Agada, 'Defining Information Professionals: Assertiveness, Empathy and Anticipatory Socialization among Library, Business and Counseling Graduate Students', LIBRES v4n04 (December 31, 1994) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/libres/libres-v4n04-agada-defining LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal ISSN 1058-6768 December 31, 1994 Volume 4 Issue 4 Quarterly LIBRE4N4 AGADA _____________________________________________________________ Concepts and Techniques for Use-Specific Representations of Documents Defining Information Professionals: Assertiveness, Empathy and Anticipatory Socialization among Library, Business and Counseling Graduate Students by John Agada School of Library and Information Management Telephone: (316) 341-5062 E-Mail: agadajoh@esuvm.bitnet Kenneth A. Weaver Div. of Psychology and Special Education Teachers College Prasad Kantamneni Div. of Management, Marketing, Finance and Economics School of Business Janice Stalling Div. of Counselor Education and Rehabilitation Programs Teachers College Emporia State University Emporia, KS 66801, USA *ABSTRACT* This study seeks to ascertain whether beginning graduate library students differ from their peers in business and counseling with respect to their assertive and empathic attributes. Although the three professions represent a traditional typology, i.e., technical, entrepreneural and helping (Stark, Lowther, Hagarty, & Orcyak, 1986), contemporary developments in information services comingle their professional roles, titles and functions (Debons, King, Mansfield, & Shirey, 1981). Assertiveness, empathy and demographic inventories were administered to beginning graduate library, business and counseling students in one midwestern university in the fall of 1992. The results indicate that the library students are differentiated from their business peers on negative assertiveness and from their counseling peers on personal distress. The implications of these findings for the definition of information professionals are discussed. *INTRODUCTION* In their landmark survey, Debons and his colleagues defined information professionals as being "concerned with content (the meaning applied to symbols) and therefore with the cognitive and intellectual operations performed on the data and information by a primary user" (Debons, King, Mansfied, & Shirey, 1981, p. 31). Finding, analyzing, and preparing information for others; designing information systems; and training information workers would be primary functions (pp. 5-7). Librarians and archival and records managers at one time monopolized these functions. By 1980, however, only 10% of the 1.64 million information professionals in the United States had academic preparations in library studies. Other professionals surveyed worked in industries with backgrounds as diverse as computers, counseling and business management (Debons, et. al., 1981, p. 10). As this trend has persisted (Gurnsey, 1985, p. 170; Mason, 1990, p. 125), defining information professionals by their functions has become unsatisfactory. New competencies now supplement basic skills once considered specialized. In addition, the current overlap in functions obscures important differences in the personal attributes, skills and attitudes which define each profession. Such personal characteristics might better differentiate librarians from other information professionals than functions. This study seeks to ascertain whether the assertiveness and empathy of graduate library students differ from business and counseling majors. Although the three professions have presented a traditional typology, i.e., technical, entrepreneural, and helping respectively (Stark, Lowther, Hagarty, & Orcyak, 1986), their professional functions, such as reviewing their research literature and interpreting it to meet clientele needs, now overlap (Mason, 1990). *BACKGROUND AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK* Occupational choice theories predict that professions will attract those people who are most likely to increase their self-expression through the consonance of their self-concepts and role perceptions (Moore, 1969; Schneider, 1986, 1987; Wanous, 1980). Entrants have "a fairly accurate image of the typical incumbent of the intended occupation" (Marks & Webb, 1969, p. 292). Similarly, the self concepts of prospective professionals and their stereotypes of practitioners in their intended occupations are very congruent (Brown, 1981; Hollander & Parker, 1972; Marks & Webb, 1969; Morris & Gergum, 1978; Rotter, 1982). Different sets of work-related values, needs and life- styles have been consistently identified for engineering, liberal arts, architecture, business and management students (Brown, 1982; Morris & Gergum, 1978; Rotter, 1982). Members of the same profession have *more* personal attributes, skills and traits in common than those in less related fields (Abbott, 1988). Since vocation is usually self-selected, it is assumed that prospects have already been socialized into possessing some necessary attributes before admission into the profession. This "anticipatory socialization" (Moore, 1969; Moss & Frieze, 1993) begins with acknowledgement of vocational preferences. Finks (1973) concludes that library education rarely changed students' attitudes towards such crucial professional values as intellectual freedom, innovation and change. Personality studies of librarians between 1940 and 1980 support the popular image of librarians as submissive, passive and self-abasing (Agada, 1984), attributes correlating negatively with assertiveness (Agada, 1987). This non-assertion is typically associated with being sensitive to the rights and feelings of others (Hull & Hull, 1978), or as a counselor might say, being empathic (Rogers, 1975). Based on the librarian personality studies, some surmise that the library profession needs to recruit more enterprising, aggressive and outgoing persons (Clayton, 1970; Wasserman, 1969). Contemporary challenges have again catalyzed demands for a new breed of librarians with strong interpersonal, communication (Debons, 1975; Dosa, Farid & Vasarhelyi, 1989), and entrepreneural skills(Achleitner, 1987; Cronin, 1982; Cronin & Martin, 1983). Empathy-based techniques similar to those of the counseling profession have also been advocated for information needs diagnosis in reference interviews (Dervin & Dewdney, 1986; Kuhlthau, Belvin & George, 1989; Grover, 1993). This study seeks to begin determining the degree to which new majors possess those social and interpersonal skills now considered necessary for success as library professionals. *The Constructs of Assertiveness and Empathy* Both assertiveness and empathy have been touted in the last two decades as necessary social skills for personal and professional competence (Fakouri, Zucker & Fakouri, 1991; Fensterheim & Baer, 1975; Staub, 1988; Stead & Scamell, 1981). They have been defined as multidimensional constructs with cognitive and affective components (Davis, 1980; Deutsh & Madle, 1975; Goldfried & Linehan, 1977). They have also been conceptualized as personality attributes, traits and interpersonal skills which can be learned and relearned (Furnham, 1979; Rogers, 1975). Assertive behavior has been defined in a variety of ways. To Alberti and Emmons (1974) assertiveness enables people to act in their own best interests or stand up for themselves without undue anxiety. Assertiveness promotes positive, direct, courteous and goal-oriented behaviors (Bakker & Bakker-Rabdau, 1973; Phelps & Austin, 1987) while maximizing the reinforcement value of social interactions (Heimberg, Montgomery, Madsen, & Heimberg, 1977). Consequently, assertive behavior is said to promote effective problem solving (Rich & Schroeder, 1976), self-actualization (Crandall, McCown, & Robb, 1988), conflict resolution and positive self-concepts (Kern, 1982; Parcell, Berwick & Biegel, 1974; St. Lawrence, Cutts, Tisdale, hansen, & Irish, 1985). Assertive relative to non- assertive persons achieve more compliance with their requests (Ford & Hogan, 1978; Hull & Schroeder, 1979) and are perceived to be more socially skillful and competent (Hull & Schroader, 1979; St. Lawrence, et. al., 1985). According to Rogers, empathic understanding is the ability "to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy, and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto, as if one were the other person, but without losing the 'as if' condition" (1959, p. 210). Also included are capacities to perceive and understand the feelings related to the verbal and behavioral expressions of another and to communicate precisely this perception and understanding (Carkuff, 1971; Truax & Mitchell, 1971). Empathy is the core component for the client- centered orientation popularized by the helping professions in the last two decades (e.g., Gladstein, 1986; Rogers, 1965). Although empathy is no longer regarded as a "necessary and sufficient" condition for bringing about change and learning (Rogers, 1975), its importance has not been diminished in counseling (Hackney, 1978). From Winship & Kelly's (1976) Verbal Response Model, empathy and positive assertiveness should correlate highly positively. Consequently, the present authors expected that recruits to the library profession would be more similar to their peers in professions with a social image noted for more empathic than assertive attributes (e.g., counseling rather than business). Both assertiveness and empathy skills have been implicated in the library (Cronin, 1983; Dervin & Dewdney, 1986; Grover, 1993), business (Greenberg & Mayer, 1964; Main, 1985; Mondy, Premeaux & Young, 1989) and counseling (Mays, 1987; Rogers, 1959) professions as necessary for effective practice. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that business persons are more assertive (Bedeian, 1986) and counselors more empathic (Mays, 1987) than average populations. Based on the thesis of anticipatory socialization, recruits' levels of assertiveness and empathy should reflect their respective professions' expectations. Thus we attempted to test two hypotheses. First, recruits to a library program would possess less negative assertiveness than their peers in business. Second, recruits to a library program would be undifferentiated from their peers in counseling in their empathic attributes. *METHOD* *Subjects* Subjects were 64 volunteer graduate students newly enrolled in library (L), business (B) and counseling (C) programs at a midwestern university. Table 1 contains the relevant demographic information. Table 1 Subjects' Demographic Information ----------------------------------------------------- |Scho | n | Age | Gender | Race | |ol | | | (%) | (%) | ----------------------------------------------------- | | | m | SD | M | F |As |Bl |His |Whi | | | | | | | |ian|ack |pan |te | | | | | | | | | |ic | | |---------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | B |17 |30 | 5.6 |72.2|27.8|50 |0 |0 |50 | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | C |33 |34.5 | 8.6 |15.2|84.8|0 |12.5|3.1 |84.4| | | | | | | | | | | | |---------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | L |13 |32.2 | 9.1 |0 |100 |6.3|0 |0 |93.7| | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------- *Measures* The College Self-Expression Scale (CSES) (Galassi, DeLo, Galassi & Bastien, 1974) is a 50 item, self- report, Likert scale designed to measure assertiveness in college students. The items are behavioral in content and address positive, negative and self-denial assertiveness. Assertiveness appears to be a heterogeneous construct composed of self-denial (exaggerated concern for others' feelings) and positive (aggreeing with others) and negative (disagreeing with others) assertiveness as distinct aspects (Eisler, Hersen, Miller & Blanchard, 1975; Galassi, et. al., 1974; Warren & Gilner, 1978). Self-denial and negative assertiveness constitute extremes on a continuum ranging from non-assertion to aggression. The CSES requires respondents to indicate how often (0 = always to 4 = never) they would respond to statements of interpersonal behaviors. The scale has construct (Galassi, et. al., 1974) and concurrent (Galassi & Galassi, 1974) validity. Its test-retest reliability coefficients range between .89 and .90 (Galassi, Galassi & Litz, 1974). Factor analytic investigations suggest that CSES assesses both situational and specific components of assertiveness rather than a unitary personality trait (Galassi & Galassi, 1979). The scale also appears to have cross- cultural validity (Furnham, 1979), an important characteristic given the subjects' ethnic mix (see Table 1). Empathy was assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), a 28-item Likert questionnaire (1 = describes me very well to 5 = does not describe me at all). Four sets of seven questions produce subscale scores for perspective taking, empathic concern, fantasy and personal distress. Perspective taking measures the ability to adopt the psychological viewpoint of others, an ability indicative of high levels of cognitive and social development. Empathic concern measures the level of affective concern for the unfortunate. Altruism has been linked to this emotional sensitivity (Bateson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley, & Birch, 1988). The affective ability to transpose oneself into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies and plays is measured by the fantasy subscale. The affective and cognitive aspects of empathy are combined in the personal distress subscale which measures personal anxiety and unease in intense personal settings (Davis, 1980). Subscale scores were obtained by summing the responses to each set of seven items. Internal validity ranges from .71 to .77; and test-retest reliability from .62 to .71 (Davis, 1980). *Procedures* Both scales were administered in the fall semester of 1992 to newly matriculated graduate students. The protocols were part of a battery which included a demographics inventory. Each test was administered during a regular class meeting. *RESULTS* The CSES produced positive, negative, and self- denial assertiveness scores. The IRI produced fantasy, perspective taking, empathic concern, and personal distress scores. Two one-way multivariate analyses of variance were run on the three scales of the CSES and the four scales of the IRI, respectively. For both MANOVAS, the factor was major (library, business or counseling). Given the small _n_s of each group, power needed to be addressed. According to Stevens (1990), adequate power of .65 for a moderate effect size (i.e., between .25 and .40) and an average _n_ of 21 could be obtained by setting alpha at .10 instead of .05. Accordingly, the alpha level for this study was set at .10. For the CSES, the groups differed only on negative assertiveness, _F_(2,56)=2.98, _p_<.06. Using Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference test (_p<.05_) for the post hoc comparison, beginning business graduate students (_M_=24.40, _SD_=2.61) were more negatively assertive than beginning library graduate students (_M_=21.45, _SD_=3.86). Counseling students (_M_= 22.70, SD=3.18) did not differ from either group. For the IRI, only personal distress, _F_(2,58)=3.23, p<.05 was significant. Beginning library (_M_=14.8, _SD_=2.22) relative to counseling (_M_=12.44, _SD_=2.37) graduate students had more personal distress. The business group (_M_=14.00, _SD_=3.06) did not differ from either group. *DISCUSSION* The results indicate that the first hypothesis was partially supported as the library recruits were differentiated from their peers in business on negative assertiveness. They were less likely than their business peers to express justified feelings of anger, disagreement or annoyance. The professional/client relationships in the library (and counseling professions) require "understanding" the clients' perspectives, and adapting information to serve clientele needs (Agada, 1994; Gladstein, 1985). On the other hand, the business professional/client interactions often entail negotiations to convince the client to accept the proferred professional judgment. This is particularly true of marketing and sales practice (Mondy, et. al., 1989). The differentiation of the business and library school groups at the commencement of their studies seems to lend some support to the anticipatory socialization thesis of this study. The second hypothesis was also partially supported as the library recruits were undifferentiated from their peers in counseling on three of the four empathic attributes. However the library recruits were likely to experience more personal anxiety and unease in intense personal settings than their counseling peers. Since a characteristic of non-assertion is anxiety in interpersonal contacts, especially with strangers (Alberti & Emmons, 1974), this finding may suggest that in spite of changes, the profession may still appeal to those who are passive and self-abasing (Agada, 1984). Overall, the study indicates that the business and counseling majors were more similar to each other than they were similar to the library majors. Could this be suggestive of the uniqueness of library professionals among other information professionals? Could the modest differences across the three majors be explained by their demographics? The most notable differences were the library and counseling majors being predominantly female and half the business majors being Asian. Historically, the library and counseling professions have been dominated in number by females. According to Parsons (1959), the most tangible index of self-selection for the library profession is its gender composition. The trend seems to be evident in the groups studied. Consequently, the gender composition of the library and counseling majors may not have rendered the results unrealistic for their respective professions. Similarly, the racial/nationality composition of the business majors may not have skewed the scores of the majors. According to Ogbu (1990) these students are "voluntary immigrants" and may exhibit the values and orientations of their host cultures. Furthermore, the cross-cultural validity of the CSES (Furnham, 1979) is another control for cultural differences. *CONCLUSION* Do information professionals belong to a homogeneous group with respect to their social attributes and skills? The results of this study indicated slight, but notable, differences between library majors and their peers in business and counseling. Library professionals seem to be somewhat distinct with respect to their social skills from these other information professionals. The age-old public image of the librarian (Agada, 1984) may still be the distinguishing factor of the profession's identity. The nature of the differences lends only weak support to the anticipatory socialization thesis, especially with respect to the business and counseling majors. 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