Library directors under cross‐pressure between new public management and value‐based management
| Pages | 51-60 |
| Date | 01 February 2003 |
| Published date | 01 February 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120310454511 |
| Author | Niels Ole Pors,Carl Gustav Johannsen |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Library directors under
cross-pressure between
new public management
and value-based
management
Niels Ole Pors and
Carl Gustav Johannsen
Introduction
We witness an enormous development in
both theory building and practice in private
and public institutions concerning leadership
concepts and organisational development.
Some of the new concepts and tools employed
include storytelling, branding, value based
management, emotional intelligence, ethics,
morale and issues that earlier were considered
to be private. Many of these concepts and the
theories connected to them are not a natural
continuation of the development in society
(Hannabuss, 2000).
Public institutions such as libraries operate
in an environment characterised by
conflicting, competing and ill-defined forces.
We can characterise these forces as:
.the state;
.the civil society;
.the market.
Each of these puts pressure on the single
public institution and defines their freedom of
action. The individual library has to respond
to, and accept, pressures from each of the
three factors. We will give a very short
description of the kind of forces and pressures
that are inherent in the three factors. Basic in
the concept of the state is the notion of a
social contract between the public institutions
and the citizens that emphasises democracy,
control, efficiency and equal treatment of all
citizens. The notion of the civil society has
more do with attitudes, feelings, values and
symbols. The concept of belonging is central
in defining the civil society the same way as it
is central in defining the culture of an
institution. The institutionalised kit keeps a
society together. The market is a quid pro quo
relation with money as a mediator.
A brief example will explain some of the
elements of cross pressure. It is evident that
bureaucracy and bureaucratic procedures are
important in relation to the state.
Bureaucratic procedures are a means to
obtain an impartial, professional and equal
treatment of the citizens in their interaction
with public institutions. Rules, guidelines and
legal documents form the bureaucratic
procedures and they tend to make
institutional changes difficult. The intrinsic
values of public bureaucracy explain, to a
certain degree, why decentralisation of the
state apparatus nearly always produces a
centralisation or the establishment of a new
body of control.
The authors
Niels Ole Pors is Associate Professor and
Carl Gustav Johannsen is Head of the Department of
Library and Information Management at the Royal School of
Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark.
E-mail: nop@db.dk; cgi@db.dk
Keywords
Denmark, Library management, Directors,
Public management, Leadership, Survey
Abstract
Presents some of the main results from a comprehensive
survey conducted in 2001 into leadership and management
in Danish libraries. The survey focused on leadership roles,
perception of future challenges, perception of educational
needs and the employment of different leadership tools. The
main theme for the paper is an analysis of the data in
relation to new public management and value-based
management. The paper starts with a theoretical framework
that emphasises the powers that create a certain sort of
cross-pressure. The broad concepts of new public
management and value-based management are outlined.
The paper analyses the leaders' knowledge of leadership
tools, classified according to their place in either new public
management or value-based management. The paper also
analyses the perception of future leadership roles. It was
found that library leaders tend to perceive future roles as
being greatly oriented towards people and towards values
and see themselves as a kind of catalyst for change.
Electronic access
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available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
51
Library Management
Volume 24 .Number 1/2 .2003 .pp. 51-60
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/01435120310454511
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