| Academic libraries in the 21st century are in the midst of constant and tumultuous change caused by advances in technology, shifting demands of faculty and students, declining budgets, and transformations in publishing and in other methods of acquiring scholarly research. Librarians working in this environment must cope with continuous change while still providing research support to their primary clientele --- faculty and students. The objective of this dissertation was to determine which competencies library directors and senior managers should possess to guide their organizations through the current turbulent climate of constant change, and to lead their organizations into the future. An evidence-based systematic review of the literature revealed that competencies associated with transformational leadership were highly valued by academic librarians in an environment of rapid change. Similarly competencies associated with emotional intelligence were highly valued attributes in library directors and senior managers. The research found that leadership and management competencies had universal application regardless of profession. Only knowledge-based competencies associated with a profession were not of value in other fields. Strategies for dealing with radical change such as organizational development, systems thinking, appreciative inquiry, creating a learning organization, re-organization of staff, and the frequency and use of library services assessment were found to be tools used by library directors and senior managers to lead academic librarians through a change initiative. Finally, organizational climate and changing the climate were often the focus of library directors as they sought to diminish resistance to change among academic librarians. |
