Organisationskultur och informationssökning. En fallstudie av internkommunikationen på ett folkbibliotek
This thesis aims to identify bottlenecks in the internal communication of aSwedish public library. Specifically, it addresses the behaviour of the library staff when they seekfor work-oriented information through interaction with their colleagues. A fundamental assumptionof this study is that the information-seeking process depends on organisational culture. I have madean exploratory case study in a medium-sized Swedish public library, where relevant issues areidentified and correlated with the culture of the organisation.I have used Schein's three-level model to describe the culture of the library; this model definesculture as a set of basic assumptions and the actions of people as expressions of their culture. Datafor the study were gathered using several approaches, including interviews with the library staff andobservations of them. In order to describe the interaction of the staff during their informationseeking, I used additional theories, including the politeness theory and Morrison's model ofinformation-seeking within the organisation. Finally, qualitative content analysis was used to drawconclusions.The results of this study suggest that issues such as conflict avoidance, strong sub-group identities,and strong values concerning 'the daily work' may complicate the information seeking process. Ialso identify and discuss additional relevant contributing factors, such as task-specific issues.