Organizational Culture and Organizational Change: How Shared Values, Rituals, and Sagas can Facilitate Change in an Academic Library

摘要

Organizational culture and change are both complex and difficult to grasp. Organizational culture can both advance and impede, help and hinder. Change brings uncertainty and with uncertainty resistance. These two can work together, however, to help implement change. Resistance can be overcome, at least in part, through the use of organizational culture. If the change strengthens the underlying values of a culture, then members of the culture are more likely to accept the change. The use of cultural rituals and sagas also helps to make change more palpable to an organization. This does not mean completing a successful change project will be easy, nor is understanding an organization's culture. But the leader who works to understand the culture of his/her organization can use that knowledge to facilitate change and better run the library.