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The corporate library and issues management - The Library in Corporate Intelligence Activities
Library Trends, Fall, 1994 by F.W. Lancaster, Jane Loescher
Introduction
A number of studies have shown that corporate libraries are frequently underused and the services of the librarian undervalued (Slater's study [1984] may be the most telling of these, but it is not the only one). While the ability to exploit a wide variety of bibliograrphic and other types of databases in electronic form has given the corporate library much stronger weaponry than it had in the past, there is no real evidence that this has enhanced the image and status of the librarian in most institutions. Moreover, the increasing ability of scientists, engineers, and other professionals to access databases themselves, either online or as CD-ROM, threatens the role of the librarian as an intermediary seeker of information.
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Under these circumstances, it is important for the librarian to look for new means of serving the organization. In particular, the librarian should seek ways of exploiting the power of the electronic databases to develop innovative services that managers can recognize as having tangible value. A possible service of this kind is the recognition and tracking of issues of potential significance to the corporation--that is, the exploitation of bibliographic resources to support issues management.
Issues management is related to strategic planning and to technological and social forecasting. In essence, an issues management group, within a corporation or other organization, attempts to identify technological or social issues likely to have positive or negative impact on the institution at some future date. That is, it looks for potential threats and opportunities (Jackson & Dutton, 1988). It may also be responsible for recommending a course of action through which the organization can adapt to changing conditions created by a particular issue. One obvious example of "changing conditions" would be legislative or regulatory action affecting its operations, services, or products. In some cases, the organization may actually be able to benefit from the changing conditions. In other cases, it tries to adapt in order to minimize the negative impact of the changing conditions. Clearly, issues management will be most successful if those responsible can identify candidate issues at the earliest possible moment, thus giving the organization time to assess possible outcomes and to initiate necessary actions. Meng (1992) gives a useful example of the importance of identifying issues early. "Holds on deposits" (the refusal of banks to credit deposits until checks clear) became a public concern in 1982 when it was discussed on television and in newspapers, prompting several thousand letters to members of Congress and subsequent House and Senate hearings. An issues analyst at the Bank of America had actually identified this as a potentially important issue as early as 1977, allowing the bank to have some influence on the form of the regulatory action taken.
Stanley (1985) points out that the phrase "managing issues" "became a vogue term in the late 1970s" (p. 3). He regards issues management as a logical outgrowth of "public relations" in the original meaning of that term--i.e., seeking the consent and support of society (pp. 3-5). Heath and Nelson (1986) trace the term "issues management" to the mid-1970s and consider it closely related to "advocacy advertising" (p. 12).
Stanley (1985) talks of the importance of being able to anticipate issues and of having a systematic approach to "scanning" to identify issues likely to have some impact on the organization (pp. 187-88). He recognizes five arenas in which such issues might emerge: economic (i.e., changes in the standard economic indicators); social (e.g., public attitudes); political (e.g., changes in government policies or priorities); technological (e.g., new devices or techniques); and other (e.g., environmental, health, or safety concerns).
The process of scanning is now frequently alluded to as "environmental scanning," and a comprehensive review of the literature on this topic, not restricted to scanning for issues management purposes, has recently appeared (Choo & Auster, 1993). (*)
One would think that such scanning should involve a substantial literature component--the scanning of the published literature and, more importantly, the semipublished literature (e.g., conference papers and technical reports). However, most organizations seem to downplay the value of literature scanning, preferring direct people-contact approaches, such as focus group interviews, delphi studies, and surveys of opinion leaders. Choo and Auster (1993) point out that: "Impersonal sources, such as the library and online databases, are not of ten used in scanning" (p. 296). (**) A report by Keegan (1974) on the scanning practices of multinational corporations notes that none of the organizations in his sample had any formal system for monitoring published literature.
When literature scanning is used in support of issues management, it seems a rather haphazard operation. As described by Stanley (1985), who refers to it as the trend evaluation and monitoring (T.E.A.M.) approach, it involves "volunteer scanners" (p. 189). Each such individual monitors certain publications to look for "trends or discontinuities of potential long-range concern to society..." and to the organization. Relevant items are clipped, copied or abstracted, and reviewed, every so often, by a team charged with producing a trend analysis report for management. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Stanley regards the process as time consuming and error prone.
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