Do information technology units have more power than other units in academic libraries?

Abstract

IntroductionInformation technologies have had a tremendous effect both on individual librarians' tasks and on library organizations. In particular, Web technology enables libraries to provide users with more resources online, almost allowing the realization of a digital library. As a result, the emphasis of library services has greatly shifted from the physical acquisition of information resources to access and user training.In conjunction with this shift, a strong emphasis has been placed on technical capabilities as a key component of digital libraries (Bishop & Star, 1996;Borgman, 1999). Waters (1998) However, few studies exist on information technology personnel or SystemsOffices that deal with library information technologies. In particular, it is not known how PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer -Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com 3 Systems Offices are positioned within libraries as new work units, or whether information technology personnel and Systems Offices have more power than other units within library organizations. Instead, the existing literature mainly centers on definitions, tasks and responsibilities of the job titles associated with Systems Offices (Foote, 1997;Gordon, 2003;Lavagnino, 1997;Muir, 1995), or, at most, some mention about the information technology personnel regarding their privileged line of communications and different pay structure (Rubin, 2004). This study attempts to understand the status and influence of Systems Offices within academic library organizations by exploring the power differences among units.Understanding the power within organizations helps to explain organizational decisions or behaviors by showing who gets what, when, and how within organizations (Morgan, 1996). Furthermore, the acquisition of power by a new group rather than established groups may change organizations in many ways. Finally, power may function positively as the social energy that facilitates organizational change or promotes organizational performance (Lawrence, Mauws, & Dyck, 2005;McClelland & Burnham, 2003).The present study is prompted by the acknowledgement that power affects a variety of organizational decisions or behaviors. This study mainly focuses on whether there are power differences among units, and if Strategic Contingencies Theory is applicable to library settings in understanding the power differences among units. Literature Review Conceptualization of PowerPDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer -Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com 4 Within organizations, people seem to sense what power is and who has it.However, defining power is not as clear as perceiving power. The lack of clarity of the concept of power may be attributed to the potential nature of the concept of power (Aldag & Kuzuhara, 2005;French & Raven, 1959;Lukes, 2005). According to Lukes (2005), power is a potentiality and may be never exercised. Moreover, power is often perceived as a troublesome concept because of its negative connotations (Pfeffer, 1981). These factors all seem to contribute to the difficulty in studying p...