I was recently 'challenged' with managing our small IT team; my background is in Information Studies and I know more about what they do than anyone else in the organization. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to determine if they're making good use of their time. I don't think that they are, but I don't want to demoralize them with micromanagement. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Have you spoken with the team? The best way to build trust and good bonds with this team you are managing and thus be able to let them do what they need to do while you do what you need to do so that things don't get in their way is to listen to what they have to say about their tasks. Ask them.

Perhaps you should be taking a class or two in project and people management?

Pick up anything you can about Situational Leadership.

Thanks for the situational leadership tip - I will look that up - but I'm really looking for specific techniques to assess their productivity. These folks are actively resisting being managed, because they have been running free for quite some time.

That's why asked -- have you spoken with them? Have you asked them what they're doing, how they're doing it, what they perceive their responsibilities are, etc.? The best technique to begin with is to simply start a conversation and learn as much as you can about these individuals, and in the process allow them to learn about you.

What you are asking - or at least, how it's reading - has to do with the most basic, essential people and project management skills. What would make more sense in this context (a discussion forum for people who design organizational development and leadership programs) is to explain what you have tried or what you are doing now, and what has happened when you have done those things.

Otherwise, the only thing that makes sense is to send you in the direction of the explicit knowledge that's already out there about managing and leading projects and people.

I agree with SSFN, you really need to begin with a clear and honest discussion with the people you are looking to lead.

To assess their productivity you could look at devising a 'time study' where you ask them to complete a daily diary, which reflects where they are spending their time and on what. You then take this information as a reflection of their workload and look for areas of improvement. i.e. one person is taking 60 minutes to do a task where another is taking 20, why and how to improve?

You have to be very careful not to lose moral when taking an approach like this, so I go back to my previous point of holding a clear discussion with the team and ensure you can bring them on board with your focus on improvements rather than control.