Library evaluation and organizational learning: A questionnaire study

Abstract

This article focuses on organizational learning, particularly in the context of evaluation and organizational change. These concepts are discussed in terms of academic libraries. As part of this discussion, a model entitled Processes and Phases of Organizational Learning (PPOL) was developed which is a visual representation of the range of possible relationships between organizational learning and evaluation. The author conducted a questionnaire survey of the staff members of some 67 academic libraries in Taiwan. The general purpose of the questionnaire was to ascertain the nature of organizational learning within the libraries studied and how it might relate to the evaluation of those libraries by the Ministry of Education. The study results indicate that library organizational response can be described using the concepts of single-loop learning and double-loop learning. The PPOL model was refined in order to make it more applicable to the study of organizational communication and response within the libraries studied. The refined version takes into account the barriers and facilitators of organizational change which can exist.