They are public-service kind of institutions and are comprised of men and women of defined and related knowledge backgrounds, who collectively pursue a goal of providing information services to particular groups of people at different places and times. Library and information centres, as distinct departments of government and non-government institutions, are prime examples of service providing organisations. They can also specialize in different endeavours such as manufacturing, repackaging, sales, services, and so on.

In other words, organisations can be private or public small, medium or large-scale profit or non-profit oriented. Hence, an organisation can be a business or a government department. An online business dictionary (com) affirms that the word organisation is synonymous with words such as: firm, business, company, institution, establishment, corporation, etc. The paper, therefore, recommends that in addition to modifying some aspects to make these principles more responsive to the peculiar needs of libraries, further research should be undertaken to expand the breadth of these principles and ascertain their impacts on the management of information organisations.Īn organisation can be defined as a group of people who collectively undertake certain actions such as planning, arranging, coordination, structuring, administration, organizing, management, logistics, and the like, in order to achieve a predetermined goal. Based on available literature, it was concluded that Fayol’s principles of management are as relevant to libraries as they are in other organisations. Inferences, illustrations, and examples were drawn from both developed and developing countries which gives the paper a global perspective. Consequently, the strengths and weaknesses of these principles were examined to determine their suitability in libraries and information centres. This yielded vital insights on the original meaning and later modifications of these principles, as well as their application in the management of various organisations.

An extensive review of published works on management generally, and library management in particular, was conducted. However, it specifically analyses their application to and implications for libraries and information centres. This paper focuses generally on the ‘fourteen principles of management’ by Henri Fayol.

Infuse synonym