Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
Winter 8-3-2018
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Institution is to attain high level of productivity; efficient and effective leadership must be provided thereby enhancing the overall job performance of the entire personnel. This study therefore examined leadership styles as determinants of library personnel’s job performance in public university libraries in North-Central Nigeria. The Paper adopted a survey research design of a survey method in order to objectively collect information from the respondents. The population for the study was 421 (140 librarians and 281 library officers and library assistants) in public universities in North Central states in Nigeria while, total enumeration was adopted for the selection of 421 research subjects used in this study. Data were collected using a self-developed, validated, pretested (Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient value of 0.801, and 0.750) and administered questionnaire titled “Leadership Style and Job Performance Assessment Questionnaire (LSJPAQ)” which was designed through the extensive literature review. The results revealed that, democratic leadership style was most adopted or exhibited by librarians/library managers (average of 3.51) while, librarians/library managers do not exhibit or adopt the autocratic and laissez-faire styles of leadership (grand of 2.95 and 1.93 respectively) in public university libraries in North-Central Nigeria. The study also showed that the performance of library personnel in the studied universities in North-Central Nigeria was very good (grand of 3.24). Findings from the tested null hypotheses revealed that, there was a positive correlation between leadership style and library personnel job performance (r = 0.542, p < .05). Based on the findings observed, it was recommended that Librarians/library managers should employ a mixture of autocratic and democratic style of leadership in their library administration in order to enhance better job performance among library personnel; and the use of laissez-faire leadership style should be discouraged by librarians/library managers as it could not bring a better job performance among library personnel.