﻿ Relationship among Job Satisfaction, Leadership Styles and Career Indecision of Library Personnel in Selected Private Universities in South-West, Nigeria

International Journal of Library Science

p-ISSN: 2168-488X    e-ISSN: 2168-4901

2020;  9(2): 40-50

doi:10.5923/j.library.20200902.03

 

Relationship among Job Satisfaction, Leadership Styles and Career Indecision of Library Personnel in Selected Private Universities in South-West, Nigeria

Victoria Imabong Omole

Ekiti State University Library, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

Correspondence to: Victoria Imabong Omole, Ekiti State University Library, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Email:

Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Scientific & Academic Publishing.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Abstract

Background: The study investigated the relationship among job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel in private universities in South-West, Nigeria. Methods: Descriptive research method was adopted for the study. The population consists of five (5) selected libraries. 128 library personnel were purposed to be used using total enumeration but 105 were retrieved and used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire: six research questions and three hypotheses were generated and tested using inferential statistics (Regression and Correlation Analysis). The three hypotheses raised were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Results: The findings of the study revealed that there was a significant relationship between job satisfaction and career indecision of library personnel. Also, there was no significant relationship between job satisfaction and career indecision. Finally, there was significant relationship between job satisfaction and leadership style towards predicting career indecision. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that career indecision should be solved and career success should be ensured. It is also essential to provide on-the-job training courses for library personnel to improve their job performance.

Keywords: Job satisfaction, Leadership styles, Career Indecision, Motivation and Library Personnel

Cite this paper: Victoria Imabong Omole, Relationship among Job Satisfaction, Leadership Styles and Career Indecision of Library Personnel in Selected Private Universities in South-West, Nigeria, International Journal of Library Science, Vol. 9 No. 2, 2020, pp. 40-50. doi: 10.5923/j.library.20200902.03.

1. Introduction

Job satisfaction has been an important topic over the years (Akfopure et al, 2006.) This is because it is believed to contribute to job performance as well as work commitment. An employee who is satisfied with his job would perform his duties well and be committed to his job, and subsequently to his organization. Job satisfaction is the enjoyable and emotional state resulting of evaluation of one’s job (Danish & Usman, 2010) or job experiences; the employee feels fulfilment and pride in achieving the business’s goals. Job satisfaction occurs when someone feels he/she has proficiency, value, and his worthy of recognition (Garcez, 2006). Therefore, job satisfaction is a worker’s sense of achievement and is generally noted to be directly (Cranny, Smith & Stone, 1992) associated to improve efficiency as well as to personal welfare.
Motivation is a basic psychological process and is very important element of behaviour. Motivation is not the only explanation of behaviour but interacts with and acts in conjunction with other cognitive process. According to Luthans, (1998) motivating is the management process of influencing behaviour based on the knowledge of what make people tick. He also asserts that motivation is the process that arouses energies, directs, and sustains behaviour and performance. It means the process of stimulating people to action and to achieve a desired task.
Leadership is about getting things done the right way, to do that you need people to follow you, you need to have them trust you. And if you want them to trust you and do things for you and the organization, they need to be motivated (Baldoni, 2005). Theories imply that leader and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation (Rukhmani. 2010). Motivation is purely and simply a leadership behaviour. It seems from wanting to do what is right for people as well as for the organization. Leadership and motivation are active processes (Baldoni, 2005). Leadership style is also a factor that enhances workers’ productivity. Leadership styles are the various styles adopted by organizations in order to achieve their goals and objectives. It is also the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. There many forms of leadership depending on the leader’s personality, the group situation, and the problem at hand. Basically, there are three leadership styles. They are democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style and laissez-faire leadership style.
Career indecision is defined as inability to make decision about the vocation one wishes to pursue (Guay, Senecal, Gauthier, & Fernet, 2003). Career indecision has been a major concern of career psychologists over the past two decades. Career indecision is often manifested as difficulties encountered while making career related decisions (Chartrand, Rose, Elliot, Marmarosh & Caldwell, 1993, Gati, Krausz & Osipow, 1996; Leong & Chervinko, 1996) It is usually refers to problems that need to be addressed prior to or during the decision-making process. It is observed that library workers or staff experience career indecision due to some reasons such as lack of information about their occupation, the way of obtaining information, anxiety or fear of the leader (Chief librarian), lack of readiness relating to lack of motivation to engage in the career decision process and general indecisiveness concerning all types of decision-making. They cannot make decision by themselves. Some people also lack knowledge about the process of librarianship. It is with this notion that this researcher is interested in finding the relationship that exists among job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel.

1.1. Statement of the Problem

The productivity of library personnel in academic libraries depends on various influencing factors. The job satisfaction of library personnel for example has been found to affect their productivity in libraries. The extent to which a library achieves its objective depends largely on the leadership of the library. The leadership style of library personnel have been a major factor influencing library effectiveness. It must be noted also that the career indecision of library staff has great influence on their output in academic libraries. The job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel in university libraries have been found to be major factors that influence their output and productivity. To this end, this study aims to study the relationship among job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel in private Universities in South-West, Nigeria.

1.2. Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to analyse the relationships among job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel. The sub-objectives of the study are:
1. To determine the level of job satisfaction of library personnel in private universities.
2. To identify factors that make library personnel satisfied with their job in private universities.
3. To identify the leadership style that exists in the library of private universities.
4. To identify factors that causes career indecision among library personnel in private universities.
5. To find out the relationship that exists between job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel in private universities.
6. To determine if job satisfaction and leadership styles will predict career indecision of library personnel in private universities.

1.3. Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
1. What is the level of librarians’ job of satisfaction?
2. What are the factors that make librarians satisfied with their jobs?
3. What are the leadership styles that exist in the library of private universities?
4. What are the factors that cause career indecision among library personnel in private universities?
5. What are the relationships that exist between job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personnel in private universities?
6. What is the relative contribution of job satisfaction, leadership styles to the prediction of career indecision of library personnel in private universities?

1.4. Hypothesis

The hypotheses to be tested are:
1. There is no significant relationship between job satisfaction and career indecision of Library personnel in private universities.
2. There is no significant relationship between leadership styles and career indecision of Library personnel in private universities.
3. Job satisfaction and leadership style will not predict career indecision of library personnel in private universities.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Concept of Job Satisfaction

Various definitions of the concept of job satisfaction have been formulated over time. Job satisfaction could be studied from two different perspectives. Firstly, job satisfaction may be treated as a single, overall feeling towards a person’s job. Researchers may focus on the different aspects that impact upon a job, e.g. the characteristics of job such as its content, its rewards and social environment. The second view permits a more comprehensive picture of job satisfaction, as an individual typically experience different levels of satisfaction across different job aspects (Spector, 2003). It is this summed total of satisfaction with the different aspects of the job that many authors collectively refer to as job satisfaction. Job satisfaction in general means the workforce is motivated and committed to high quality performance. Improving the quality of working life will help employees to increase productivity. Unhappy employees are not motivated to work hard and give 100% of their efforts over a long period of time.
Jimad (2011) describes job satisfaction as the biggest factor affecting employees' intention to leave or stay in company. Job satisfaction is defined as a "security feeling" or employees' sense of security to the work both in terms of socioeconomic (salary and social security) as well as psychological aspects such as career opportunities. Simanjuntak (2014) says there are five factors that encourage the creation of job satisfaction. These factors, among others, are challenging jobs where employees tend to prefer jobs that give them the opportunity to use their skills, abilities and offer diverse tasks, freedom and feedback on how well they work. Then the Rewards where the employees want the wage system and promotional policies are fair and in line with their expectations. The important thing that connects wages and satisfaction is not the absolute amount paid, but the existence of justice. Further working conditions where the working environment conditions are very important for employees to personal comfort and to facilitate the task. Then colleagues where for most employees, work also fills the need for social interaction. Therefore, friendly and supportive colleagues will create job satisfaction. And the last one is the suitability of work which where a high fit between personality and worker will make an individual more satisfied.

2.2. Concept of Leadership

Curving out a succinct definition for leadership is very tricky. Literature has however revealed similarities with various emphases in its. Different scholars have interpreted the concept of leadership differently. Yuk (1989) and Omar (2005) described the study of leadership as both daunting and enticing. It is daunting because it is regarded as one of the important and pervasive concepts argued across a multitude of disciplines including educational, political, legal and psychological one. It is enticing and has been a preoccupation of human beings since the beginning of life (Bass, 1990). The following are some of the definitions that have been rendered;
Botha (2005) defines leadership as the process of motivating people to achieve specific goals. He falls short of mentioning those motivational procedures that leadership offers to effect organizational change. Sashkin and Sashkin (2003:39) define leadership as the art of transforming people and organization with the aim of improving the organization. In addition, Armstrong (2001) defines leadership as influence, power and the legitimate authority acquired by a leader to be able to effectively transform the organization through the direction of the human resources that are the most important organizational asset, leading to the achievement of desired purpose. This can be done through the articulation of the vision and mission of the organization at very moment, and influence the staff to define their power to share vision. This is also described by Sashkin and Sashkin (2003) as visionary leadership. Covey (2004) opined that leadership is creating an environment in which people want to be part of the organization and not just work for the organization. Leadership creates an environment that makes people ‘want to’, rather than ‘have to do’.
In a recent review of leadership theory, House (2004) identified four common themes in the current conceptions of leadership. These themes were that:
(a) Leadership is a process;
(b) It involves influence;
(c) It occurs in a group context; and
(d) It involves the achievement of goals.
From these definitions, it is justifiable to say that leadership involves attempts on the part of a leader to affect (through influence) the behaviour of his followers. A leader’s behaviour, therefore, consists of directing, supporting, participating and achievement oriented for his effectiveness. It must be pointed out that any meaningful definition of leadership must contain some elements. Such elements are:
(i) There must be a group to be led.
(ii) The group must have a set of laid down objectives.
(iii) There must be conscious attempt to influence the behaviour of others within the group.
(iv) There must be willingness of subordinate to carry out the action.
It should be noted that, leadership styles are as many and diverse as there are definitions and concepts of leadership. According to Oyetunyi (2006:31), leadership style therefore is the way a leader leads. The manner in which the leader performs these roles and directs the affairs of the organization is referred to as his/her leadership style (Oyetunyi, 2006). Some leaders are more interested in the work to be done than in the people they work with, whilst others pay more attention to their relationship with subordinates than the job. Leadership styles can be described as the characteristic approach to leadership demonstrated by a leader. Leaders carry out their roles in a wide variety of styles e.g. autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, participatory, etc. Often, the leadership style depends on the situation, including the life cycle of the organization. Each of the following styles has its own set of good and not-so-good characteristics. Each uses leadership in a different way. The following are the major leadership styles:
(1) Democratic Leadership Style: This is also known as participative style as it encourages the participation of subordinate in the affairs of the organization. It allows involvement of the subordinate in decision-making process, self-expression, initiative, communication and so on. Participative leadership is more effective as the whole group feels satisfied and every member has the opportunity to gain recognition and self-worth. This style is effective when subordinates are well motivated and competent (Lussier and Achua, 2001:175). A democratic leader runs an open administration, he is concerned with people’s welfare, he believes in conflict resolution by dialogue and as well delegate authority to subordinate. He also accommodates divergent opinions on issues relating to the progress of the organisation.
(2) Autocratic or Authoritarian Style: This is also known as coercive style, as it is leadership through force. The leader who uses this style is task-oriented (i.e. workaholic). The leader alone exercises decision making and authority for determining policy and procedures for achieving goals. He believes that job must be done at all cost not winding what happens to the subordinate. There is one-way traffic communication and the denial of conflict. In short, the leader acts as an absolute monarch with unlimited authority. An autocratic leader has a philosophy which is anchored on theory X. Theory X states that an average human being is inherently lazy and would want to avoid work as possible as he can; hence he needs to be forced to work. This style is also known as the Tell style in which the mode of control is domineering, the leadership emanating from fear and feeling of insecurity.
(3) Laissez-Faire Style: This is a French word which means ‘let us do what we want’. This is also known as care-free type. Here, the leader is care-free and does not supervise his subordinate but he merely supplies materials needed for work. This type of leadership could lead to chaos because there are practically no rule and regulation guiding the conduct of the subordinate. The leader hates crisis situation. He tries to satisfy everybody in the system. This type of leader is disillusioned, disorganized, inactive and indolent. He is not worried or concerned with productivity as the leader abdicates his responsibility. The leaders in this category have little concern for job and staff welfare. Separation is identified in this classification of leadership styles. The separated style is characterized by low task orientation and low relationship orientation which is closely related to laissez-faire leadership type. It is also known as the sells style of leadership.

2.3. Concept of Career Indecision

Career indecision has been a focus of vocational research over the last few decades. It is defined as an inability to make a decision about the vocation one wishes to pursue (Guay, Senecal, Gauthier, and Fernet, 2003). Thus, career indecision in return reflects student’s career readiness or maturity as students that are undecided about their career have trouble with decision making (Hagstrom, Skovhott, and Rivers, 1997). Thus, career indecision can be described as a developmental phase through which individuals may pass on their way to reaching a decision. Career indecision may also impinge on other career issues such as choosing a major, making career choices or even unemployment. Career choice is a developmental task of late adolescents which university students face. Choice of a career may be one of the most important of life’s choices. Career concerns faced by first year university students include anxiety for being undecided about a career and also being plagued by the process of career exploration, lack of confidence and uncertainty about an occupation, self-assessment and not knowing major strengths and weaknesses, and lack of knowledge of work and what workers do at the workplace. Deciding upon a career is one of the most important areas of decision making.
Gordon (1998) believes students with career indecision feel paralyzed, unclear and anxious; and even if the choices have already been made, they are still unable to make commitment to their academic choices.). However, there is a growing tendency to treat his indecision “… almost as a mental disorders by professional counsellors” (Krumboltz, 1992, p. 240). Implicit in this focus on “indecision” is the assumption that such individuals would benefit from appropriate and effective counselling strategies. The focus of empirical research on career indecision has been on developing various measures for examining individual differences in career indecisions. However most of the research involving these measures has been conducted independently of theoretical conceptualizations, which makes a new framework that combine a theoretical analysis with empirical test desirable. It is only by so doing that the frontiers of research knowledge on career indecision can be expanded. Apparently, decision theory has been playing an increasingly important role in understanding the processes involved in career-decision-making. The normative theory of decision making, for instance, postulates that the best decision is the one that helps to achieve the marker’s goals. These goals are represented by the individual’s preferences with respect to the various attributes of the alternative under consideration. It believes that a rational decision maker will choose the alternative with the highest utility. The utility of each alternative is considered as a function of the perceived between the individual’s preferences and the alternative’s characteristics in each of these attributes, hence, the utility theory, which is a normative model, can be regarded as a prescription for the best method for making decisions.
Gati, Krausz and Osipow (1997) however note that since each theoretical approach essentially focuses on a single major facet of the career decision-making progress, its categorization is bound to be limited to the particular facet adopted. Thus, the theoretical approaches are neither comprehensive nor inclusive; with the empirical test of their approaches supporting them only partially. Apparently, it is possible to develop a model of an “ideal career decision maker” from the above decision theory. An ideal decision maker refers to a person who is aware of the need to make a career decision, is willing to make it and is capable of making the right decision. Right decision refers to a decision using an appropriate process and most compatible with the individual’s goals. Due to the complex nature of the career decision-making process, many find it difficult to be idea career decision makers. Any deviation from the ideal career decision maker is thus categorized as a potential problem. Such a problem is capable of affecting the individual’s decision process in one of two possible ways namely: by preventing the individual from making decision or by leading to a less than optimal decision. The process of career decision-making can be separated into distinct components, each of which presumably involves different kinds of difficulties. The various possible difficulties the individual may face during the career decision-making process can thus be classified into distinct categories such that difficulties with common features are included in the same category. Classifying the difficulties into categories would, however, be based on some criteria, which may include the following:
(a) Belonging to the same stage or component of the process of career decision-making.
(b) Having the same assumed source.
(c) Having similarity in the hypothesized possible impact of the difficulty (i.e. halting the process or leading to a less man optimal decision); and or leading to a less than optimal decision); and
(d) Having similarity in the type of intervention needed to overcome it (Gati et al, 1997).
In addition, little effort was made to differentiate between indecision and indecisiveness. We now see indecision as a development phase through which individuals may pass on their way to reaching a decision. Thus, we have come to see career indecision as a state which comes and goes over time as a decision is made is implemented, grows obsolete, and eventually leads to the need to make a new decision (producing a temporary state of indecision). The process then begins again. It has been speculated that over the life span the time period over which they cycle occurs gradually widens, so that the frequency of the need to make a career decision a new occurs less frequently. Indecisiveness is a different process. Whereas indecision is a state that is normal in human development, indecisiveness is not an ordinary part of human growth and development, but is instead, a personal tract which generalizes across situation demanding decisions. Thus the most common way for us to determine whether or not an individual’s career uncertainty is indecision or indecisiveness is retrospectively. In other words, if someone repeatedly has trouble making career or other decision to the point where closure is not reached in time to implement the appropriate behaviour, we would probably see that person as indecisive. An individual can be undecided behaviour at many decision points during life.
There are three work approaches that affect an individual’s job satisfaction. The first approach is the job approach, where an employee believes his or her work is no more than a job, then the worker (Wright, 1985) will focus on how he or she is going to be paid, and how much. The financial aspect is more important, and the higher the salary, the more satisfied the worker. The second approach is the career approach, when the worker’s only focus is on progress and accomplishment (Eskildsen, 2000) of what the career calls the employee to do. The faster this employee gets to progress, the more motivated and satisfied he or she is. The last approach is the calling approach, where the employee’s focus is on what his or her work asks the worker to do rather than focusing on payment or progression. It is just satisfaction of how the employee is working and the environment of the work (Elizabeth, S. 2007). “Maintain a work environment conducive to the well-being and growth of all employees and how they measure employee satisfaction” (Eskildsen, 2000). The degree of congruence between identified interests and selected career is related to job satisfaction (Dik and Hansen, 2008). Those individuals in occupations with colleagues who have similar interests are likely to report greater levels of happiness and satisfaction in comparison to those individuals in less work interest congruent environments (Walsh, 1999). To understand how emerging adults make career decisions that reflect the current work content, it is important to evaluate activities that contribute to career choice confidence and commitment (Gore, Leuwerke, and Krumboltz, 2002).
Job satisfaction levels are very high in public university libraries as compared to private university with only exception of supervision of human relations. This is because these public university libraries are having very less professional staff as compared to private university libraries. Further, job satisfaction levels are influenced by professional’s qualifications negatively. This is because majority of them are not highly professionally qualified. Librarians and Library staff must readily re-invent themselves and take responsibility for managing their careers with support from employers. Satisfaction might be found in “sacrificial labour”, otherwise referred to as labour of love by McDonald, 1996. Uppermost in our minds should be the quest for self-actualization described by Maslow’s.
In conclusion, if librarians are satisfied with their job, there would be no difficulties in career decision making. They would seek information about the career, ready to work and there will be no conflicts. If librarians are dissatisfied with their jobs, it will lead to career indecision. Literature reviewed revealed a scanty assessment of the relationship between job satisfaction and career indecision of librarian. The role of leadership is very demanding. This may be why there are as many definitions as there are people who wish to define it. Leadership is a role and not a position. In librarianship, leadership plays the same role as in other type of service organizations. Leadership is increasingly changing from information and knowledge gate keeping to knowledge creation and knowledge share for all employees. Although much has been written in the form of descriptive case studies (Manz and Sims, 2001) advocating that leadership is the key to enhancing the learning of organizations, there is little empirical evidence suggesting which leadership style best supports and facilities knowledge acquisition thereby achieving high organizational performance.
Recent research (Politis, 2001) has shown that leadership styles that are characterized by participative behaviour and mutual trust and respect for subordinates’ ideas and feelings are correlated stronger with career success when compared with the leadership styles that are characterized by task oriented and autocratic behaviour. The use of any leadership style depends on the situation at hand but management or libraries should be able to fashion out the fairest out of the different leadership styles that will positively contribute to career success and not career indecision. In as much as the leadership style of the librarians determines the job satisfaction and career indecisions of librarians, it will be appropriate to use the right leadership style. This is where motivation and leadership come to play a significant role. Although leadership style is a relatively enduring trait, it can be changed as the situation demands. No single leadership style is better, that is, all depends on the motivational needs of the individual employees and their persons. It is the aggregation of these motivational needs as harnessed by the leader that influences the leadership style that is to be adopted.
According to Kim (2002), researchers and practitioners in both public and private sectors agree that participative management improves employees’ job satisfaction. The study suggests that participative management that incorporates effective supervisory communications can enhance employees’ job satisfaction. In this regard, organizational leaders should emphasize changing organizational culture from the traditional pattern of hierarchical structure to participative management and empowerment. Appropriate leadership style of the academic heads will allows faculty members to share in decision-making and problem-solving. Leaders should acknowledge that faculty members can assist and support in decision making process. Hoerr (2006) supports the idea that the art of library leadership is about relationships. Library leaders should listen understand, motivate and reinforce. They should incorporate others’ ideas, talents, and energies that will head them into forging a vision. Leaders must not lead by issuing mandates. Great leaders change people nurturing, challenging and helping them grow and develops, creating a culture in which they all learn. Indeed, leadership is about relationships, too.
Career in librarianship, passes through three phases: formative, transitional, and definitive (Drake, 1993). The formative stage is crucial in the determination of a career path that is, type of library and area of specialization. Once “locked in,” stressed Drake, it could be difficult to change direction. Thus, in this phase, solidification of personal ambition and leadership skills set in. The transitional phase is characterized by a noticeable decline in career altruism, where librarians become cynical and even consider career changes. A period described by Drake (1993) as a retreat into difference, mediocrity, or despair. Librarians in the definitive phase tend to experience anxiety while planning for retirement’ however they tend to be more relatively free of career pressures that plague those of early to middle phases. Drake’s remark on career progression is that the rewards of librarianship as a career lie not in the pay or prestige but often-in the tangible sense of satisfaction gained from helping others. He emphasized that while the help or services offered may not be appreciated, or even recognized the altruism factor prompts us to continue. In conclusion, literature reviewed revealed a scanty assessment of the relationship.

3. Methodology

The research design adopted in this study is the descriptive survey research design. The population of study consisted of librarians and library officers in private universities in the South –West Nigeria. Five selected private universities were used using total enumeration sampling method. The population of the study comprises of 53 professional librarians and 75 paraprofessional librarians totalling 128 library personnel in five selected private Universities in South-West, Nigeria.
Table 1
     
Research Instrument
The research instrument that was used is questionnaire. The questionnaire will be divided into four sections as shown below:
Section A: Demographic information about the respondents. This includes sex, age, marital status, educational qualification, work experience.
Section B: Job satisfaction of library personnel.
Section C: Leadership styles.
Section D: Career indecision.

3.1. Data Collection and Analysis

The administration of the questionnaire was done by the researcher and also with the help of librarians from these private universities. Out of 128 questionnaires distributed to respondents, 105 questionnaires were retrieved representing 82.0% return rate. Statistics such as percentages, mean and standard deviation were put to use in the analysis of research questions while research hypotheses were tested using correction analysis and multiple regression analysis. The research hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

3.2. Findings

Background demographic information of the respondents.
The age distribution of the library personnel showed that majority of them belong to the age group of 30-39years (51.4%) while 20-29years and 40-49years were in the same range (22.9%), the other age group is 50-59years (2.8%). The implication of this is that a high number of the library personnel falls within the active working age and they have experience on the job. Therefore, information generated from these classes of workers will be very reliable as responses were based on experience on the job. Gender distribution of the library personnel explained that males were in the majority (55.2%) while their female counterparts constituted 44.8%. The educational qualifications of the respondents revealed that majority of them possessed Bachelor’s degree (43.8%) and this was followed by those who possessed Diploma Certificate (32.4%) while 23.8% possessed Master degree. This interpretation confirms that the policy of the government which has made compulsory for career officers in the library sector to possess a minimum qualification of diploma in library studies. The majority of the respondents are therefore library officers who are paraprofessionals in libraries since they fall much in between diplomas and bachelor’s degree. Years of working experience have revealed that 62.8% of the respondents have put in between 1-5years of experience while 29.6% of the respondents have worked for 6-10years and 7.6% have worked above 10years. The distribution of respondents by marital status showed that 62.8%were married and 37.2% were singles.
Table 2 provides mean and standard deviation scores of different items on the level of job satisfaction of library personnel in the five private universities. The fringe benefits I enjoy were ranked by the mean score rating (Mean = 4.1, S.D = 6.4). This was followed in succession by the recognition I receive for outstanding job accomplishment (Mean = 3.9, S.D = 4.8), the opportunities to participate in decision-making in the job (Mean = 3.8, S.D = 0.5), the cordiality of my relationship with my super-ordinate (Mean = 3.6, S.D = 0.6), the openness to new ideas by the management (Mean = 3.3, S.D = 1.0), salary package and motivation (Mean = 3.3, S.D = 0.7), the opportunities of problem solving for my job (Mean = 2.8, S.D = 1.1).
Table 2
     
Other reactions include the sense of accomplishment and achievement after I complete the job (Mean = 2.8, S.D = 0.4), the productivity incentive in my job (Mean = 2.5, S.D = 6.7), the possibilities for creativity (Mean = 2.5, S.D = 0.9), my personal commitment on my job (Mean = 2.4, S.D = 1.0), the appreciation given by my administration and co-workers for their job (Mean = 2.4, S.D = 0.9), the sense of pride in my job (Mean = 2.3, S.D = 0.9) and lastly the delegation of tasks by the administration (Mean = 1.3, S.D = 0.6).
Fifteen questions of 4 ratings were answered by respondents. The result of the first table was used in determining may be the library personnel were satisfied or not. The Maximum Score = 4 x 15. That is, 4 items multiplied by the number of questions formulated, which is 60.
This indicates high Job Satisfaction. Library Personnel were highly satisfied with their jobs. The table shows that the factors that make library personnel satisfy with their jobs have been arranged according from the highest mean to the lowest mean in the questions.
Table 3 shows the mean score of respondents Job satisfaction as Mean = 46.5132, S.D = 8.0762, while the mean score of career indecision of respondents were Mean = 32.4582, S.D = 10.1538. Thus, there was significant relationship between job satisfaction and career indecision (r =.259, N = 104, P. <.05). Therefore, null hypothesis is rejected.
Table 3. Showing the Relationship between Job satisfaction and Career Indecision
     
Table 4 shows the mean score of respondents leadership style as Mean = 41.9812, S.D = 4.767, while the mean score of career indecision is Mean = 32.4582, S.D = 10.1538. This implies that, there was no significant relationship between leadership style and career indecision (r = 0.259, N = 104, P.>.05). Therefore, null hypothesis is failed to be rejected.
Table 4. Showing the Relationship between leadership style and Career Indecision
     
Table 5 has shown that the joint effects of job satisfaction and leadership style on career indecision was significant (F (2,101) = 3.642; R = 0.259, R2 = 0.067, Adj. R2 = 0.049, P > .05). This means that 25.9 percent of the variance in career indecision of the respondents could be explained by their leadership style and job satisfaction.
Table 5. Showing the Relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction with career indecision
     
The result above shows the relative contribution of each of the independent variables on the dependent: Job satisfaction (β = 0.230, P > .05) and leadership styles (β = 0.090, P > 0.05). Hence from the result, job satisfaction was significant while a leadership style was not significant. That is, it is job satisfaction that can enhance career indecision of respondents. (Table 6)
Table 6. Relative contribution of job satisfaction, leadership style to prediction of career indecision of library personnel in private universities
     

4. Discussion

All the findings have shown that;
(a) The library personnel were highly satisfied with their job with mean of 47. It revealed that library personnel were only satisfied with the fringe benefits they enjoy, the recognition they receive for outstanding job accomplishment and dissatisfied with others. This is in line with Ebru (1995) opinion that job satisfaction cannot be talk of where there is absence of motivation. All items mentioned above are as a result of motivation. Job satisfaction of librarians according to him has an important place in the information society and this will affect the quality of service he renders.
The result also revealed that library personnel were highly satisfied with their works, responsibilities, incentives and achievement. This is in line with Luthan (1998), which posited that there are three important dimensions to job satisfaction:
• Job satisfaction is an emotional response to a job situation. As such it cannot be seen; it can only be inferred.
• Job satisfaction is often determined by how well outcome meet or exceed expectations. For instance, if organization participants feel that they work much harder than others in the department but receive fewer records, they will probably have a negative attitude towards the work, the boss and /or co-workers. On the other hand, if they feel they are treated very well and are paid equitably, they are likely to have positive attitudes towards the job.
• Job satisfaction represents several related attitudes which are most important characteristics of a job about which people have effective response. These according to Luthan are; the work itself, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision of co-workers.
(b) From the research, the factors that make library personnel satisfied are fringe benefits they enjoy, opportunities to participate in decision making, salary package and motivation. This is in line with Schultz 2003 which says that what attribute to satisfaction are internal factors while external factors dissatisfied employees. The internal factors are the factors mentioned above. Job satisfaction cannot be talk of where is absence of motivation. This is also line in with Ebru (1995), which says library personnel gain importance from material and moral clement which affect job satisfaction.
(c) There was significant relationship between job satisfaction and career indecision of library personnel in private universities of South-West, Nigeria. The findings of Jones and Chenery, (1999) are in agreement with the stance of this present study. They proposed a career indecision model that theorized career indecision in a three-dimensional construct. The second dimension which is the comfort dimension connotes the level of satisfaction. Individuals feel over their career decision status. This is also in consonance with Eskildsen, (2000) which believes that individual’s job satisfaction is affected by three work approaches. The second approach is the career approach, when the workers only focus is on progress and accomplishments of what the career calls the employee to do. To him, the faster his employee gets to progress, the more motivated and satisfied he or she is. High level of satisfaction was also identified with a mean response of 47 (46.51/S.D=81).
(d) There was no significant relationship between leadership style and career indecision. This implies that the leadership style will not determine the career indecision of library personnel. This is in line with Politics 2001 that says that, leadership styles that are characterized by participant behaviour and mutual trust and respect for subordinates’ ideas and feelings are correlated stronger with career success when compared with the leadership styles that are characterized by task-oriented and autocratic behaviour. The leadership style was high with a mean of 42. This is in line with the 9, 9 – Management style of Managerial Grid developed by Robert Blake and Mouton. On the 9, 9-management style, the leaders shows concern for both people and production. This is called Team management style, showing high concern for both people and production will help in solving career indecision and this will lead to career success. Therefore, there was no relationship between leadership style and career indecision.
(e) This study revealed that there was relationship existing between job satisfaction, leadership styles and career indecision of library personal in private universities in South-West, Nigeria. About 6% of the variation on career indecision was accounted for by the independent variables, that is, job satisfaction and leadership styles. That is, joint effect of job satisfaction and leadership styles predicting career indecision was significant. This contradicts with Kim (2002),’’ that appropriate leadership style of the academic heads will allow faculty members to share in decision-making and problem-solving and not career indecision. In all it is clearly evident that joint effect of job satisfaction and leadership style will predict career indecision.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

The study revealed that library personnel are not satisfied with their relationship with their chief librarians. It revealed that they are only satisfied with the incentive, personal commitment, delegation of tasks and opportunities for problem-solving. It also revealed that situation determines the type of leadership style to be used. It also revealed that career indecision is caused by anxiety, lack of information, lack of motivation and lack of readiness. The study discovered that there was relationship between job satisfaction, leadership style and career indecision. In summary, the relative contribution of job satisfaction and leadership style predict career indecision.
Based on the findings of the research, the following recommendations are made for further research and for effectiveness;
1. It is necessary to ensure that library staff or workers are satisfied with job, that is, necessary steps must be taken in order to make them satisfied. This could involve allowing them to go for training, whether in-house or on-the-job training to enhance and develop their knowledge in their field so that they will improve as the world does.
2. Leaders should ensure that library staff participates in decision-making and they should also lead by example.
3. The problem of career indecision should be solved by ensuring that library staffs have career success instead of career indecision. In other words, the problem of anxiety, lack of information, and lack of readiness should be solved, by ensuring that there are vast information technologies.
4. The leaders also should study the library environment in order to know the type of leadership style to be used.
5. The study also recommends that leaders (library personnel) should pursue and finish their masters’ degree and perhaps doctorate to make them fully equipped with gainful skills and expertise so as to avoid the effects of career indecision in reaching other areas of their lives.

References

[1]  Akfopure, R.R. Ikhifa, O.G. Imide, O.I. and Okokoyo, I.E. 2006. Job satisfaction Among Educators in Colleges of Education in Southern Nigeria, Journal of Applied Sciences 6 (5), 1094-1098.
[2]  Baldoni, J. 2005. Motivation Secrets. Great Motivation secrets of Great Career Development Quarterly, 41, 22-26.
[3]  Bass, B.M. 1990 from transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, (Winter): 19-31.
[4]  Blake, Robert R. and Mouton, Jane, S. 1964. The managerial Grid III: The key to leadership Excellence. Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing Co.
[5]  Botha, R.J. 2005. Excellence in leadership: demands on the professional school principal. University of South Africa: College of Human Science, School of Education.
[6]  Brown, Mark G. 1996. Keeping Scarce: Using the Rights Metrics to Drive World-class Performance. New York: Quality Resources.
[7]  Chartrand, J.M. Rose, M.L Elliott, T.R. Marmarosh, C. & Caldwell, 1993. Peeling Back the Onion; Personality, Problem Solving and Career Decision-Making Style Correlates of Career Indecision. Journal of Career Assessment, 1, 66-82.
[8]  Covey, Stephen R. 2004. The 8th habit: from effectiveness to greatness. New York: Free Express.
[9]  Danish R & Usman, A. 2010. Impact of Reward and Recognition Job Satisfaction and Motivation: An Empirical Study from Pakinstan. International Journal of Business and Management. (5) 2, pp. 195-167.
[10]  De Nobile, J. 2003. Organisational communication, Job satisfaction and occupational stress in catholic primary schools. Unpublished doctoral thesis university of New South Wales, Sydney.
[11]  Dik, B.J, & Hansen, J.C. 2008. Following passionate interests to well-being. Journal of Career Assessment, 16, 86-100.
[12]  Drake, David, 1993. The ‘‘A’’ factor Altruism and career satisfaction. American Libraries Nov. 1993. Vol.24, No 10, 922-924.
[13]  Ebru, K. 1995. Job Satisfaction of the Librarian in the Developing Countries. 61st IFLA General Conference Proceedings August 20-25.
[14]  Elizabeth, S. 2007. Factor affecting librarian’s job satisfaction: A report of two studies. Library Quarterly 44 (2), 97-110.
[15]  Engleza, R. 2007. Job satisfaction, 24 Englezahtt, Retrieved March 13, 2010, from: //www.e-referate.ro/referate/job-satisfication-essay2007-10-24html.
[16]  Eskilden, J. 2000. The managerial drivers of employee satisfaction and loyalty. Quality management. 581.
[17]  Garcez, C. 2006. Job Satisfaction: The Challenges Transformed Organizations Face. Miscellaneous, Retrieved March 13, 2010 from http://aplawrence.com/misc/job, Satisfaction html.
[18]  Gati, I, Krausz, M., & Osipow, S.H. 1996. A Taxonomy of Career Decision Making Difficulties. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43, 510-526.
[19]  Gordon, V.N. 1998. Career decidedness subtypes: A literature review. The career development quarterly, 46, 386-403. Google Scholar, Crossref.
[20]  Gore, P.A; Leuwerke, W.C & Krumboltz, J.D. 2002. Technologically enriched and boundaryless lives: Time for a paradigm upgrade. The Counseling Psychologist, 30, 847-857.
[21]  Guay, F., Senecal, C., Gauthier, L., & Fernet, C. 2003. Predicting Career Indecision: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50(2), 165-177. Retrieved online December 12, 2005, from Psyc Articles database.
[22]  Hadebe, T.P. 2001. Relationship between motivation and job satisfaction of employees’ at vista Information Services. M.A dissertation, and Afrikaans University, Johannesburg.
[23]  Hagstrom, S J. Skovholt, T.S. and Rivers 1997. “The Advanced Undecided College Student: A Qualitative Study”. NACADA Journal, 17, 2, pp 23-30.
[24]  Hoerr, T.R., 2006. The art of school leadership, Association for supervision and curriculum development, Alexandria, Virginia USA.
[25]  House, R.J. 2004. Culture, Leadership and Organizations; The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks.
[26]  Jones, L.K. and Chenery. M.F. 1999. “Multiple Subtypes among vocationally Undecided Colleges Students: A Model and Assessment Instrument”. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27, pp. 469-477.
[27]  Kim, S. 2002. Participative management and Job satisfaction: Lessons for management Leadership. Department of Public Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Public Administration Review Vol.62 Issue 2. Retrieved from http://www.3.Interscience.wiley.com/journal/118944776/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0. (Accessed 17 February 2009).
[28]  Krumboltz, D.D. 1992, The wisdom of indecision. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 41 239-244.
[29]  Leong, F.T.L. & Chervinka, S. 1996. Construct Validity of Career Indecision. Journal of Career Assessment, 4, 315-329.
[30]  Lussier, R. N. & Achua, C. F. 2001. Leadership: Theory, application and skill development. USA: South- West College Publishing.
[31]  Luthans, F. 1998. Organizational Behaviour 8th Edition. Boston: L.W. in McGraw Hill.
[32]  Manz, C.C., & Sims, H.P.Jr. 2001. Leading Workers to lead themselves. The external leadership of self-managing work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32, 106-129.
[33]  Osipow, S.H. 1999. Assessing Career Indecision. Journal of Vocational Behaviour 55, 147-154. The Ohio State University. Available online at http://www.idealibrary,com.on.
[34]  Osipow, S.H., and Fitzgerald, L.F. 1996. Theories of Career development. 4th. ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
[35]  Oyetunyi, C.O. 2006. The relationship between leadership style and school climate: Botswana secondary schools. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of South Africa.
[36]  Politis, J. D., and Crawford, J. 2001. The relationship between self-management leadership press, 103-141.
[37]  Popoola, S.O. 2004) Career Commitment of Records Management Personnel in Ondo State Civil Service. INFOLIB’ Abuja Journal of Library and Information Science (1).
[38]  Rukhani, K. Ramesh, M & Jayakrishman, J. 2010. Effect of Styles of Organizational Effectiveness, European Journal of Social Sciences, 15 (3), 365-369.
[39]  Sashkin, M & Sashkin, M. 2003. Leadership thst matters. San Franciso: Berrettkoehler Publishers Inc.
[40]  Schultz, D. & Schultz, S.E. 1998. Psychology and work today: An introduction to industrial and organisational psychology (7th Ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
[41]  Spector, P. E. 2003. Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice (3rd ed.) New York: John Wiley and Sons.
[42]  Walsh, W.B and Lewis. R.O. 1999. Consistent, inconsistent, and undecided career preferences and personality, Journal of vocational Behaviour, 2, 309-316.
http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.library.20200902.03.html
article.sapub.org
crawl=CC-MAIN-2022-40
76063
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:YRQJINHZ4G5TF3Z7MBT7BLB2ZLM4MJPX
<urn:uuid:88d14ead-f463-4b7a-a936-536b00cf5481>
2022-10-03T02:24:58Z
204.188.229.162
application/xhtml+xml
sha1:6NTOXKNP36EOBI6POAFVWPP465UZQOGE
<urn:uuid:b844abeb-c43f-467f-a853-94ce46ae5b45>
http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.library.20200902.03.html
response
<urn:uuid:7232ad0a-e5dd-4df0-834e-e1d60cc45e5f>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2022-40
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for September/October 2022
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-14
software: Apache Nutch 1.19 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.4-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/