Library Leadership

نویسنده

  • Joseph Branin
چکیده

At College & Research Libraries we do not get many articles on the topic of academic library leadership. I wonder why, because I think this is one of the most important and enduring topics in our profession. Maybe it is because this is a big and difficult topic to pin down. What exactly is leadership? What aspects of leadership are we talking about: defining leadership, evaluating leadership styles, developing future leaders, planning leadership suc-cession? As is always the case, a clear definition and problem statement are needed to construct a meaningful research project and report. Over the last two years, we have published only two articles on this key topic: in July 2010, " Future Leaders' Views on Organizational Culture " and most recently in our last issue (January 2012), " Cheerleaders, Opportunity Seeker, and Master Strategist: ARL Directors as En-trepreneurial Leaders " by Maria Taesil Hudson Carpenter. Both these articles present creative research approaches to their topic. In the first of these, Maloney and her coauthors argue it is " urgent " that academic libraries " nurture the talents of those who show the most leadership potential. " They present survey findings on future leaders' perceptions of their existing and desired organizational cultures. The results are worrying. Too often the current library organizational culture, according to these future leaders, can be characterized as conservative, inflexible, and hierarchi-cal—not very nurturing for new leadership. They would prefer an " adhocracy culture " of openness, risk taking, and adjustment to continuous change. These adhocracy traits fit right in with Carpenter's recent article on en-Library Leadership trepreneurial leadership in academic research libraries. Rather than using future leaders, Carpenter identifies eight (unnamed) Association of Research Libraries (ARL) directors who through their leadership record can be described as entrepreneurial. She engages this group in discussions of definition, traits, and evaluation of this contemporary , highly regarded, style of leadership. Carpenter finds that the directors she interviews value the entrepreneurial approach to leadership, " especially the elements of risk-taking and allowing failure to happen, as well as finding, seizing, and exploiting opportunities. " While these two articles are completely independent of each other, as a reader, I cannot help but wonder if there might be some overlap and conflicting perceptions in these two leadership studies. Could it be an age old predicament of future leaders (let us call them " the up and coming ") always …

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

The Role of Transformational Leadership, Individual Motivation and Knowledge Sharing in the Innovative Work Behavior of Public Library Staff of Fars Province

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of transformational leadership, with the mediating role of individual motivation and knowledge sharing, on the innovative work behavior of public library staff of Fars province. Method: The present research is an applied study that was conducted using the descriptive-survey method. The statistical population of this study included t...

متن کامل

On the Political Nature of Library Leadership

This paper examines the political nature of library leadership and acknowledges consistent problems within the management and leadership literature. The political nature of leadership is offered as an insight versus the usual imitation of business management discourse. A critical theory of library leadership is offered. The paper proceeds by examining what we mean by “leadership” and “political...

متن کامل

Professional Associations: Promoting Leadership in a Career

LEADERSHIP COMMVNITY is vitally important in the wake of WITHIN THE L I B R ~ Y continual technological developments, recurrent budgetary shortfalls, and the fluidity of the job market for library professionals. Libraries must identi9 and foster the inherent personal characteristics and skills considered most relevant for leadership in the field of information management. Professional library a...

متن کامل

Gender Differences in Leadership

THETOPIC OF GENDER DIFFERENCES in leadership style has been of great interest to researchers in the fields of psychology, management, and sociology, especially in recent years, as women have begun to assume more leadership positions. This article presents an overview of the research on gender differences in leadership, examines the impact of sex stereotyping, looks at the organizational effects...

متن کامل

It can be tough at the Top: Some Empirical Evidence from Public Library Leaders

This paper explores the topic of leadership as perceived and practised by public library leaders. Library leaders have a wide-ranging impact on society but have been largely overlooked as the subject of serious study. Prior to this study, only one small interview-based study and five survey-based studies have been undertaken on public library leaders/leadership — all in North America. The curre...

متن کامل

Developing public library managers as leaders: evaluation of a national leadership development programme

Purpose – Presents findings of the recent evaluation of the Leading Modern Public Libraries development programme with reference to the management versus leadership dynamic. The programme provided a strategic intervention to address a perceived weakness in leadership development within the public library sector in England. Drawing on recent examples from the literature, the theoretical differen...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • C&RL

دوره 73  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2012