A Study on the Technical and Administrative Innovation of Library Organization in the Perspective of the Contingency Theory

도서관조직의 기술혁신 및 행정혁신에 관한 조직상황론적 연구

The ability of any organization to innovate itself in a rapid change of environment means the existence of the organization. Innovative activity is achieved in different ways according to the objectives of organization. the characteristics of external environmental factors. and various attributes in organization. In the present study. all the existing approaches to the innovative nature of organization were synthetically compared to each other and evaluated: then. for a more rational approach. a research model was built and suggested by establishing the inclusive variables of the innovative nature of library organization and categorizing the types of such nature. Additionally. an empirical. analytical study on such a model was done. That is. paying regard to the fact that innovation has basically a close relation with the circumstantial factors of organization. synthetic, circumstantial relations were clarified. considering the external environmental factors and internal characteristics of organization. In the study. the innovation of library organization was seen in two parts i.e .. the feasible degree of technical innovation and the feasible degree of administrative innovation. Regarding the types of innovative implementation. according to the feasible degree of innovation, four types such as a stationary type. technic-oriented type, organization-oriented type. and technical-socio systematic type were classified. There were nine independent variables-i.e., the scale of organization. available resources of the organization, formalization, differentiation, specialization. decentralization, recognizant degree of the technical attribute. degree of response to the change of technical environment, and professional activities. There were three subordinate variables - i.e., technical innovation, administrative innovation. and the performance of organization. Through establishment of such variables, the factors which might influence the innovation of library organization were understood, and with the types of the innovative implementation of library organization being classified according to the feasible degree of innovation. the characteristics of library organization were reviewed in the light of each type. Also. the performance of library organization according to the types of the innovative implementation of library organization was analyzed. and the relations between the types of innovative implementation according to circumstantial variables and the performance of library organization were clarified. In order to clarify the adequacy of the research model in the methodology of empirical study, data were collected from 72 university libraries and 38 special libraries. and for a hypothetical test of the research model. an analysis of correlations, a stepwise regression analysis. and One Way ANOVA were utilized. The following are the major results or findings from the study 1) It appeared there is a trend that the bigger the scale of organization and available resources are, the more active the professional activity of the managerial class is, and the higher the recognizant degree of technical environment (recognizant degree of technical attributes and the degree of response t9 the change of technical environment) is, the higher the feasible degree of innovation becomes. 2) It appeared that among the variables influencing the feasible degree of technical innovation, the order from the variable influencing most was first, the recognizant degree of technical innovation: second, the available resources of organization: and third, professional activity. Regarding the variables influencing the feasible degree of administrative innovation from the most influential variable, it appeared they were the available resources of organization, the differentiation of organization. and the degree of response to the change of technical environment. 3) It appeared that the higher the educational level of the managerial class is, the more active the professional activity becomes. It seemed there is a trend that the group of library managers whose experience as a librarian was at the middle level(three years to six years of experience) was more active in research activity than the group of library managers whose experience as a librarian was at a higher level(more than ten years). Also, it appeared there is a trend that the lower the age of library managers is, the higher the recognizant degree of technical attributes becomes. and the group of library managers whose experience as a librarian was at the middle level (three years to six years of experience) recognized more affirmatively the technical aspect than the group of library managers whose experience as a librarian was at a higher level(more than 10 years). Also, it appeared that, when the activity of the professional association and research activity are active, the recognizant degree of technology becomes higher, and as a result. it influences the innovative nature of organization(the feasible degree of technical innovation and the feasible degree of administrative innovation). 4) As a result of the comparison and analysis of the characteristics of library organization according to the types of innovative implementation of library organization. it was indicated there is a trend that the larger the available resources of library organization, the higher the organic nature of organization such as differentiation. decentralization, etc., and the higher the level of the operation of system development, the more the type of the innovative implementation of library organization becomes the technical-socio systematic type which is higher both in the practical degrees of technical innovation and administrative innovation. 5) As a result of the comparison and analysis of the relations between the types of innovative implementation and the performance of organization, it appeared that the order from the highest performance of organization is the technical-socio systematic type, then the technic-oriented type, the organization­oriented type, and finally the stationary type which is lowest in such performance. That is, it demonstrated that, since the performance of library organization is highest in the library of the technical-socio systematic type while it is lowest in the library whose practical degrees in both technical innovation and administrative innovation are low, the performance of library organization differs significantly according to the types of innovative implementation of library organization. The present study has extracted the factors influencing innovation, classified systematically the types of innovative implementation, and inferred the synthetical, circumstantial correlations between the types and the performance of organization, and empirically inspected those factors. However, due to the present study's restrictive matters and the limit of the research design, results from the study should be more prudently interpreted. Also, the present study, as an investigative study of the types of innovative implementation, with few preceding studies, requires more complete hypothetical inference based on the results of the present study. In other words, if more systematical studies are given to understanding the relations, it will devote the suggestion and demonstration of a more useful theory.