HIERARCHICAL TO VERTICAL: PUBLIC LIBRARY ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

As libraries endeavor to respond quickly to changing business conditions, even those libraries with well-organized hierarchies find themselves in difficulty. Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps in their book “Virtual Teams,” state that hierarchies “use force to defend resources, maintain social ability and control technology” ( Lipnack & Stamps, 2000 , p. 145), and this characteristic causes the further slowing down of new developments. As a result, public libraries are placed at a disadvantage as they struggle to meet today’s challenges and prepare for the future. Libraries are coming to realize, as many businesses already have, that hierarchies may no longer be the best model for successful operation in a rapidly changing environment.