Museum people. The special problems of personnel management in museums and historical agencies

Abstract

Museums are labour intensive. The 5,000 museums in the United States employ approximately 118,000 people. The combined budget of these museums is in excess of one billion dollars, and 60 to 80 per cent of that money is allocated to personnel expenses. Regardless of this heavy reliance on human resources, museum management has rarely attempted to establish personnel policies that view employees as valuable resources. Instead, management has relied on personal commitment-to a profession, to museums in general, or to the ‘treasures’ of the world-to retain its staff.