A Achievements made under Academic Excellence

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Corporate Culture in Libraries and Information
Centers to Promote Knowledge-Based Business in
IT Era
By Dr. K. C. Panda Reader, DLIS Sambalpur
University, Orissa, INDIA Mr. Manik
Mandal Librarian National Institute of
Technology Durgapur, INDIA.
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Corporate Culture The Concept

• Corporate Culture refers to a companys
  values, beliefs, business principles, traditions,
  ways of operating, and internal work environment.
• It is the basic assumptions and beliefs held by
  employees about the enterprise they work for.
• According to Blackwell Encyclopedia of
  Management, it is defined as the set of common
  values, attitudes, and behaviors which are
  perceived as being those of the organization.

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Corporate Culture The Concept Cont

• Corporate values and attitudes include ethical
  standards, flexibility of management, creativity
  of employees, concern for public welfare, and the
  need for compliance with the law.

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Organizational Culture

• Organization Culture expert, EdgarH. Schein
  defines culture as a pattern of basic group
  assumptions that has worked well enough to be
  considered valid, and, therefore, is taught to
  new members as the correct way to perceive,
  think, and feel.
• Organization culture became a business
  phenomenon in the early 1980s, triggered by the
  following four seminal books
• Ouchis (1981) Theory Z How American Business
  Can Meet the Japanese Challenge.
• Pascale and Athoss (1982) The Art of Japanese
  Management Applications for American
  Executives
• Deal and Kennedys (1982) Corporate Cultures The
  Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life.
• Peters and Watermans (1982) In search of
  Excellence Lessons from Americas Best Run
  Companies.

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Organizational Culture Cont

• The first two books suggested that, Japanese
  business success could be attributed in large
  part to Japanese corporate culture.
• All four books suggested that, corporate culture
  was the key to organizational performance and
  that corporate culture could be managed to
  improve a companys competitive advantage.

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Organizational Culture Cont

• The interest in organizational culture during
  the 1980s to practitioners and researchers alike
  was stimulated by two factors.
• The first of these was the impact of Japanese
  enterprises in international markets.
• Secondly the search to identify a possible link
  between national culture and organizational
  performance.
• Smircich (1983) classifies the perspective of
  culture as falling into two broad camps.
• The first perspective culture is seen as a
  product, something an organization has and in
  such an approach, organizational culture is
  deemed to be capable of classification and
  manipulation
• The second perspective organizational culture is
  regarded as more of a process, some thing an
  organization is.

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Why Corporate Culture in L ICs?

• corporatization refers to privatization
  resulting in corporate ownership and / or
  control. While corporatization involves
  publicly-owned corporations, privatization
  denotes privately-owned ones.
• In the context of a Library and Information
  Center (L ICs), being a non-profit motive
  service institution, which primarily aims to
  promote knowledge-based business (not like profit
  motives and having no shares in the stock
  market), the term, corporatization is to be
  understood to refer to the adoption of corporate
  culture and emerging changes, treating library
  services as knowledge-based business without
  profit and to make the information products and
  services of a library most clientele- friendly,
  either at no cost or on nominal charges
  (absolutely discarding the concept of profit).

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Why Corporate Culture in L ICs? Cont

• The following forces make the corporatization of
  libraries and Information Centers (L ICs) and
  adoption of corporate culture in libraries
  imminent
• Orthodox outlook
• Less competence
• Mushroom growth
• A high percentage of major reference tools in
  both CD and Online format
• Information needs are increasingly complex.
• Traditional reference services
• Exponential growth information sources
• The global economic recession

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Why Corporate Culture in L ICs? Cont

• The most encountered phrases (answers) that
  come from conventional library staff heading
  different service desks are as follows
• Come tomorrow!
• Let me see!
• Ask somebody else!
• I do not know!
• Inadequate staff!
• There is No staff at the moment (on-leave, or has
  gone for tea)!
• System has gone defunct!
• No fund!
• Enquire in some other library!
• I cannot say!
• Traffic jam!
• I have no time!
• I am tired!
• No power/current failure!
• Document not available!
• Library Staff are on strike!
• Server down/ slow response!
• He is unaware of the computer!

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Why Corporate Culture in L ICs? Cont

• The most such popular responses that often come
  from such staff members in hi-tech libraries are
  as follows
• May I help you!
• Here is the information/ document you are looking
  for!
• Let me help you right now!
• Do not worry, I am here to help!
• We have more information on this!
• Would you like to have it?
• We regret for inconvenience!
• We have high power Generator/Inverter to counter
  load shedding!
• Let me get the document/Information for you from
  other resource centre!
• Are you satisfied?
• Please feel free to express your need/or concern!
• Here are the different information products and
  services, we offer!
• Here are the few recent arrivals to our library!
• Library started this new service and information
  product since yesterday!
• Why dont you grab it?
• Here is a latest research paper on your
  specialization! Would you like to see? etc. etc.

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Corporate Culture and Traditional Library
Culture Distinction

• The Library Culture lies in,
• Apprehension of librarys mission and
  assignment.
• Librarys major goals recognized and shared by
  its employees.
• Values elicited from librarys mission.
• The methods to be used by the library to achieve
  its goals.
• Accepted standards of power and responsibility
  sharing.
• Style of communication, both intra- library and
  inter- library.
• Attitude towards librarys history, traditions,
  customs.
• The way to aggregate newcomers to librarys
  values
• The scope of staff development

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Corporate Market and Library Market Distinction

• Marketing and the value of an organization
  depend heavily on ethics and culture in cases of
  corporate environment and also in library
  environment in order to survive in the
  competitive world.
• In case of library culture, marketing provides a
  clearing house of resources and ideas for sharing
  materials, skills and strategies to promote the
  library. It is intended to grow as more ideas and
  resources are added. In library culture,
  marketing is a job and function that include
  training and support for all staff of the library
  to be competent and skilled so as to make
  available its resources, services, and products
  to the readers in time. Marketing the value of a
  library is the responsibility of all who have a
  stake in the survival of the library facilities
  and the services and collections it offers to the
  community it serves.

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Impact of Five Laws on Library Culture

• Ethics of librarianship denotes the conduct and
  behaviour of those who adopt the profession.
• The five laws of library science propounded by
  Dr. S. R. Ranganathan are the cardinal principles
  to be observed by a library professional in all
  his activities.

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Impact of Five Laws on Library Culture
Cont

• According to Mike Steckel, Ranganathans ideas
  greatly influenced every aspect of library
  science, and because he was such a complete and
  systematic thinker, he was gifted in the
  development of all areas of the field, including
  theory, practice, and management.
• The five laws of Dr. Ranganathan have formidable
  influence on the culture and class of a library
  which itself conserves and transmits culture
  underpins education, both individual and formal
  in a wide spectrum of subjects.

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Corporate Culture in Libraries Major Work
Values

• The desirable work values of a library adopting
  corporate culture.
• Service-bent of Mind
• Zeal to Learn
• Accountability
• Adaptability to changes
• Strong commitment
• Courtesy and respect to customers
• Continuous Quality Control
• Autonomy to Staff
• Effective and Excellent Communication
• Flexible Procedure
• Dedicated, Innovative, and Good Morale
• Recognition and Reward for Excellence, Honest,
  and Productive Mind
• Service Orientation, Training, Inter-section
  transfer at given intervals
• Scholarships and Awards
• Feedback and Treatment.

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The Changing Culture in Libraries

• According to Bas Savenije, the first wave of
  library computerization took place in the
  seventies. Manual back-room activities, such as
  acquisition, distribution and cataloguing, became
  computer controlled activities. This period also
  witnessed the various electronic databases and
  the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).
• The second wave of library computerization,
  which began in the nineties, the focus was mainly
  on the deployment of computer networks providing
  access to remote electronic information. The
  library has become a gateway, referring users to
  information irrespective of the location where it
  is physically stored.

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The Changing Culture in Libraries
Cont

• According to Celestine Lau library embraces
  technology to enhance service. Technology has
  changed the ways information can be stored,
  organized and retrieved.
• According to Liz Pattison and Vicki Williamson,
  this changing process led library staff to value
  their skills in navigating and facilitating
  information access, rather than focusing on
  collecting, arranging and storing in-house
  documents. Their motto became Helping our
  clients navigate the information universe, with
  all library staff being information navigators.

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The Changing Culture in Libraries
Cont

• According to Drucker, the typical business
  will be knowledge-based, an organization composed
  largely of specialists who direct and discipline
  their own performance through organized feed back
  from colleagues, customers and head quarters.
• The work culture of an organization is a product
  of its history, traditions, values, and vision.
  Organizational culture expert, Edgar H. Schein
  defines culture as, a pattern of basic group
  assumptions that has worked well enough to be
  considered valid and, therefore, is taught to new
  members as the correct way to perceive, think and
  feel.

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Conclusion

• The traditional Librarians will have to remember
  that, reliance on technology alone cannot ensure
  a successful organization, because the culture,
  structure, and management styles are fundamental
  attributes of any organization-including the
  libraries.
• The libraries must marry technology with human
  endeavour and a client oriented focus, if they
  are to survive in the 21st century.
• Any deficiency in service or quality or delay is
  open to question.
• The libraries have no other option except to
  adapt to clientele-friendly culture and corporate
  culture, if they are to survive in the profession.

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THANK YOU