Die Kunst die Zukunft zu erfinden Selbstrationalität, asymmetrische Information und Selbstorganisation in einer wissensintensiven professionellen Non Profit Organisation

Sammanfattning: This dissertation focuses on predictability problems regarding the behaviour of the professional librarians in public-, school- and research libraries in specific crucial situations. The material was obtained by observations/participations (over 10 years) in the daily work in Swedish libraries by non-structured interviews and “free” discussions with librarians and library visitors. Over 200 interviews with 87 librarians and over 300 discussions with 261 library visitors are the fundament of the empirical basis of my study.These findings build up a theoretical basis (a heuristic model) grounded in ideas of deterministic chaos and complexity theory. Deterministic means, that the current state is the consequence of its preceding states, in my terms, the corporate memory in organizations. Chaotic means the sensitivity of initial condition. Deterministic chaos describes behaviour which satisfies the conditions of determinism but even shows the characteristics of chaos.The study shows that differences between the behaviour of the librarians and the predictions of the behaviour in crucial situations from the political leadership are essentially grounded in·The history of Swedish libraries (deterministic rationality and self-rationality).·The asymmetric information between librarians and politicians.·Self-organization of librarians in the daily work.·The “free” will of librarians in crucial situations grounded in the philosophy of Kant.The behaviour I could observe was studied in the following situations:·The demand of a law, which secures the existence of public- and school libraries.·The selection, development and installation of appropriate computer based information systems in public- school- and research libraries.·The GÖK- and KUR-projects, which was based on the assumption that new ways to work with the daily patterns in libraries should open the library for more visitors, book loaners and information seekers.The issues discussed in this dissertation gave the following results:·That the long time, in many cases even short time, unpredictability of librarian behaviour in for the library crucial situations is not only understandable – but also necessary for the development of the library.·That the deterministic chaotic behaviour of the librarians is generated by self-rationality, asymmetric information, and self-organization.·That the library is not a chaotic organization but a deterministic chaotic organization.Further I could see tendencies for the same behaviour in other professional, knowledge based Non Profit Organizations like schools, universities and hospitals.