Liisi Lembinen, Development Director of the UT Library, defended her doctoral thesis in the field of management

Today, Liisi Lembinen, the Development Director of the University of Tartu Library, defended her doctoral thesis titled "Comprehending Decision-Making in Academic Library Leadership: A Situational Analysis." In her work, she investigated the decision-making processes of nineteen academic library directors in three different situations.
 

The analysis conducted as part of the doctoral thesis revealed that academic library directors adapt the decision-making process according to the context: when making decisions related to long-term strategy, they consult with target groups while also adhering to the university's strategy; for innovation-related decisions, many subordinates are involved, and they are allowed to experiment with different solutions; however, in crisis situations, decisions become more authoritarian and focus on efficiency.

Liisi's goal was to enhance research on decision-making among leaders by incorporating the practices and experiences of academic libraries. As decision-making models of European academic library directors have not been previously analyzed, Liisi's work is a valuable contribution to management studies.

Liisi Lembinen has worked at the library since 2007, being the Development Director since 2009. During this time, she has also been the director in charge on two occasions.