Managing Cultural Change in Libraries: Marx, Maslow and Management

Presenter: John Pateman
When: Thursday, June 6th, 1:00-4:00 pm
Where: Lake Superior College, Duluth, MN

Changing times requires new management and leadership styles. Open, inclusive, community led and needs based libraries require leaders and managers who focus on ‘doing the right thing’ as well as ‘doing the thing right.’

Embedded and sustained cultural change is a holy grail which has been pursued for many years. This workshop provides an analytical framework for achieving cultural change in libraries, which are one of the longest and most enduring public sector institutions.

This analytical framework has been developed by synthesising the ideas of Karl Marx (‘From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs’), Abraham Maslow (The Hierarchy of Needs), and Management thinkers such as Jim Collins (author of Built to Last and Good to Great).

This mixture of political science and psychology provides a new way of framing the challenge of cultural change in libraries. It creates a solid conceptual and theoretical basis for the changes required to transform Traditional Libraries (which serve only a minority of the community) into libraries which are Community Led and Needs Based (which are truly open to all).

This analytical framework will enhance our understanding of libraries; but to understand the world is not enough – we must also seek to change it. And so this workshop also gives practical examples of how the analytical framework can be applied. Workshop participants will use the framework to assess the libraries they work in to determine where their organizations  are positioned on the Traditional – Community Led – Needs Based spectrum.