LEADERSHIP STYLE, ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND JOB EFFECTIVENESS OF LIBRARIANS IN UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Job effectiveness of academic librarians in today’s information age is important as they are expected to be the vanguard of acquiring, processing, storing and disseminating information to users. It is of utmost importance for academic librarians to provide quality information to support teaching, learning, research and community service. However, the general opinion among professional members and studies revealed low level of job effectiveness of librarians which could be due to certain factors in their work environment like leadership style and organizational culture. The study investigated the extent to which leadership style and organizational culture influenced job effectiveness of librarians in universities in South-West, Nigeria.

The study adopted the survey research design. Population of study consisted of 373 librarians from 35 university libraries in South-West, Nigeria. Total enumeration was used. A validated questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for each of the variables ranged from 0.96 to 0.98. Response rate was 80.96%. Data analysis was done using correlation and multiple regression.

The findings showed that Leadership style in terms of transformational, transactional and laissez-faire had a significant positive relationship with job effectiveness (r = .704, p < .05). Organizational culture in terms of involvement, mission, consistency and adaptability had a significant positive relationship with job effectiveness (r = .771, p < .05).  Leadership style and organizational culture had a positive and significant combined influence on job effectiveness of librarians in universities in South-West, Nigeria (Adj. R² = .628, F _(2,299) = 254.761, p < .05).

The study concluded that a substantial relationship existed between leadership style and job effectiveness. There was also a substantial relationship between organizational culture and job effectiveness. The study recommended that university librarians should use a leadership style that encourages effective performance from academic librarians at any given time. University management and university librarians should always provide enabling corporate environment that encourages job effectiveness. University librarians should provide enabling environment that would encourage adaptability in organizational culture.

Keywords: Leadership style, Organizational culture, Job effectiveness, Academic librarians,  South –West, Nigeria.