Research Briefs
To Whom Do You Report? A Look at Five Industries
In an open-ended question on the 1999 Salary Survey, employee respondents were asked to provide the title and department of the person to whom they reported. This article will examine these data for those respondents who indicated they had the responsibility levels of Directors/Managers, in five industries: Health Care & Social Assistance (hospitals, individual and family services); Associations (professional/business) and Labor Unions; Publishing-Newspaper, Periodical, Book; Legal; and Federal Government. These five industries were some of the most common in which SLA survey respondents worked, and, therefore, there were a high number of titles and departments to analyze. Future research will attempt to examine over 1,000 responses from director/manager employees that work in all forty-five industry categories.
Due to the phrasing of the question, respondents may have indicated that they reported to the person in charge of the library or information resource center. After eliminating twenty such responses, the breakdown by industry of the remaining 305 responses of director/managers and the titles/departments to whom they reported was:
Associations and Labor Unions 46
Federal Government 47
Health Care & Social Assistance 49
Legal 115
Publishing (Newspaper, Periodical, Book) 48
There were noted differences by industry, though some common themes across industries, as well. Results are reported by industry for this article.
In the Associations/Labor Union industry, there were forty-six director/manager respondents who provided the titles and departments of those to whom they reported. Two of the forty-six indicated they did not work in information centers/libraries: one reported to a VP of Marketing Programs, and one to a Director of Publications. Of the remaining forty-four directors/managers, 48% reported to Vice Presidents, 32% to Directors, 16% to Executive Directors, and 5% to Managers.
With seven responses (16%), reporting to an Executive Director was the single most common response. Among the departments of Vice Presidents, Directors, and Managers, director/managers of information centers/libraries were about equally likely to report to Marketing/Communication/Public Relations, Member/Corporate Services, Administration, and Research, with five or six responses each (eleven to fourteen percent). Other departments mentioned were Information Systems, Information Services and Knowledge Management, Strategic Development, Professional Development/Education, Programs and Publications.
Among the forty-seven SLA member directors/managers who worked for the Federal Government, five did not work in an information center. The remaining forty-two information center directors/managers were most likely to report to Directors (38%) or Chiefs (38%). Several also reported to Managers (14%) and Leaders (7%). The departments had a great deal of variety with no apparent patterns, perhaps reflecting the multiple agencies under the government umbrella. A few of the departments have been seen in other industries, such as Information Technology, Administration & Planning, Training & Education, and Finance. Others vary from Appeals Unit to Food Research Program.
Among the forty-nine respondents at the director/manager level in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry, forty-seven worked in information centers/libraries and two did not. Of the two respondents not in an information center, one reported to a President and one to a Principal. Of the remaining forty-seven, 43% reported to Vice Presidents and 34% to Directors. Next most common was reporting to Managers (17%). There was also one respondent reporting to each of the following: CEO, CIO and COO (2% each).
There was considerable variation in the departments of the Vice Presidents, Directors and Managers to which information center mangers/directors reported in the Health Care industry. Education was the most common department (23%) when all reporting levels were examined: VP (N=1), Director (N=6) and Manager (N=4). The most common department at the VP-level was Medical Affairs (N=4); there were also two VPs of Information Services. The remaining departments, with from 1 to 3 responses, were: Administration/Services, Clinical/Clinical Quality Assessment, Communication/Community Health/Public Affairs, Corporate Services, Development Services/Fundraising, Finance and Planning, Human Resources, Information Services, Medical Records, Operations, Patient Services, Pharmacy and Materials Management, Program Resources, Research and Strategic Learning Development/Strategic Management.
There seemed to be more consistency in reporting structure among the 115 information center directors/managers in the Legal industry. Most reported (51%) to Administrators of various titles/levels: Administrator/Office-Firm Administrator (33%); Director of Administration (11%); Office Manager (4%); and Chief Administration Officer (3%). Partners of various titles/levels were the second most common group (18%) to whom directors/managers of information centers reported: Partner (7%), Managing Partner (6%), and Library Partner (5%). Several respondents reported to Executive Directors (10%) and Chief Operating Officers (5%), and with fewer reporting to CEOs (3%), CFOs (2%), and CIOs (2%). Another 3% of the information center directors/managers reported to Heads of Library Committees, and 6% to other departments.
Among the forty-eight director/manager respondents in the Publishing-Newspaper, Periodical, Book industry, five respondents reported they did not work in information centers. Those to whom they reported varied û Associate Publisher, Copy Chief, Executive Editor, Editor-Information Technology, and VP. Of the remaining forty-three director/manager respondents who worked in information centers or libraries, they predominantly reported (63%) to editors of various titles: editor/senior editor (16%), assistant/associate managing editor (16%), managing editor (14%), editor-in-chief (9%), and VP-editorial division (7%). These were most likely in the departments of editorial or news. The departments of the remaining 4 VPs (9%) were Corporate Graphics System, Operations & Associate Publisher, and Finance. Of the 6 (14%) directors, their departments were Newsroom Administration, Editorial Services, Information Services Group, Planning and Administration, and Strategy and Finance. One information center director/manager reported to each of the following: CEO, CIO, and COO (2% each).
Due to the qualitative nature of these data, these findings are not reported in the SLA Annual Salary Survey 1999 publication. Members will be informed as more results become available. For more information about the 1999 salary survey, see http://www.sla.org/research/salsur99.html.
NOTICE: The deadline for the Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant proposals is February 28, 2000. Application materials may be received from SLA's fax on demand service in North America (toll-free: 1-888-411-2856) or internationally (toll-charge: 1-415-278-3910), items #1401-1406, or from SLA's web site at http://www.sla.org/research/index.html.
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