The benefits of a quality management system The case of the merger of two universities and their libraries

Transcription

1 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at wwwemeraldinsightcom/ htm The benefits of a quality system The case of the merger of two universities and their libraries Jarmo Saarti and Arja Juntunen University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland The merger of two universities 183 Received 5 June 2010 Revised 8 June 2010 Accepted 16 June 2010 Abstract Purpose At the turn of this century, it was decided to renovate higher education in Finland and, as a result, three new universities were created by merging existing units One of these new universities is the University of Eastern Finland, which was formed from the Universities of Joensuu and Kuopio The merger started in 2007 and in 2008 and 2009 there was a reorganisation of the two previous libraries and service provision to create a single new library The quality system that the library has been building was used in this process This paper aims to describe how the strategy was defined; how the organization developed as well as the working order and how a quality manual for the new merged library was created Design/methodology/approach The paper is a case study Findings The library could utilize its quality system in merging the two libraries and their service production It is important for the whole staff to participate in the process Research limitations/implications The paper is based on Finnish experiences Practical implications Models for managing a merger process are presented in the paper The benefits of a participant style as well as retaining the best practices from the old libraries into the new unit are emphasised Originality/value The paper discusses the merger of two libraries and the change processes involved Keywords Quality, University libraries, Finland, Organizational change, Higher education, Acquisitions and mergers Paper type Case study 1 Introduction Recently the higher education legislation and structures were reorganized in Finland A new University Act was passed in the summer of 2009 (see Ministry of Education, 2009) The new act means that the formerly state-owned universities have become more autonomous; in addition, the number of universities in Finland is being reduced, by merging some of the existing units into newer, larger versions One of these new institutions is the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), which was created out of the Universities of Joensuu and Kuopio The new university has three different campuses about 130 km apart in the eastern part of Finland (see Figure 1) The authors are grateful to Dr Ewen MacDonald for revising the English A version of this paper was originally presented at the QQML2010 Seminar in Chania, Crete, Greece, May 2010 Library Management Vol 32 No 3, 2011 pp q Emerald Group Publishing Limited DOI /

2 LM 32,3 184 Figure 1 Three campuses of the UEF The development of the university education, in the eastern part of Finland, only started in the 1960s with legislation that founded three universities Universities in Joensuu, Kuopio and Lappeenranta That decision also meant that the eastern part of Finland was endowed with three universities that each had their own specific profile Joensuu s profile was mainly the humanities and social sciences, Kuopio s was health sciences whereas Lappeenranta specialized technology Lappeenranta decided in the very beginning of the merger process that it did not want to be a part of University of Eastern Finland though the initial idea was to merge all three universities After the EU s decision in the 1990s to create a European Higher Education Area via the so-called Bologna-process (see more, eg from: wwwondvlaanderenbe/ hogeronderwijs/bologna/) also the Finnish government devised new goals for restructuring its higher education system In reality, this meant two things: to increase the quality of Finnish higher education in order to meet the requirements of the international competition and at the same time to increase the effectiveness, especially in financial terms, of the universities One result of this decision was that several of the higher education units decided to merge; and as mentioned earlier one of those was the merger of Joensuu and Kuopio Universities Both universities were active in this process and viewed it as a competitive advantage in order to gain a better status both nationally and internationally The libraries were incorporated into the merger process from its very start The merging process started in 2007 The years 2008 and 2009 meant the reorganisation of the two previous libraries and provision of services so

3 that they became one new library The existing quality system in the library was used as a tool The paper describes the work involved in defining the strategy, organization, working order and quality manual for the new merged library It was also decided to adopt a participant style as well as disseminating the best practices of the old university libraries The quality work on the UEF builds on the ISO 9001 based quality system, the building of which started at the University of Kuopio and its library in the year 2003, beginning with the renovation of the library s web pages A project was established for this, the aim of which was to help our client find the information needed as efficiently as possible using the web site and to make the pages clear, concise and logical A project team was created to undertake this task and the pages were tested by our university s web experts At the same time, the library s organization was renewed The intention of the was here to convert the library s office-based structures into service process-based teams As part of this effort, the teams and staff members were empowered to make decisions The aim here was to help all the members of the staff to appreciate that they carry part of the responsibility for improving the library s quality of service This part included also the creation of quality documentation (more in Balagué and Saarti, 2009) The result for this work was the ISO certification for the University s teaching processes The merger of two universities Preparing for the merger The active creation of the new University of Eastern Finland started in 2007 when a working group led by Professor Reijo Vihko submitted its report on how to intensify the cooperation between the Universities of Joensuu and Kuopio It was significant for the library that it was incorporated into this process from the very onset The library made a proposal on how it could contribute to the merger and what projects it would need to initiate In the fall of 2007, the former universities started to discuss a total merge The year 2008 was a busy planning year The organisational structure and strategy of the University of Eastern Finland were completed The library obtained funding for two of its projects: the aim of the first one was to merge the collection databases into one this task was completed in the summer of 2009 The aim of the second project was to develop a joint policy of information literacy and tutoring Here the emphasis was put on building distant learning courses These two projects represented the first concrete steps for the joint library A joint collection database was also a clear signal to the library staff and customers that the library had to act as a single unit During the preparatory phase, the two former university libraries started to work in parallel A decision was also made about the library s structure: library director, deputy director as well as the six heads of services were appointed to their positions This meant that people responsible for the change were physically present and had the power to act and make decisions 3 Making tools for the new library s From the beginning of the 1990s, different types of quality (QM) and evaluation systems have become integrated into higher education institutes in Finland

4 LM 32,3 186 Such that today, the higher education institutions, have the responsibility for quality control on their campuses The auditing is carried out by the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC) (see FINHEEC, 2004) Kuopio University had already passed this auditing and the development of its quality system had reached quite an advanced level (eg Saarti and Juntunen, 2007; and Saarti et al, 2009) The most remarkable change in the creation of the UEF has been that the new university is larger in size and that it has campuses widely separated from each other In addition both of the former universities have their own rather distinct and different histories and cultures This has meant new challenges for the library s The two main tasks have been: (1) To integrate and unify the service provision processes (2) To give birth to a new organizational culture Of course these go hand in hand in routine tasks The development of the new culture for the library started with the clarification of the new strategy and working order In this process, the entire staff was involved which meant that at the same time when the new guidelines were created as the foundation for the system, the staff of the previous libraries met for first time together and discussed the values, mission, resources and basic tasks of the library This process also highlighted the size and diversity of the new university and its library This discussion then led to the initial innovation in the culture shown in the illustration (see Figure 2) Here the physical library wall thinking that was attached to the libraries of the former universities came to an end and the library started to discuss about their core services and how they should be jointly provided in the different campuses The library has four units: larger libraries at the Joensuu and Kuopio campuses, and two minor ones: KUH Medical Library at the Kuopio Campus which is a joint library with the University Hospital and Savonlinna Campus Library which serves the teacher training unit at the Savonlinna Campus The next step was delegated to the heads of the services Their mission was to unify the service production, rethink resource allocation as well re-evaluating job descriptions of each staff member Here the tools used were the quality documentation and the process based ideology implemented within the system The first results of this work were achieved when the integration of the e-services started in the summer 2009 In order to unify the collection and acquisition services the collection policies were united during the year 2009 Most of the work here was done with the e-collection where all the agreements were updated At the beginning of the year 2010 the e-collection portal for the UEF was launched that replaced those of the Joensuu and Kuopio Universities The most challenging part of the customer services unification has been the implementing of the new congruent ways of producing services in every campus In this the customer services team has done a lot of work This meant plenty of meetings at regular intervals, gathering feedback from the customers and rapid decisions of the when needed The library has used intranet technologies in disseminating the minutes and decisions of the teams as well as enabling discussion groups for the development issues about different services The documentation process started with the design and the creation of the new web pages for the library; they were launched from the beginning of the year 2010 This

5 The merger of two universities 187 Figure 2 The organization of the UEF Library meant also much executive work for the : customers rights and obligations were re-thought, the new price list was harmonized with the requirements of the new University Act Within a mere two years, a totally new library grew out of the structures of the two previous institutes This created considerable stress and challenges to the staff and thus a major priority during the transitory phase was to have an effective human resources protocol (see Ogilvie and Stork, 2002) 4 Managing humans and cultures in the merge When merging two organizations that have their own strong organizational cultures, one must emphasise the building of the new unit and at the same time as providing time for bereavement for those who have strong connections with the dying organizations Databases can be combined overnight but cultural transition may take a lifetime King (2003, pp ) states that an effective knowledge organization has the following knowledge-related components: enhancing the knowledge of the individuals via different types of learning; using teamwork in learning to create social capital; incorporating an intellectual property component; ensuring an innovative component that uses creative thinking processes; and managing and disseminating effectively documented knowledge via an information/communication system infrastructure

6 LM 32,3 188 In building a common culture, the library used methods for promoting social integrity which involved arranging joint seminars where the whole staff worked together, a team building process where staff members from the different campuses worked together towards a common goal when defining basic services and their process optimization Due to the distance between campuses, advantage was taken of new technologies: learning environments enabled discussion and document sharing, blogs were used for communicating with customers and videoconferencing became an ordinary tool for meetings During the year 2009 new working order was written for the new library that defined the roles of the different bodies of the as well as those of the staff, which clarified the organizational structure and decision-making The was responsible for this work but it involved the entire library personnel As stated previously, a team-based way of working has been utilized throughout the preparatory phase (see Higgs, 1999) The teams have been empowered to make decisions on service provision and ways of implementing the main tasks All the main services mentioned in Figure 2 have had their own teams that are lead by the heads of the services In addition some ad hoc groups have taken responsibility for project type cases In the teamwork, the basic principle has been to satisfy the needs of the campus customers as well as retaining the best practices of the old institutes This involved many meetings, every year about 200 Although most of these have been arranged via videoconferencing, it has taken time This resource allocation on the other hand increased commitment to the work being done by the library At the same time while building the new modes of action for the library, all these activities have been documented by the library s quality system It can be said that documenting the activities has almost been like taking an outsider s point of view when planning the new library, and furthermore it has increased the library s quality documentation which were tested in internal audits carried out by the university during the fall 2009 Perhaps the greatest challenge has been the communication both inside the library and to the world outside All the decisions cannot please everyone during such a radical change, this has meant being alert when informing the customers of the sometimes-rapid changes in services and rules and thus the collection of feedback from the users has been carefully monitored Communication within the library has needed new tools, as already mentioned Without the modern communication technologies the of a UEF type of university with three campuses situated about 100kms apart from each other would be impossible A period of change is a stressful time for the staff when fears and rumours can quickly spread Thus the library has tried to be as open as possible and here the modern intranet technologies have been most useful One challenge in communication has been the information overflow After an organization reaches a certain point in their size, it becomes impossible for all the staff members to be aware of everything Thus the must also be able to compose brief but accurate notices of the main points that everyone must know 5 Conclusions Table I shows the most important decisions that were made at the state, university and library level during the merger process

7 Management system Human Service provision Resource allocation The merger of two universities State level New university act decision about the auditing of the new university in the year 2010 University s strategy and rules and regulations University s quality system From civil servants to workers Centralized services From being a part of the state budget to allowance based funding 189 University level University s human resources University s strategic choices and service priorities New model for resource allocation, towards a more profit responsible organization Library level Library s strategy and working order Library s quality system Library s human resources Service provision and tailoring for the new university Resource allocation with fewer inputs and with a need for more output Table I Decisions at different levels that merging needed at the UEF For the university and its library the greatest challenges were the timelines that did not exactly coincide with these procedures The new University Act, for instance, became effective from the beginning of 2010, but the university had to function almost as a single unit from the fall 2009 The same was true about the library, eg the final budget for 2010 was completed only in late March 2010 These timeline discrepancies created major headaches for the, and the need for rapid decision making, and modern tools for communicating with the staff, and customers Recently the concept of chaordic enterprise has been introduced when one attempts to utilize the chaos theory when analysing complex organizational cultures and environments, see van Eijnatten and Putnik, 2004 The quality system thinking has clearly been a good tool during the implementation of this transition It has set schedules and been issued with clear tasks from the university s side as the university will be audited in the fall 2010 Documentation of the library s core services and processes has helped in creating the new environment and provided a more objective basis for negotiations One clear challenge has been ensuring the well being, and motivation of the staff In this respect, a purely bureaucratic process will not suffice One must provide time for the personnel to adapt to the new situation and to give space for activities, which can be likened to rituals and symbolic activities This translates into a commitment for the to discuss and to be willing to sit down with the staff Documentation has also proven to be important since it has helped the library s to be able to define the roles and liabilities of each individual The involvement of the staff in the making of the documentation has been a good tool in committing the personnel to the new university, its library and to the radically changed environment Because the merging process is still going on, one has to be cautious on the results of it so far We have a rare empirical case going on, the results of which can only be

8 LM 32,3 190 evaluated after ten or 20 years, some even after a lifetime At present there still is a lot of work to be done in unifying the processes, especially when at the same time the university is re-arranging its whole structure Nevertheless, a systematic approach to the has already proven to be useful in the merging process References Balagué, N and Saarti, J (2009), Benchmarking quality systems in two European academic libraries, Library Management, Vol 30 Nos 4-5, pp FINHEEC (2004), Plan for Action , FINHEEC, Helsinki, available at: wwwkkafi/files/ 189/KKA_0104Venglantipdf (accessed 1 February 2010) Higgs, M (1999), Teams and Team Working: What Do We Know?, Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, Henley Management College Report no HWP 9911 King, WR (2003), The effective knowledge organization, Business Process Management Journal, Vol 9 No 3, pp Ministry of Education (2009), Proposal for the New Universities Act in Brief, Ministry of Education, Helsinki, available at: wwwminedufi/export/sites/default/opm/koulutus/ koulutuspolitiikka/hankkeet/yliopistolaitoksen_uudistaminen/liitteet/he_yolaki_eng_ pdf (accessed 24 March 2010) Ogilvie, JR and Stork, D (2002), Starting the HR and change: conversation with history, Journal of Organizational Change, Vol 16 No 3, pp Saarti, J and Juntunen, A (2007), From the rhetoric of quality to managing self-organizing processes: a case study on an expert organization, Advances in Library Administration and Organization, Vol 25, pp Saarti, J, Juntunen, A and Taskinen, A (2009), Multi-faceted measuring of the quality as a tool for quality improvement in the Kuopio University Library, in Katsirikou, A and Dimotikalis, J (Eds), Proceedings of the Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries QQML International Conference, Chania, Crete, May van Eijnatten, FM and Putnik, GD (2004), Chaos, complexity, learning, and the learning organization: towards a chaordic enterprise, The Learning Organization, Vol 11 No 6, pp About the authors Jarmo Saarti has worked in several libraries in Finland; currently he is the Library Director in the University of Eastern Finland He is interested in library issues and has published several papers on this topic Jarmo Saarti is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: jarmosaarti@ueffi For more information see: wwwukufi/, saarti/indexenghtml Arja Juntunen, MA, Licentiate in Philosophy, has studied at the University of Oulu and the University of Tampere In her licentiate thesis, she discussed eighteenth century Finnish self-educated writers She has worked in several libraries, both public and academic At present, she is the Head of Services at the University of Eastern Finland Library She has published papers on distance learning and library To purchase reprints of this article please reprints@emeraldinsightcom Or visit our web site for further details: wwwemeraldinsightcom/reprints