Organizational cultures of libraries as a strategic resource

ABSTRACT

THEORISTS HAVE SUGGESTED THAT ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE is a strategic resource that has value in ensuring the continuing existence and success of organizations (Michalisin, Smith, & Kline, 1997; Barney, 1986, 1991; Hult, Ketchen, & Nichols, 2002; Gordon, 1985). This assertion is supported by various studies that have linked organizational culture to broad strategic outcomes such as an organization's ability to manage knowledge (Davenport, Long, & Beers, 1998; Storck & Hill, 2000), innovation capability (Hauser, 1998), and strategic management of information technology (Kaarst-Brown & Robey, 1999; Reich & Benbasat, 2000; Schein, 1985). Based on this research, we suggest that there are characteristics of organizational cultures in information-based organizations that lead to increased collaboration, collegiality, and organizational effectiveness.

The present article explores these characteristics and examines whether organizational culture can be leveraged as a strategic asset to attract staff, create favorable assessments by administrators and funders, and cast library institutions in a positive light for independent media and accreditation bodies. We believe that identification of those characteristics of organizational cultures that are uniquely relevant to the growth and success of libraries can provide current and future library leaders with guidance, models, and intellectual resources to enhance personal and organizational success.

To begin, we provide an overview of the concept of organizational culture, before exploring in more detail the competing values framework (CVF) as a lens though which to view library cultures. We then apply the key characteristics of the CVF to four prototypical library settings, before presenting our conclusions.

A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational Culture

The study of culture is specifically relevant to libraries because there has been significant restructuring of these institutions, particularly with respect to the span and scope of services offered. While there are several popular meanings attributed to the term "culture," it is generally agreed in organizational research that culture is reflected in the practices, values, beliefs, and underlying assumptions of formal and informal groups (Frost, Moore, Louis, Lundberg, & Martin, 1991; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981, 1983; Schein, 1985). Schein's (1985) summarized definition follows:

   "Culture": a pattern of basic assumptions--invented, discovered, or
   developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of
   external adaptation and internal integration--that has worked well
   enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new
   members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation
   to  those problems. (Schein, 1985, p. 9)

Schein goes on to express his view that culture is a learned product of group experience. Culture is found, therefore, where there is a definable group with a significant history, regardless of the structural level of analysis. An organization's culture is initially formed as a result of early experiences and the influence of early leaders. Over time, assumptions about how to operate become so implicitly imbedded in the underlying assumptions of action that they are difficult, if not impossible, to articulate. Libraries and other social institutions with centuries--and even millenniums--of history are subject to influences that go back far beyond the lifespan of their members. Paradoxically, despite the ephemeral nature of organizational culture, it is something to which newcomers become socialized, either directly through various artifacts such as the processes, rituals, and structures of the organization, or indirectly through espoused values and beliefs, language, and myths about past victories or failures (Louis, 1990).

Libraries play an important role in society. This role is increasingly challenged, however, in both private and government funding circles. Many corporate libraries did not survive the downsizing and cost cutting of the 1990s. The current decade has seen several large state libraries in the United States face substantial funding cuts and even threats of closure. We posit that it would be beneficial for libraries to understand the strengths of the underlying culture as well as the weaknesses. Doing so can assist libraries in adapting their action plans to address an increasingly volatile external environment without losing the cultural values they hold as important to their identity and strategic strengths.

Diagnosing cultural characteristics is challenging. Schein (1985) argues that there are three levels to culture that interact: artifacts and creations, values, and basic assumptions (see Figure 1).

Schein's level one, artifacts and creations, is the most visible level of culture because it is the constructed physical and social environment, including the language. The language of librarianship is always changing, the latest changes resulting from the advent of online searches, digital reference resources, and Internet databases, to name a few. In addition, the technology of most libraries has shifted from book-lined shelves and card catalogs to computer networks and multimedia resources. Many of the artifacts of libraries are a blending of old and new. Although technology is included at this level, Schein's interpretation of artifacts is "the physical output of the group" rather than any reference to information technology itself. He stresses that, although insiders may not be aware of their own artifacts, they are observable to others. To develop understanding at this level, one can "attempt to analyze the central values that provide the day-to-day operating principles by which the members of the culture guide their behavior" (Schein, 1985, p. 15).