Record Details

Competencies of strategic leadership in an academic library during a digital era

Acta Commercii

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Competencies of strategic leadership in an academic library during a digital era
 
Creator Magagula, Mbongiseni P. Kanyangale, MacDonald
 
Subject Leadership; Library; Academic academic library; strategic leader; strategic leadership competence; digital era; library upper echelon
Description Orientation: Strategic leaders of South African academic libraries are key in strategy work, but researchers lack knowledge about their competencies in leading libraries during the digital era. Academic librarians are reshaping into digital curators and educators, addressing an identity crisis because of the integration of technology into library information services and the transition to the web.Research purpose: This study investigates the key competencies of strategic academic library leaders in Durban, South Africa, for effective digital leadership in a public university.Motivation for the study: There is a need for scholarly work to fill the gap in the under-researched area of competencies of strategic leadership considered key to leading an academic library during a digital era.Research design, approach and method: The study utilised a qualitative approach, collecting interview data from nine top management team members of an academic library and analysing it using thematic analysis.Main findings: The study identifies eight key competencies: sensing and clarifying strategic direction, strategic thinking, collective and shared excellence, creating and reinforcing strategic alignment, leveraging technological proficiency for productivity, leadership agility, developing people and programmes to navigate digital change and e-leading of hybrid teams.Practical/managerial implications: Based on these findings, a framework of competencies for the strategic leadership of an academic library during the digital era is proposed.Contribution/value-add: Strategic leaders, talent managers and line managers can utilise a framework to identify competencies and deficiencies crucial for developing future catalyst strategic leaders in academic libraries, particularly in the digital era.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Stellenbosch University
Date 2025-06-11
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Interview
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ac.v25i1.1403
 
Source Acta Commercii; Vol 25, No 1 (2025); 12 pages 1684-1999 2413-1903
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1403/2660 https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1403/2661 https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1403/2662 https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1403/2663
 
Coverage Durban — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Mbongiseni P. Magagula, MacDonald Kanyangale https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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