are a depar- ture from the old. Problems are no longer seen in terms of individual tasks. There is a substantial increase in uncer- tainty compared with Stratum 3. • Stratum 5-Comprehensive Field Cov- erage (time-span of five to ten years): This is the level of the managing direc- tor. Stamp refers to this level as '' redefi- nition of the rule." 38 It is characterized by entrepreneurial development and the development of new scientific or technical knowledge. The work domain at this level has become universalized, requiring the individual to operate in a mode unconstrained by existing words, ideas, or theories and to seek reformu- lations and original solutions. Strata 6 and 7 have time-spans of ten to twenty years and twenty to fifty or more years, respectively, and are found only in the largest and most complex organiza- tions. The levels of abstraction are such that the concern is with whole social and theoretical systems on a worldwide scale . The descriptions of work strata and the levels of abstraction required at each stra- tum are extremely useful for clarifying roles and role relationships, for analyzing organizational structure in existing orga- nizations, and for aiding in the design of new organizations. Table 1 illustrates the relationship between time-span, levels of abstraction, and work strata and the actual organizational structure found to exist in both the public and private sectors. It also illustrates how professionals and techni- cal specialists fit into the hierarchical structure. The research points to this depth struc- ture as universal, providing a formula fot Measuring Levels of Work 241 designing bureaucratic organizations. By measuring the time-span at the top level of the bureaucratic structure, it is possible to determine the optimum number of mana- gerial levels in the organization. The opti- mum distance between managerial levels is always one stratum. Real managerial and professional work emerges in Stra- tum 2, although trainees and interns are often found in Stratum 1. The results of poor managerial decisions in setting levels of work do not go unnoticed. The organi- zational consequences for improperly set- ting levels of work are profound. Having too many levels results in com- monly experienced dysfunctions: exces- sively long lines of command that result in much bypassing; uncertainty about who one's manager really is; too much red tape; or a feeling of too many levels being involved in a problem, or of the manager "breathing down one's neck." The result of having more than a one-stratum dis- tance between the manager and subordi- nate is a subordinate's feeling of too great a distance from the manager. The man- ager, on the other hand, becomes impa- tient, expecting too much too quickly and a feeling that he or she must get involved in too much detail. 11 FELT-FAIR" PAY During his work Jaques accidentally dis- covered a high correlation between time- TABLE 1 TIME-SPAN, WORK STRATA, AND DEPTH STRUCTURE IN ORGANIZATIONS Time- Work Span Stratum Business 20-50 Yrs. VII Corporation 10-20 Yrs. VI cogorate rou.P. of Subsidiaries 5-10 Yrs . v Corporate Subsidiary 2-5 Yrs . IV General Management 1-2 Yrs. III Departmental Management 3 Mos.-1 Yr. II First-Line 1 Day-3Mos. Management Shob& 0 fice Floor 1 Day Military Army (General) Corps (Lt. Gen .) Division (M~. Gen .) Bri§a e ( ris. Gen .) Battalion (Lt. Col.) Company (Captam) Platoons S~uads ( COs) U.S . Civil Service Exec 1-2 Exec 3-5 GS 17-18 GS 14-16 GS 10-13 GS6-9 GS 1-5 Professional/ Technical Senior Specialist Chief Specialist Principal Specialist Specialist 242 College & Research Libraries span and what employees' sense is a fair rate of pay for the work they are-perform- ing. Employees working at the same level, as measured by their time-span of discre- tion and independent of other factors such as type of work, age, sex, education, etc., state similar "felt-fair" pay rates. 39 In much of Jaques' work, including research done with Wilfred Brown, 40 and in studies by Roy Richardson, 41 G. E. Krimpas, 42 and Donald P. Gould, 43 it was found that for each time-span level there was a corre- sponding level of pay that employees felt to be fair, a concept that has come to be called "felt-fair" pay. The correlations have been reported at approximately +.90. The results of chronic disparity between actual and equitable payment levels for so- cially connected groups, such as a profes- sional group or members of the same orga- nization, are cumulative and include low morale, chronic complaints about physical conditions or lack of opportunity, high turnover, and loss of qualified persons. Conversely, payment above equity results in feelings of anxiety, guilt, resistance to change and introduction of new work methods, and development of intransi- gent attitudes. 44 The implications of Jaques' fair-pay findings are extremely significant. The fact that fair pay correlates so highly with time-span could lead to a linear ranking of all occupations from lowest to highest and the establishment of a shared sense of fair- ness regarding pay. An equitable work- payment scale opens up enormous possi- bilities ranging from the common situations of managers recommending pay increases for subordinates to issues of national importance, such as equal pay for comparable work. THE STUDY This study applied Jaques' theory to the work in academic library technical ser- vices departments in order to determine levels of work performed and to differenti- ate professional from nonprofessional work. It was hypothesized that distinct levels of work, corresponding to the first three time-span strata, would be found in the libraries studied. These positions have May 1985 traditionally been identified as nonprofes- sional and professional, with an interme- diate paraprofessional level that has never gained widespread formal acceptance. It was further hypothesized that persons at the same levels of work, as measured by time-span of discretion, would express the same rates of fair pay regardless of their actual work assignments or institu- tional job designations. An approximately equal number of pro- fessional and nonprofessional employees were selected in four academic libraries ranging in size from roughly five hundred thousand to one million volumes. The li- braries were selected on the basis of size, availability to the researcher, and their managements' willingness to participate. Precise matching of libraries by size was deemed neither important nor particu- larly advantageous. If differences in work roles in libraries of somewhat different size and/or structure emerged, so much the better, as it might provide additional directions for future research. Included in the nonprofessional work roles studied are positions commonly known as library clerks and library assis- tants, in the following departments: ac- quisitions, bibliography/collection devel- opment, cataloging, circulation, serials, and data processing. Professional posi- tions included the following: acquisitions librarians, catalogers, and collection de- velopment librarians. Individuals were randomly selected from lists of profes- sional and nonprofessional employees ar- ranged by job classification. A total of sev- enteen professionals and twenty nonprofessionals were included. The methodology for data collection de- parted somewhat from traditional time- span studies that use an approach known as social analysis. Based on a long-term consultancy relationship, the social ana- lyst offers help to a client group in return for information not ordinarily available in traditional social scientific research methodologies. 45 Social analysis has a dual role of promoting change while pro- viding a research opportunity. The pur- pose of this research project was not to in- troduce change but to examine an occupational field in several institutional settings . It was thus necessary to develop a modified methodological approach, which the reader is encouraged to exam- ine more closely before attempting to rep- licate this study. Between the two extremes of the survey and participant observation approaches lies a methodology known as ''intensive interviewing,'' an approach that uses a guided conversation and seeks to elicit materials of substantial depth for use in qualitative analysis. 46 This study used a combination of intensive interviews and structured questions to determine the fol- lowing information about specific jobs for which Jaques and others have used the so- cial analytic approach: • the specific tasks in the job as described by the person in the job; • the identification of whomever the sub- ordinate perceives to be his or her true manager; • the amount the employee feels to be a fair rate of pay for the work he or she is doing; • the determination, on the part of the manager, of target completion times for the longest tasks assigned; • any other data relevant to identifying the level of work for the job; Interviews were conducted with the se- lected subordinates in order to identify the tasks in their roles. Participation was str'ctly voluntary, and interviews were conducted under conditions of confiden- tiality. At the end of each interview two structured questions were asked. The first sought to identify the person's manager according to Jaques' definition. The sec- ond question asked the subordinates to state what they felt would be a fair rate of pay for the work they were doing. The issue of pay is a sensitive one. De- termination of ''felt-fair'' pay can only be conducted under conditions of strict confi- dentiality and independence of the re- searcher from the organization. Upon completion of the subordinate in- terviews, managers were interviewed. The manager interview is the key to time- span determination, for although it is pos- sible to get a sense of time constraints from the person in the job, it is the manager who must decide the objective fact of Measuring Levels of Work 243 when work is to be completed and to what level of quality. The purpose of this inter- view was solely and completely to get the manager to come to a firm decision, if pos- sible, about target completion times for the assigned tasks. In most cases it was necessary to conduct several interviews with the managers. Two indispensable guides for determining time-spans are Jaques' Time-Span Handbook47 and JohnS. Evans' critical work, The Management of Human Capacity. Time-spans did not always emerge as neatly as one would have liked. One as- pect of time-span measurement that . makes it less than desirable for quick and easy job evaluation is its tendency to quickly reveal weaknesses in the execu- tive structure .48 In cases where managerial links are weak, such as among profession- als, or where the organizational levels are compressed, the ostensible manager may indeed be operating at the same time-span level as the supposed subordinate, and thus measurement is impossible. Time- span research has shown that employees working at the same level of responsibility are unable to articulate the prescribed lim- its of others at that work level. Measure- ment is also difficult or impossible in situa- tions where lines of authority and accountability are weak. Difficulties may also arise from a misun- derstanding of the task concept of work and the reluctance of people to verbalize tasks. Managers simply have not been trained to think in terms of the task con- tent of work or in terms of implicit time constraints. In addition to time-span data, the inter- views began to reveal a consistent pattern of descriptive data about the ways in which people approached their work. In keeping with the qualitative descriptions of abstraction levels within work strata, it was observed that the complexity of the work changed dramatically as the level of responsibility, as measured by time-span, increased. Collection of this descriptive data was not part of the original research design, but began to emerge during the early, pretest, stages of interviewing. Dur- ing the interviews with both subordinates and managers it became evident that there 244 College & Research Libraries were obvious, qualitative differences in the way in which the work, at different levels, required the person in the job to go about carrying out that work. These obser- vations reflect the demands of the work as assigned by the manager, not the capabil- ity of the individuals in the jobs. Subjects were assigned to the appropri- ate stratum based on their measured time- 3pan of discretion and/ or their level of ab- straction in work as determined in the interviews. There were no cases in which the time-span of discretion measure and the level of abstraction data were in seri- ous conflict. However, in several cases time-spans were on the borderline be- tween strata; in these cases the qualitative level of abstraction data was used to deter- mine the appropriate stratum. RESULTS Distinct levels of work were found to ex- ist in academic library technical services departments, as measured by time-span of discretion and corresponding to Strata 1 through 3. All those in Stratum 1 were in nonprofessional positions, while Stratum 3 included only professional positions. However, this study found a definite, ob- servable, measurable overlap between May 1985 professional and nonprofessional library work at the Stratum 2 level. Nonprofessional work carried time- spans of between two weeks and twelve months, with the majority of positions (70 percent) at Stratum 1. The work con- formed to the descriptions of work at Strata 1 and 2 levels. Professional posi- tions emerged at the low end of Stratum 2, up to the middle of Stratum 3, with time- spans of between three and eighteen months and corresponding descriptions. The results are summarized in table 2. This study also found an extremely high correlation between what respondents perceived to be a fair rate of pay for the work they were doing and the level of re- sponsibility in their work, as measured by their time-span of discretion. The correla- tion coefficient was r = +0.95. Table 3 summarizes these results. The ''felt-fair'' pay results are striking and support the findings of other time- span studies done by Richardson, Krim- pas, and Jaques and Brown, noted above. Both professional and nonprofessional li- brary employees evidenced a strong sense of what they considered fair pay for the work they were doing. Moreover, their sense of fair pay was consistent with their TABLE2 SUMMARY OF TIME-SPAN OF DISCRETION BY STATUS Time-Span (in months) .5 1 2 3 6 12 18 Status 1N 4N 7N 2N 4N 2N 1P 3P 9P N = nonprofessional, P = professional. TABLE 3 SUMMARY OF "FELT-FAIR" PAY (FFP) BY TIME-SPAN OF DISCRETION (TSD) Stratum 1 Stratum2 Stratum3 TSD (in months) .5 2 3 12 18 FFP (in 15 12 20 18 24 30 35 thousands 15.5 18 18 21 25 35 of dollars) 15.5 20 19 25 34 35 15.5 20 [19] 23 27 35 11 [19] 27 35 18 [21] 35 19 [22] 30 30 35 Note: Figures in brackets are for the four professionals whose time-spans of discretion could not be obtained . level of work responsibility as measured by their time-span of discretion, although they worked in separate and distinct insti- tutional settings. Of the four institutions included in the study, three were located in California, two in the same public sys- tem and one in a private, independent university. The fourth was a public uni- versity located in the Northeast. In the lat- ter case, "felt-fair" pay rates were consis- tently lower than the other three institu- tions due to marked regional differences in pay and other economic factors. The fair-pay rates were adjusted, using an av- erage of the difference between three pub- lished earnings and income data for the re- gions. The four professionals for whom time- spans could not be obtained expressed fair-pay rates that place them somewhere between high Stratum 1 and low Stratum 2. Descriptive data indicated that their work conformed to Stratum 2; that is, their work could best be described as situ- ational response work, and in no case were they assigned tasks that met the cri- teria for Stratum 3 work (systematic ser- vice provision). The results provide further confirma- tion of Jaques' contention that people share a sense of fairness about the worth, in monetary terms, of the work they are doing. Whether there is a single, societal . scale of equitable pay rates, as Jaques pro- poses, 49 is a matter requiring further study. This study found that persons em- ployed in academic library technical ser- vices departments expressed 11 felt-fair'' pay rates as shown below. Stratum 1 $15,000 to $20,000 Stratum 2 $20,000 to $30,000 Stratum 3- $30,000 to $35,000+ In addition to the time-span and fair-pay data, information on the sex and level of education yielded interesting results. The data on education support the require- ments established in the ALA personnel utilization statement. 5° For nonprofes- sionals in low Stratum 1 with up to a one- month time-span of discretion, the aver- age education was one and one-half years of college, and all but one had some col- lege background. High Stratum 1 person- nel had an average education of about two Measuring Levels of Work 245 years of college, with the A.A. degree prevalent. Stratum '2 personnel had an av- erage of more than three years of college; 67 percent had at least a bachelor's degree . Curiously, none of the libraries had per- sonnel classification systems that formally recognized this paraprofessional level. None of the position descriptions required this level of education, although man- agers agreed that they preferred to hire people who had the bachelor's degree. This study's results generally support the position descriptions provided in the ALA statement on personnel utilization. In addition to recommending changes in the description of work activities, it was also recommended that an additional pro- fessional level be established that would recognize entry-level positions corre- sponding to Stratum 2 and overlapping the highest nonprofessionall~1 Women predominated, as expected, partiCularly at the lower levels. There was no difference between males and females in "felt-fair" pay when compared to their . time-spans of discretion. It would appear that men and women in library work are equally socialized to the fair-pay levels for library work, but this question needs fur- ther research. IMPLICATIONS This study provides a beginning to the differentiation of professional and non- professionallibrary work through applica- tion of the time-span measure. It also of- fers a means for answering the question of whether librarians are performing work at a level of responsibility equal to profes- sionals and technical specialists in other fields. Most librarians studied were found to be working at Stratum 3 or high Stra- tum 2, levels at least equal to the begin- ning levels of other recognized profes- sional and technical fields. That others were found working at low Stratum 2, or expressed corresponding "felt-fair" pay rates, is also significant. This is the level at which real managerial, professional and technical specialist work emerges, yet all of them had been employed in professional positions for some years. The fact that all were employed in the two smaller institu- tions in the study points to an issue that requires further investigation. To what ex- ~-------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - ------~ 246 College & Research Libraries tent was institutional size the prime factor in keeping these levels so low, or were other factors, such as management dys- functions, responsible? By applying stratified systems theory, it was possible to distinguish levels of work in the libraries studied. Time-span of dis- cretion did give an objective measure of the manager's subjective determination of the level of work required in a work role. It accomplished this by concentrating on the goal of the activity-the output of the work, rather than the activity itself. This is an important distinction because, as pointed out earlier, past job evaluation studies in libraries have concentrated on the activities of the tasks, with results that were institution-specific and not general- izable. Time-span analysis also provides a means for comparing work within a single organization, despite differences in actual work activities, and for analyzing the role relationships between various positions. Just as important, it offers a means for comparing and ranking previously non- comparable work roles independently of the organization. The implications for es- tablishing comparable worth and for elim- inating biases in determining wages and salaries based on sex or any other irrele- vant factors, are significant. It must be emphasized at this point that the time-span measure applies to specific individual roles studied and not to other roles with the same job title. As Jaques points out, one of the great fallacies in em~ ployment systems is the assumption that all jobs with the same title carry the same level of responsibility. What job titles do is describe the kind of activity found in a role. 52 Considerably more study of library positions will be required before any gen- eralizations can be made about the differ- entiation of professional and nonprofes- sional work. Library managers now have available to them not only a tool for per- forming job evaluations but also a concep- tual and theoretical foundation for analyz- ing the roles and relationships within their institutions. Asheim' s call for a new ap- proach to restructuring job descriptions and job classifications may now be an- swered. May 1985 The issue of the library as a bureaucracy and the relationship of professionals to the bureaucratic structure can now be studied within the conceptual framework provided by the time-span approach. Each organization must analyze its own structure and the relationships within, based on the realities of accountability and authority. Libraries have been badly man- aged in the past, in part at least, precisely for the same reasons found in other bu- reaucracies: managers have not been given the authority required to carry out their duties, and other role relationships, most notably the managerial/professional relationship, have not been clearly under- stood. Stratified systems theory now has been shown to offer a clear opportunity to begin resolving issues that have defied solution for so long: determining levels of work; differentiating professional from nonpro- fessional work; defining and clarifying the roles of managers, professionals and tech- nical specialists; streamlining the organi- zational structure; and establishing equi- table wage and salary levels. Time-span analysis also has implica- tions beyond the organization. For exam- ple, in education for librarianship and the information services it offers a means for understanding the cognitive, intellectual abilities and skills required at each stra- tum. By applying the work stratum model educators should be able to assess require- ments and design curriculum for the sev- eral levels of personnel ranging from clerks to technical specialists, paraprofes- sionals, professionals, and managers. The implications of the fair-pay findings for establishing equitable pay rates are profound. If people indeed share a com- mon sense of what is fair pay for the level of work performed, it is then possible to set rates of pay, for all types of work, that reflect these feelings. It is now possible, using this approach, to focus on the issue of pay in library work. Some of the serious personnel problems faced by libraries may indeed be the result of chronic disparity between actual and equitable pay, the ef- fects of which were noted earlier. The ultimate goal of any organizational study must be the achievement of im- proved organizational functioning, con- tributing to the well-being of not only the organization but also the people in it. This notion is best summed up by Elliott Jaques' concept of the "requisite organi- zation." Such an organization not only meets the objectives that the executive system was set up to attain, but also con- tributes to the social health of the individ- uals employed in it by providing for the major needs of the normal, maturely indepen- dent individual . . . his needs to utilize his full capacity in his work; to participate in making the laws to which he and his fellows conform; Measuring Levels of Work 247 to have recourse to public processes of appeal; and to receive due recognition and reward. 53 The single unifying thread through all the discussions in this study of levels of work, responsibility, stratification, execu- tive structure, fair pay, etc., has been the individual and his or her role in the organi- zation. Libraries will achieve success as social institutions meeting the needs of the greater society only to the extent to which they achieve requisiteness for not only the well-being of the executive struc- ture but also for the social health of the in- dividuals who comprise the structure. REFERENCES 1. Robert B. Downs, "The Role of the Academic Librarian, 1876-1976, " College & Research Libraries 37:496 (Nov. 1976). 2. Mary Lee Bundy and Paul Wasserman, "Professionalism Reconsidered," College & Research Li- braries 29:17 (Jan. 1968). 3. Lester Asheim, "Manpower: A Call for Action," Library Joumal92:1795 (May 1, 1967). 4. Charles C. Williamson, Training for Library Service: A Reportfor the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1923), p.3-4. 5. Downs,"Role of the Academic Librarian," p .496 . 6. Asheim, "Manpower." 7. Dale E. Shaffer, The Maturity of Librarianship as a Profession (Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow, 1968). 8. Olga B. Bishop, The Use of Professional Staff in Libraries: A Review, 1923-1971 (Ottawa: Canadian Library Assn., 1973). 9. American Library Association, Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, Proposed Classification and Compensation Plans for Library Positions (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1927). , 10. American Library Association, Committee on the Classification of Library Personnel, Budgets, Classification and Compensation Plans for University and College Libraries (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1929). 11. California Library Association, Certification Committee, ''Professional versus Non-Professional Positions in Libraries,'' Handbook and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, 1932. 12. American Library Association, Office for Library Personnel Resources, Library Education and Man- power (Chicago : American Library Assn. , 1970). 13. American Library Association. Office for Library Personnel Resources, Library Education and Per- sonnel Utilization (Chicago: American Library Assn. , 1976). 14. Myrl R. Ricking and Robert E. Booth, Personnel Utilization in Libraries: A Systems Approach (Chicago: American Library Assn., 1974). 15. Charlotte Mugnier, The Paraprofessional and the Professional Job Structure (Chicago: American Li- brary Assn., 1980). 16. Leslie-Beth Rothenberg and others, "A Job-Task Index for Evaluating Professional Utilization in Libraries," Library Quarterly 41:320-28 (Oct. 1971). 17. John . S. Evans, Th e Management of Human Capacity: An Approach to the Ideas of Elliott Jaques (London: MCB Pub., 1979), p.82 . 18. Richard B. Eggleton, ''Achievement Motivation Theory as it Relates to Professional Personnel at College and University Libraries" (Ph.D. diss., Drexel Univ., 1978). 19. Edward E. Lawler, Pay and Organizational Effectiveness: A Psychological View (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1971). 20. Evans, Management of Human Capacity, p.93 . 21. Lawler, Pay, p.5 . 22 . Elliott Jaques, Health Services: Their Nature and Organization, and the Role of Patients, Doctors, Nurses, and the Complementary Professions (London : Heinemann, 1978), p.114 . 248 College & Research Libraries May 1985 23. Louis Kaplan, "Professionalism, Decision-Sharing, and Bureaucracy," in Studies in Library Man- agement, Vol. 5, ed. Anthony Vaughan (London: Clive Bingley, 1979). 24. Ralph M. Edwards, "The Management of Libraries and the Professional Functions of Librarians," Library Quarterly 45:150-60 (Apr., 1975). 25 . Elliott Jaques, A General Theory of Bureaucracy (London: Heinemann, 1976), p . 99-111. 26. Ibid., p.99. 27 . Gillian Stamp, ''Levels and Types of Managerial Capability,'' Journal of Management Studies 18:279 (Mar., 1981). 28. Jaques, General Theory, p.102. 29. Lawler, Pay, p.212. 30. PaulS. Goodman, "An Empirical Examination of Elliott Jaques' Concept of Time-Span," Human Relations 20:155-70 (1967). 31. Elliott Jaques, ''Essential Developments in Bureaucracy in the 1980's,'' Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 16:443 (1980). 32. Catherine G. Burke, ''Defining Professionalism: Time-Span of Discretion and Levels of Work,'' (Los Angeles: School of Public Administration, Univ. of Southern California, 1984). 33. Stamp, "Levels and Types," p.279. 34. Jaques, General Theory, p.143 . 35. Ibid., p.159. 36. Ralph Rowbottom and David Billis, ''The Stratification of Work and Organizational Design,'' Hu- man Relations 30:56 (1977). 37. Elliott Jaques, Free Enterprise, Fair Employment (New York: Crane Russak, 1982). 38. Stamp, "Levels and Types," p.287. 39. Jaques, General Theory, p.llO. 40 .. Wilfred Brown and Elliott Jaques, Glacier Project Papers (London: Heinemann, 1965). 41. Roy Richardson, Fair Pay and Work (Catbondale, TIL: Southern Illinois Univ. Pr., 1971). 42. G. E. Krimpas, in E. Jaques, General Theory, p.229. 43. Donald P. Gould, "An Examination of Levels of Work in Academic Library Technical Services Departments Utilizing Time-Stratified Systems Theory," (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Southern Califor- nia, 1984). 44. Elliott Jaques, Equitable Payment: A General Theory of Work, Differential Payment and Individual Prog- ress, 2d ed. (Carbondale, Ill. : Southern Illinois Univ. Pr., 1970), p.156-58. 45 . Evans, Management of Human Capacity, p.167. 46. John Lofland and Lyn H . Lofland, Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis, 2d ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1984), p.12. 47. Elliott Jaques, Time-Span Handbook (London: Heinemann, 1964). 48. Evans, Management of Human Capacity, p.82. 49. Jaques, Free Enterprise, p.89. 50. American Library Association, Library Education, p.2. 51. Gould, "Examination of Levels of Work," p.158-62 . 52. Jaques, Free Enterprise, p.156-58. 53. Evans, Management of Human Capacity, p.160.