Relationship between innovation climate and innovative behavior of librarians: Case study in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi

Abstract

This study aims to determine the relationship between innovation climate and the librarians' innovative behavior in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi, as the largest public library of Iran. The methodology for this study is based on a survey research. To this purpose, the innovative behavior questionnaire and Ekvall's (1996) innovation climate, developed by the Creative Problem Solving Group, Buffalo, USA, were used. The study population consisted of 104 librarians working in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi. The results show that there is a significant relationship between innovative behavior of librarians and innovation climate in the library (44%). That is, innovation climate and innovative behavior factors can explain 44% of variation in each other. The findings show that innovation climate exists at an average level (mean: 3.24) in Organization of Libraries, Museums and Documentation Center of Astan Quds Razavi. Among the dimensions of innovation climate, challenge (3.44) and trust (2.86) achieved the highest and the lowest mean respectively. In general, the librarians' innovative behavior was found to be at an average level (2.44).This behavior was above average at the two stages of idea discovery (2.6) and idea generation (2.54), whilst it was at the medium level at the two stages of idea support (2.321) and idea implementation (2.33). This is the first research to study the relationship between innovation climate and innovative behavior of librarians in the library organization.DOR: 98.1000/1726-8125.2017.15.59.0.1.82.10