Organization Theory and Its Application to Research in Librarianship

IN 1964 w BOYD RAYWARD explored “the possible applications of organization theory to the study of libraries.”’ During the intervening twenty years there has been no general review of organization theory and its application to research in librarianship. The purpose of this article is to provide such a review. It begins with a very brief overview of the development of organization theory, and then, discusses major theories from this area which have been used by researchers to investigate questions related to librarianship. Finally, it comments on the usefulness of the theories and related research for solving problems in librarianship and indicates how organization theory and research could be used in the future by researchers and practitioners. There are a multitude of definitions for organzzation. The precise wording depends upon the perspective of particular theorists or refearchers. For the purpose of this article, organizations are considered to be “social structures created by individuals to support the collaborative pursuit of specified goals.”2 Organization theory as an area of study and research has emerged from work in at least six disciplines: anthropology, sociology, psychology, social psychology, political science, and economics-and three professional schools: business, education, and public administration. In its broadest sense it can be defined as the Fystematic “study of the structure, functioning and performance of organizations and the behavior of groups and individuals within them.”3 The study of organizations is both a specialized fieldof inquiry