KEY POINTS:
Auckland Museum is in for a shake-up, with many jobs under review and a money-making focus being pushed.
Staff were called together by new Canadian director Vanda Vitali last Thursday and told about 30 senior and mid-level management positions had been redesigned and would be readvertised, internally and externally. Staff had until next month to apply for the jobs. Junior roles would also come in for scrutiny.
"Everyone is really uneasy," one staff member said last night.
"We'll all be competing for each other's jobs. People are not sure if, to stay in the organisation, they will have to take lesser jobs."
Dr Vitali told staff that "unless we prepare the museum culture to live in a 'present' we only now fully understand ... we run the greatest risk of all, becoming increasingly irrelevant".
Growth in visitors was slowing and the museum was regarded as a traditional institution, she said. "The size, complexity and current branding inhibit cutting-edge characteristics."
Proposals put to staff include slimming down the executive management structure, focusing on revenue generation and better integrating the collections and programme functions.
"She's imposing this very theoretically driven structure on an organisation that is struggling already," a staff member said.
The museum was under-staffed already, with about 150 paid workers, compared with 500 at Te Papa.
Workers had initially reacted well to the appointment of Dr Vitali in September, and had been looking forward to stability after the upheavals of recent years with a major rebuilding programme and the retirement of long-standing director Dr Rodney Wilson.
"What's emerging is she's not familiar with the local context."
Staff were worried that the war memorial role hadn't been mentioned in the restructuring focus and felt Dr Vitali was unsure of how to handle the Polynesian component.
"A lot of people in more junior positions, particularly Maori staff, have been really upset - some in tears."
Last night, Dr Vitali said the proposal was not "budget-driven" but a natural step to take after the recent museum building restructure.
"It's like after you build a new house you need furniture. Well we've looked at the architecture, now we're taking the next step and looking at the staff. It's about regrouping with a focus on the visitor experience."
- NZ HERALD STAFF
