An exploratory case study of organizational agility in a consortium of small private college libraries

This case study of the Ohio Private College Libraries (OPAL) consortium, 1998-2007, explored how OPAL participants interpreted the concept of organizational agility through the collaborative leadership activities of structuring and agenda setting. As a complete insider, I combined the qualitative research strategies of personal journaling, participant observation, document analysis, and participant interviews in a process of heuristic inquiry to discover why OPAL had not expanded its agenda beyond its shared integrated library system (ILS). OPAL was formed by OHIONET so that small college libraries could afford a high-quality ILS for the purposes of library management, resource sharing, and related activities. Research findings showed that participants shared leadership power through decision-making on structure and a complementary agenda to shape OPAL incrementally from an informal roundtable to a formal hierarchy of large committees. The consortium participants also transformed from a group eager to add many shared services to a group focused intensely on the ILS as one clear and strongly supported group purpose. Their shared decisions about structuring had the leadership effect of a close interpretation of the OPAL mission statement in the context of a complex library environment. I concluded that OPAL demonstrated organizational agility primarily through changes in structure that sharpened participant focus on the processes of sharing the ILS. Implications of the research were as follows: (a) Although well-organized, strongly supported, and agile, OPAL remained temporary , given its dependence on voluntary member support in an environment of unpredictable change. The lifespan of OPAL depended on sustaining participants' agreement that the OPAL collaboration was providing their local libraries with unique and high priority advantages that justified ongoing investment of local funds and human resources. The broader and very advantageous environment was an important factor in members' shared decisions about supporting OPAL. (b) The process of OPAL structuring demonstrated the characteristics of organizational leadership for agility identified by previous researchers. (c) The use of the process of structuring as an OPAL shared leadership activity differed from findings of researchers of social services consortia, in which structure was established early in consortium formation as a platform for other shared leadership strategies.