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Dissertation Information for Marjorie Stellingwerf

NAME:
- Marjorie Stellingwerf

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Rutgers University (USA) (1981)

ADVISORS:
- Thomas H. Mott Jr.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Ernest Deprospo
- Joseph I. Naus
- Richard W. Budd
- Jeffrey Smith

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC LIBRARIANS' PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE, AS MEASURED BY THE MODIFIED IFI, AND THEIR ABILITY TO ESTIMATE USER NEEDS

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between public librarians' perception of organizational climate and their ability to estimate the needs of library users. Library managers have assumed that there is a relationship between the quality of the working atmosphere within a library and the quality of service that the library provides. The purpose of this study was to determine if a satisfying work environment, as perceived by the professional staff of a library, increased the staff's awareness of user needs.

Organizational climate was measured with the Modified Institutional Functioning Inventory, a questionnaire that measures organizational climate as it is perceived by the individuals within an organization. The questionnaire is a modification of the Institutional Functioning Inventory which has been used by the Educational Testing Service to measure organizational climate in colleges and universities.

Librarians' awareness of user needs was measured with a questionnaire which listed a number of items commonly found in medium-sized public libraries. A random sample of users from a particular library evaluated each item on the questionnaire according to their own personal needs and preferences. The professional staff of the same library were given the same questionnaire. They were asked to evaluate each item as they believed the "average" library user would value them. Users' answers were compared with librarians' answers to determine librarians' awareness of user needs.

The sample consisted of 30 public libraries. When librarians' perceptions of organizational climate were correlated with their ability to estimate user needs, no significant relationship was found. A significant relationship was found between Intellectual Aesthetic Emphasis, one aspect of climate measured by the Modified IFI, and librarians' ability to estimate user needs.

The study concludes that a librarian's relationship to fellow workers and to library management, which is represented by his perceptions of organizational climate, is not necessarily related to his sensitivity to the needs of users. Libraries with "good" organizational climates are not necessarily more attuned to the needs of their user populations than are libraries with "bad" climates. The possibility that perceived organizational climate is more closely related to job satisfaction than to job performance is also discussed.

MPACT Scores for Marjorie Stellingwerf

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:09:33

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