Human Resources Management at the Library of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to understand human resource management in the Library of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR RI) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This institution had to change its work procedures, including its management of human resources. The research uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. Data was collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis, carried out from October to December 2020. The findings show that working from home practices had the following impacts: reduced ability to concentrate while working; many forced changes to the work programme; and problems of miscommunication due to work instructions being conveyed through a WhatsApp group. In response to the situation, the planning function of management was used to suspend the recruitment of interns; the organizing function was divided up tasks into two or three working days a week; the actuating function was seen in the willingness of leadership to motivate staff and to optimize resources by providing training; and the controlling function was realized in an online presence and online reporting mechanisms. It was concluded that the implementation of human resource management in the library was achieved through flexibility and staff empowerment. This involved carrying out initiatives and controlling their effectiveness in response to whatever changes were required by the latest pronouncements from government. Obstacles were still encountered in the implementation of these changes, especially in relation to the organizing function of management, where some conflict was seen between the DPR RI librarians.

1. INTRODUCTION

The human resources (HR) of an organization must be people who are ready, willing, and able to contribute to its organizational goals (Leuwol et al., 2020). HR management is a key activity within an organization, and as such needs to be able to respond to the unexpected and the unpredictable, particularly when this involves a major crisis, such as an economic recession or the outbreak of a disease that causes the collapse of several major aspects of life, including health, the economy, and social life. Ideally, HR management can influence the progress and development of any institution, including libraries. The optimal performance of a special library is usually accompanied by the implementation of a good HR management function. This is not easy to do, because every individual member of staff is different, from their character, nature, and norms of behaviour, to the social values they adopt. In addition, as Baba (2020) points out, libraries are complex organiza- tions, labour-intensive and challenging to manage. There is no exception here when it comes to special libraries that have their own particular areas of focus. Therefore, good HR management is required to achieve the main objectives of a special library, namely, to function as a means of research and development for the institution(s) that it serves.

HR management in a time of crisis has been examined in several studies. In Zagelmeyer and Gollan’s (2012) re- search, the global financial crisis is shown to have changed the parameters of HR management within companies, resulting in a greater degree of flexibility. A more flexible approach to HR management is also supported by the research conducted by Akingbola (2020). This study focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health of employees within the non-profit sector, and the potential implications of this for HR management. These studies show that the implementation of HR management during a crisis needs to be carried out flexibly. This was certainly true during the financial crisis, but it is possibly even more important during a public health crisis, such as the current COVID-19 outbreak, where the main focus has to be on the health of an organization’s staff. This requires flexibility in undertaking work, so that the organization can continue to run effectively whilst accommodating the requirements of individual members of staff. For this study, research was conducted with this idea in mind.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has been affecting Indonesia since March 2020 has forced employees of government and private institutions to practice work-ing from home (WFH). The appeal to work from home was expressed in the Circular Letter of the Head of the Manpower, Transmigration and Energy Office of DKI Jakarta Province Number 14/SE/2020. The pandemic is an extraordinary situation that has caused a crisis in almost all fields, but especially in health and the economy. Syafrida and Hartati (2020) showed in their research how COVID-19 has had a negative impact on community life and damaged people’s standards of living. These events forced the management of the special library to change or at least adjust all work programmes that had been previously planned, in order to incorporate activities that could be carried out online.

The physical closure of the building had a massive impact on the management of HR in the library. Major adjustments had to be made, with the librarians’ work schedules being divided up much more flexibly, and training and development, usually done face to face, having to be carried out virtually using tools such as webinars and focus groups. Strategies also had to be formulated to ensure that healthy interpersonal relationships between all the librarians were maintained even though they were unable to see each other in person.

For this study, the researchers chose the Library of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia, hereinafter abbreviated as the DPR RI Library, as the research location. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all activities at the DPR RI Library, both primary functions (such as library services to users) and facilitating activi- ties, were initially carried out virtually via the website and social media of the DPR RI Library, and library employees relied on communication through a WhatsApp group (WAG). Later on, though, it was decided that there were still some employees who needed to come into work as usual, because there were administrative activities that could not be undertaken from home.

2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

When confronted with the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the DPR RI was forced to make its library staff work from home. This meant that the management of the DPR RI Library had to make adjustments in their HR management policies. However, the library actually became more active and effective in carrying out its services compared to before the pandemic, even though its work was now being conducted online. The research question sought to explore how changes in HR management in response to the problems posed by the COVID-19 pandemic were implemented in the DPR RI Library. The issues involved were examined in the light of George R. Terry’s theory of the four main functions of management, and the concept of HR flexibility in dealing with changes in the work environment proposed by Stueart et al. (2012). A particular objective was to identify any strengths and weaknesses in the workings of the four main HR management functions during this period. This research is vital for understanding the implementation of HR management in the library in the face of this crisis. The significance of the research is that it provides valuable input for improving the library’s strategic policy for dealing with any crisis period that may occur in the future.

3. THEORETICAL REVIEW

3.1. Human Resource Management

HR management is a formal process within an organization that is designed to ensure the effective use of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes of employees to achieve organizational goals (Word & Sowa, 2017). Effective HR management involves considering what systems exist for every stage in the work relationship, from job design, recruitment, and selection of individuals to fill the job, through to training, development, and the evaluation of individual performance within the job. HR management has been the focus of much of the literature that examines the finding, motivating, developing, and monitoring of the right talent.

In order for libraries to remain active even during a pandemic, of course good management is needed, and one aspect of this is HR management. Good HR management must pay attention to the principal functions of management. According to George R. Terry (Adeyoyin et al., 2012; Stueart et al., 2012), there are four of these func- tions, namely: planning, organizing, actuating, and con- trolling.

The first stage is the planning function, which involves an array of HR activities, including recruitment, selection, and job analysis, all designed to help the organization achieve its goals. HR planning must be able to provide guidelines regarding the requirements for the recruitment and development of the staff that need to be employed in an organization. The second stage is the organizing func- tion, which covers the entire process of arranging staff resources, duties, authorities, and responsibilities in such a way as to create an organization that can move as a unified whole towards its predetermined goals (Putri & Maralis, 2019). The third stage is the actuating function, a process that involves fostering employee enthusiasm and guiding staff to work actively to implement plans to achieve their goals. This includes providing education and training activities, leadership, communication, and effective utilization and motivation of the workforce. Fourth is the controlling function, which involves assessment, correction, and evaluation of all the work done by employees, as well as supervision of this work as it is being carried out.

3.2. Special Libraries and Librarians Facing Change

Special libraries form part of a parent organization, offering information and knowledge services relating to particular subjects for their particular clientele. These libraries are found in the profit sector, in non-profit orga- nizations, and in the public sector (Fraser-Arnott, 2020). Special libraries have emerged to address the unmet, specific information needs of individual organizations. In addition to requiring all the usual professional and technological capabilities, librarians at these institutions are expected to have knowledge of the particular subjects relevant to their parent institution, for example, law, the environment, and so on.

According to Stueart et al. (2012), library change can be driven both by external factors, such as global economic trends and the ever-continuing development of information technology, and by internal factors, such as changes in staffing, organizational structure, financial conditions, or leadership, which can affect all aspects of the library. When dealing with such changes, there are four key issues that need to be addressed by library staff, namely:

1) Empowerment. This involves encouraging and empowering staff to take the initiative to improve operations, reduce costs, and improve product quality and customer service. Empowering professionals with greater authority and increased responsibility encourages creative freedom. It also develops the ability of employees to disseminate ideas that can drive change and improvement across the full range of the information services provided by the library. Employees remain at the heart of the life of knowl- edge-based organizations that are undergoing change, and the success of such organizations depends on the knowledge and commitment of their staff.

2) Organizing Change. Change within an organization tends to be designed to increase organizational alignment, so that communication and decision making become faster and more visible to staff at the appropriate level. In general, such changes cannot simply be depicted using an organizational chart. Organizing change is complicated, and managing employee participation is a balancing act, between maintaining the appropriate levels of management control, helping staff to get work done more quickly, and offering opportunities for learning and development (Uzuegbu & Nnadozie, 2015).

3) Resistance to Change. Resistance to change is often destructive, not least because of the emotional, philosoph- ical, and procedural conflicts that can arise between individuals and groups during the implementation process. Within an organization, therefore, this issue needs to be handled carefully through consultation and negotiation, and the change process facilitated through discussion, information, and education (Adeyoyin et al., 2012). Resistance can occur for several reasons. Staff may not understand or may not want to understand the need for change; they may be sceptical that the change will be a success; they may feel threatened; they may be satisfied with the status quo; or they may feel the speed at which change is occurring is placing too great a stress on themselves or the organization.

4) Flexibility. The ability to adapt to meet changing needs is the essence of good planning in change manage- ment. Any planning that is too rigid to accommodate the unexpected will be wasted. That is why it is important to review plans regularly, in order to revise priorities that may have changed in the short term and identify goals that have already been achieved. There are three categories of flexible working, namely flexi-time, tele-homeworking, and part-time. However, in reality, these three categories can be combined to complement each other, and then adapted to the needs of the organization. In this respect, flexible working involves offering staff the ability to exert control over their own way of working (Atkinson & Hall, 2011; Mungkasa, 2020; Possenriede & Plantenga, 2011).

4. METHODOLOGY

This research used a qualitative approach combined with the case study method of analysis. Qualitative research is inductive, because researchers develop ideas, insights, and understanding from collecting data and use these to assess pre-formed models, hypotheses, or theories (Taylor et al., 2015). The case study method is an empirical investigation that examines contemporary phenomena in the context of daily life. One of the situations faced by the DPR RI Library staff during the pandemic was that the library work programme that had been planned since the beginning of the year had to undergo many changes. In light of this, a qualitative case study was deemed the most appropriate method for trying to understand the dynam-ics of the approach to HR management and the flexibility strategies employed during the pandemic. In this study, the main data obtained came from field observations supported by interviews and information from each of the informants, describing the impact on them of the changes in work patterns required during the pandemic.

The selection of informants was done using the purposive sampling technique. The criteria to be an informant were: membership of the leadership of the DPR RI Library with more than two years of service; or more than three years of service on the staff and an understanding of the implementation of HR management. There are actually 17 library staff, consisting of 1 head of library, 4 administrative staff, and 12 librarians. However, only 6 people were responsive in providing answers. They have been given the following pseudonyms: 1) Dimas (male), junior librar- ian, 20 years of service; 2) Tony (male), junior librarian, 10 years of service; 3) Rani (female), librarian, 20 years of service; 4) Dian (female), head of library section, 2.5 years of service; 5) Asri (female), middle librarian, 20 years of service; and 6) Sinta (female), advanced executive librar- ian, 21 years of service.

Data collection was done through interviews, obser- vation, and document analysis. It was carried out from October to December 2020, using online media and direct observations in the field, and adhering to all relevant health protocols. The questions asked in the interview sought to address how staff worked in terms of the different management functions, and how they interacted with each other in the face of changing methods of working. The answers of the informants showed certain patterns that were used as the basis of the analysis for answering the research questions. Data analysis in this study used the three stages of coding set out by Strauss and Corbin (in Alhassan et al., 2019). The first stage is open coding, which is the process of describing, examining, comparing, conceptualizing, and categorizing data. The second stage is axial coding, which is the process through which data is put back together in a new way by making connections between categories. The third stage is selective coding, which is the process of systematically analysing the relationship between the categories to select a core category which reflects the central conclusion of the study. The findings are presented in the form of a report which is accompanied by statements from the informants from the results of the interviews and field observations.

5. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

5.1. Profile of the DPR RI Library

DPR RI (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) stands for the People’s Representative Council of the Republic of Indo- nesia. Structurally, the library is part of the Secretariat General of the DPR RI, which is directly responsible to the leadership of the DPR RI. For administration purposes, the library is under the Data and Information Centre (known as Pusdatin DPR RI), which is led by a central head (Perpustakaan DPR RI, 2018). Within the overall organizational structure, the role of HR management is to determine the division of responsibilities and the roles required, and to coordinate the work involved in order for the library to achieve its goals (Ahmady et al., 2016). The library was established in 1951. When the Government of the Republic of Indonesia was still in the form of the United States of Indonesia (RIS) and domiciled in Yogya- karta, the library moved to Yogyakarta. This library is a continuation of the “Bibliotheca Volksraad” owned by the Dutch East Indies government in Indonesia, and part of the collection is a relic of the Volksraad library. Since the capital of the Republic of Indonesia moved to Jakarta, the library has been located within the complex of the DPR RI Building, Senayan, South Jakarta, in what was formerly the Balai Pustaka Building.

The vision of the DPR RI library is to be an excellent parliamentary library offering a range of information, col- lections, and services to support the duties and functions of the DPR RI. To support its vision, the library provides data and information services that are fast, precise, accu- rate, renewable, and available on a regular basis to members of the DPR. The various services available include book lending, on-site reading services, the DPR e-library, e-resources, e-clipping, an e-paper, and the latest integrated service information system (known as SIPINTER). For all these services, the DPR RI library is open to all work units within the council. The DPR RI library is a special library that deals with issues related to Indonesian politics and development.

In addition to its central function of supporting the activities of the DPR RI, the library is also open to the general public as a centre for knowledge and learning, but with more limited services and with access to the printed collections only available in the building. With a focus on research, this library is a special library that has actively held literacy activities for its users during the pandemic, including webinars, book reviews, and bibliobattles.

The DPR RI Library has 17 staff, consisting of the head of the library section, 4 administrative staff, and 12 librar- ians. Most of the 17 staff in the DPR RI Library are graduates in library and information science. Observations by the researchers suggested that Dimas and Rani were the most approachable members of staff here. Dimas appeared the most self-assured because he actively communicates with other colleagues and was very open to the research- ers. After the researcher had finished interviewing all the librarians who were in that day, it was Dimas who invited the researcher to tour the library and take pictures with him as a form of documentation to complete the report. The next most confident member of staff was Rani. She is a librarian who is diligent in providing new ideas to the head of the library division in relation to user services and other library activities such as webinars and focus group discussions (hereinafter abbreviated as FGDs).

Under normal conditions, HR management in the DPR RI is carried out in accordance with the usual four main functions of management, namely planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling. As part of the planning func- tion, the library arranges various programmes for staff, such as training and seminars, which are conducted face to face. In the organizing function, superiors provide face to face instructions to subordinates, but communication is still carried out downward and upward. In the actuating function, the library usually recruits student interns regularly every year. In the controlling function, the library controls the presence of staff, reports on performance in each section, and reports on every activity in each of the units on a regular basis.

5.2. Organizational Climate

The working climate at the DPR RI Library during this pandemic appears to have been friendly and well-struc- tured. The library staff were focusing on their respective work and chatting occasionally to relieve tension. Even though a shift system was currently in force, this did not dampen the spirit of the workers. In fact, they were happy when it was their turn to work in the office, because they found the facilities in the office better and more conducive to performing their work compared to the much less satisfactory facilities at home.

…Usually if I do it, this is because of the facilities avail- able, such as computers or work tools, which I do not have to support me at home. But for other colleagues, there may also be issues of signal interference. Not all employees have Wi-Fi installed at home, and the government doesn’t provide Internet credit subsidies to help with this. (interview with Tony, 2/11/2020)

From Tony’s statement, it can be concluded that the facilities for WFH were not always adequate, and that not all librarians had Wi-Fi installed in their homes, which meant that some staff had their work hindered by problems such as signal interference. Tony’s opinion was supported by Rani’s statement.

When I wanted to do a job during WFH, it was dif- ficult. It could be difficult to get a signal, and the computer at home wasn’t good enough and didn’t have the appropriate capacity for the job. Unlike in the office. That’s why I prefer to work directly in the office. (inter- view with Rani, 2/11/2020)

Rani’s statement here is proof that she personally preferred working in the office rather than WFH, because she felt the technical resources and facilities available at home were not as good as in the office. Dian made a related point about communications.

Miscommunication can happen. We used Zoom more for staff meetings to reduce the chances of misunderstanding or miscommunication. (interview with Dian, 10/11/2020)

This statement from Dian, the head of section, shows her awareness that virtual communication actually has a weakness, namely allowing miscommunication. It was also clear from what Dian had to say that the relationship between the staff and the head of the library works both ways here, because Dian is always open to staff who want to provide input or suggest new ideas (Rosinski et al., 2014).

For me, management is an open process. It can work top-down and possibly bottom-up. For example, my junior colleague can give me input. Or I can offer an idea and the others carry it out. (interview with Dian, 10/11/2020)

5.3. WFH Practice during a Pandemic

The following are some issues relating to WFH practices that were experienced by the librarians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

5.3.1. Challenges in Implementing WFH

The initial period of the pandemic that occurred from March to May 2020 forced the librarians of the DPR RI Library to work full-time from home. This presented a new problem for them, in that they could not focus on work because of distractions from domestic issues. This especially affected the housewives on the staff. This situation reflects the study of Clapp et al. (2011), which shows that workers often lose focus during WFH due to the large number of distractions caused by secondary tasks, which disturb their work in ways that would not happen in the office (Mustajab et al., 2020). This situation was referred to in a statement by Sinta.

During WFH, I couldn’t focus because there were a lot of distractions at home. With many children, my focus was divided between teaching the schoolchildren and working. (interview with Sinta, 2/11/2020)

Sinta’s comment shows that WFH, especially for those librarians who were also active housewives, meant having to juggle their time between work and household matters. Although this informant had difficulty maintaining her focus while WFH, communication between library staff ran quite smoothly, because apart from communicating through their WAG, they also occasionally communicated via Zoom. This was done to minimize miscommunica- tion. Librarians are accustomed to using information technology at work, from well before this pandemic occurred, so there are no “technology blind” librarians.

From June until the time this article was written, the library was implementing a shift system policy of allowing 50% of the total number of librarians to work in the office. As part of the process of setting this up, all staff and the head of the library had to agree to sign up to it. Each librarian was under obligation to work in the office twice in every five working days, with the working hours of 08.00-15.00 WIB. The implementation of this remained flexible, due to the fact that some librarians chose to work every day in the office on the grounds that the facilities in the office were more satisfactory and the environment more suitable. In addition, there were librarians who came in to work on days when they would normally be at home in order to fill in for colleagues who were absent, due, for example, to illness.

5.3.2. Major Changes to the Work Programme Caused by the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic occurred suddenly and the DPR RI Library did not have any special preparations in place beforehand. As a government library, the library is required to follow directions from the central government through the Secretariat General of the DPR RI. This pandemic meant that all activities planned for the DPR RI Library, which had been prepared and determined at the beginning of the year, had to undergo changes or adjust- ments.

The work programme plans have changed a lot. Work has become chaotic. For example, procurement has been delayed, and cataloguing has also been hampered because not everything required for this can be brought home. (interview with Sinta, 10/11/2020)

However, the library still needed to run effectively and efficiently. This is in line with the statement of the International Labour Organization, which recommends that the management practice of every organization must be adapted to the situation, one aspect of which is changing the existing work plan to suit current conditions (Inter- national Labour Organization, 2020). The need to shift so many of its jobs to a virtual basis did not cause the DPR RI Library to lose its way, because when the instruction came at the beginning of the pandemic to implement WFH for all civil servants, the leadership of the DPR RI Library Council immediately held a coordination meeting via Zoom to work out the division of tasks during this period. The division of tasks implemented was actually not very different from that before the pandemic, because each librarian already knew their respective jobs, and was still going to get credit for promotion or for civil servant class for each item they worked on.

The work carried out by the librarians during WFH included the following:

1) P rocurement of monograph collections

2) Creation of an e-paper containing the latest news, especially anything related to statements issued by the DPR RI

3) Making e-clippings containing news related to the DPR RI, such as the recently ratified Job Creation Law.

4) Management of the information system SIPINTER, which contains journals, articles, books, and collec- tions of laws

5) Service to users, from both the DPR RI and the gen- eral public

As for the controlling function, the results of the work in the form of proposals for procurement of book titles for the library were sent to the email accounts of the leadership of the DPR RI Library, while the results of e-papers and e-clippings that had been done were directly uploaded to the library website by whichever librarian had worked on them, with their respective names included. Other work was reported through the librarian’s diary on the employee portal website, so that the leadership of the DPR RI Library could see and control the work of the librarians, and monitor whether they had performed their duties.

5.3.3. P lanning for Work That Could Not Be Done from Home

Some of the librarians were concerned that while they had to work from home during the pandemic, there were some jobs in the library that could not be done from home, such as cataloguing, self-scanning, circulation and lending services, and administrative activities carried out by the library administration section of the DPR RI. For re-enumeration activities and book lending services, adjustments could be made, such as postponing certain services and actions until the situation improved. This approach was in line with the concept of flexibility. As noted by Stueart et al. (2012), any planning that is too rigid to accommodate any changes that may occur is futile. It is always important to review the work programme plan periodically in order to revise any priorities that may change in either the short or the long term.

The interview results show that the greatest difficulties in implementing WFH were faced by the library administration staff of the DPR RI. Whereas the other librarians could work independently from home full-time, the administration staff needed to continue to work closely with the leadership of the DPR RI Library, which made it very difficult to carry out the work of library administration from home. As Dian put it:

The most difficult thing is WFH, right? Because in the office there is a process of revision, a signature, and a letterhead required for any letters. So if a revision is needed in any of my correspondence, it takes a long time to get this working online. I may not be sure that the administration officer checked the email that day. But working in the office, it can be corrected straight away and signed on the same day. So, much faster. In addition, there is the data problem. For example, for budget disbursement, all the data and documents are in the office. Not all of our documents are in digital form. (interview with Dian, 10/11/2020)

5.3.4. Staff Development

HR development is an important strategy within an organization, playing a key role in improving employee skills, motivation, and innovation, and in enhancing the general performance of individuals and the organization (Stueart et al., 2012; Vinesh, 2014). As a way of optimizing the performance and skills of the DPR RI Library’s staff during the pandemic, three activities in the form of FGDs were held. These were conducted via Zoom, and involved speakers who were experts not only in librarianship but also in other fields, such as motivation and innovation. The topics of the FGDs that were held were: 1) Assessment of the credit score for librarian functional positions (held in August); 2) Knowledge management and problem solving for librarians (in October); and 3) Innovation in the development of library services (in November). The three FGDs were attended by all DPR RI librarians.

These activities aimed to develop insight and skills and also to encourage innovation in staff who were having to work flexibly during the pandemic. In addition, they were also designed to raise the spirits of the librarians, who may have been struggling during WFH because they were not used to being at home all day. This statement is in line with Parry and Battista’s view (2019) that not all employees can overcome the challenges posed by the current crisis by themselves, so organizational leaders need to help them improve their skills, especially in relation to digitalization, and maintain motivation by holding training sessions and conducting other online HR development (Gigauri, 2020; Stueart et al., 2012).

5.4. Human Resource Management at the DPR RI Library

In terms of the planning function, the library decided at the start of the pandemic to stop taking on any new staff, such as temporary employees or interns. This was in response to the high spread of the coronavirus. The library sought instead to optimize its existing staff to do all the work required during the pandemic. In November 2020, however, the library opened up again some internship opportunities for students, which were carried out virtually. The disadvantage of not taking on additional staff such as apprentices was that the librarians could have been overwhelmed by the amount of work they had to do, since the volume of work during the pandemic was the same as in the pre-pandemic period. However, employee health was always the top priority. In addition, the library was also forced to change several programme activities, such as cancelling self-scanning, and allowing some activities to run more slowly. It can be concluded from this that the planning function was used to make numerous changes to the existing plans, while at the same time implementing flexibility so that services could continue to run.

With regard to the organizing function, the HR management team divided up the tasks and responsibilities of each staff member using communications made through a social media application, i.e. a WAG. However, miscommunication and misperceptions were prone to occur. The library leadership occasionally communicated via Zoom instead, using this tool to help implement the revised work schedule when they set up a shift system of working two days in the office and three days from home. However, the leadership did not force its staff to work full-time at home for three days, in view of the difficulties with facilities. In this function, the leadership was very open to their staff if anyone had any creative ideas which they wanted to raise in relation to the library programmes during the pandem- ic. The weakness of organizing through electronic media is that there can often be misunderstandings in interpreting the text of WAG messages, and this can cause conflicts between staff members.

In terms of the actuating function of management in the DPR RI Library during the pandemic, here there was some resistance from the staff. They complained that the WFH system prevented them focusing properly on work. The change in the situation was very different from what they were used to, and the new way of working took them somewhat by surprise. Fortunately, this problem of resistance was overcome by the management through additional motivation and efforts to adjust the work situ- ation. In addition, this function also revealed a degree of flexibility in the use of online FGDs as a tool for staff development and training (Stueart et al., 2012). These FGDs were attended by almost all the library staff, which was important because it helps open horizons and broaden the knowledge of librarians to allow them to continue to innovate in developing library services (Laksmi & Fau- ziah, 2016). The weakness of these online FGDs was that they were prone to technical problems, and not all the employees had adequate tools to participate online. This is in line with the statement by Nyumba et al. (2018), that online FGDs can only be accessed by participants who have Internet access, that they are vulnerable to technical problems such as poor network or loss of connectivity, and that they often fail to capture nonverbal data. It can be concluded that the actuating function was used to empower staff and to give them additional flexibility by loosening deadlines for activities that could not be undertaken at home, such as circulation services, cataloguing of the library’s collections, or self-scanning.

In the control function, managers had to carry out monitoring across all areas because of the many changes that occurred during the pandemic. This function had to address the issue of flexibility more than any of the others. Flexibility was applied in several staffing activities, as follows:

1) Attendance was carried out in two ways. Employees who worked in the office could make use of a fin- gerprint attendance machine, while employees who were WFH could mark their attendance online via the DPR RI employee website. Employees on WFH were also required to register their attendance in the morning and sign out in the evening when their working hours were over.

2) Staff uploaded daily work records to the employee portal to provide reports to the leadership.

3) Where there was a special job from the leadership that needed to be checked immediately, such as a list of book titles for procurement, the employee sent the work directly to the manager’s email.

4) Staff uploaded their work on the e-paper and e- clippings to the DPR RI Library website by attaching their respective names.

In order to understand the whole analysis, Fig. 1 may be consulted.

It can be concluded that out of all the various jobs necessary to the librarians’ work, not everything could be done at home. This meant that the librarians felt that their work was being hampered. However, by applying the concept of flexibility, the work plan that had been made could at least still run, even if many aspects of its implementation had to be postponed. Based on the evidence of the actions taken at the DPR RI Library during the pandemic, it can be seen that the processes of HR management were carried out with an emphasis on the concept of flexibility. Flexibility at work helps employees maintain a balance between their professional and their personal lives (Davides- cu et al., 2020; Possenriede & Plantenga, 2011; Rosinski et al., 2014).

Fig. 1. Significant changes in human resources management, before and during the pandemic. WFH, working from home; WAG, WhatsApp group.

6. CONCLUSION

HR management functions in the DPR RI Library during the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from planning, organizing, and actuating through to controlling, were carried out flexibly. Flexibility in the planning function was implemented by stopping the recruitment of new em- ployees. The library planned instead to optimize its existing staff resources by holding HR development activities. With regard to the organizing function, the DPR RI Library coordinated activities through WAG, and occasionally used Zoom to avoid misunderstandings in communi- cation. Flexibility in the actuating function was achieved by the library through the use of online FGDs to develop the skills of the staff in critical and creative thinking. In terms of this function, the librarians also had their own way of maintaining their motivation for work during the pandemic. The pattern of library leadership is top-down and bottom-up, so that the relationship between leadership and staff goes two ways, meaning the staff could play an active role in developing the work plans that needed to be carried out during the pandemic. Finally, the controlling function was carried out by the library leadership through conducting an assessment and evaluation of its staff, as well as through giving warnings to any staff whose work results were less than optimal.

Looking at the flexibility applied to the four functions of managing HR in the DPR RI Library during the pan- demic, it was found that the most flexible and efficient functions in their implementation were the actuating function and the controlling function. The weakest function was the organizing function, because the process of organizing the library’s work and staff became more prone to conflict between the employees, and in fact miscommunication could not be avoided here. Both the leadership and the library staff have to be able to adapt to all conditions by restraining their emotions and not being concerned with their respective egos, because if the library’s internal environment is experiencing problems, what is most affected is the service it provides. Based on the results of the analysis, suggestions for the DPR RI on how to carry out effective HR management in crisis conditions would be to coordinate and communicate more carefully, and to monitor all activities more vigorously. Last but not least, this research can be developed further on other important issues, such as the processes of staff empower- ment, organizing change, and managing staff resistance to change. The theoretical implications show that in facing a crisis, the concept of flexibility is not a stand-alone solu-tion. It needs to be approached in terms of the specific type of crisis that is being faced, as well as the conditions, type, and policies of the institution concerned, and how far members of the organization are willing to engage in a learning process.

This research has contributed to the development of HR management, especially when the library is facing a crisis. This research can be developed further on other important issues, namely in the process of empowerment, organizing change, or managing staff resistance to change. The theoretical implication shows that in facing a crisis, the concept of flexibility is not a solution that can stand alone, but needs to be balanced with a series of other policies and a focus on the learning process.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.