Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the leadership orientation of the academic library leader considered ideal by faculty, administrators and librarians in private, non-profit, doctoral universities in Southern California. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework used for this study was Bolman and Deal's Leadership Orientations. Methodology: This study used a descriptive and ex post facto research design. Faculty, administrators and librarians at private, nonprofit, and doctoral universities in Southern California were surveyed using section II of Bolman and Deal's Leadership Orientation (Other) instrument, which consists of four leadership frames labeled structural, human resource, political and symbolic. While structural leaders attempt to align the internal processes of the organization to the external environment while dealing with organizational dilemmas, human resource leaders focus on meeting basic human needs. The political leader recognizes that an organization and its leadership function within a larger power structure where resources are scarce, where as the symbolic leader uses images, stories and rituals to inspire and motivate. Findings: While faculty and administrators favored the structural frame, librarians favored the human resource frame as the ideal leadership orientation for an academic library leader. In addition, while there was a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the structural, political, or symbolic frame, this was not the case for the human resource frame. Conclusion: By choosing the structural frame as the ideal leadership orientation for the academic library leader, faculty and administrators expressed their preference for a manager charged with overseeing a well-managed library with resources and services established to meet the teaching and research needs of the university. However, given the high standard deviation in the scores for this frame, coupled with the preference expressed by librarians for the human resource frame, it can be concluded that both the groups acknowledge the need for more than analytical and technical expertise to address the complexities facing a 21st century academic library and its leadership. Recommendations: It was recommended that the academic library leader select the frame most appropriate for any given situation or group so that faculty and administrators are assured of a well managed library, while librarians are assured that their leader is a humanist.