JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB PERFORMANCE OF LIBRARY PERSONNEL OF NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NIGERIA
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JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB PERFORMANCE OF LIBRARY PERSONNEL OF NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The Library, as one of the human social organization is involved in information and knowledge management which are the transforming agents of the world today. It is indispensable in today’s world by serving as a place where library and information resources such as books, periodicals, newspapers pamphlets, prints, records and tapes etc are kept for reading, reference or lending. National Library as one of the types of libraries perform the above functions but is unique in some aspects. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in its 15th General Conference held on the 16th of November 1970 defined National Library as:
Libraries which, irrespective of their title, are responsible for acquiring and conserving copies of all significant publications published in the country and functioning as a ‘deposit’ library, either by law or under other arrangements. They will also normally perform some of the following functions: produce a national bibliography; hold and keep up to date a large and representative collection of foreign literatures including books about the country; act as a national bibliography information centre; compile union catalogues; publish the retrospective national bibliography. Libraries which may be called ‘national’ but whose functions do not correspond to the above definition should not be placed in the national libraries category. (p.6)
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The National Library of Nigeria in co-coordinating the rich cultural and information resource heritage of the nation has fulfilled the standard to assume the status of a national library as prescribed by UNESCO in the definition above. The library being the apex library in the country was established by an Act of parliament No. 6 of 1964. The Act was repealed and substituted by decree No 29 of 1970. The library’s headquarters is located in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and has twenty-four (24) branches spread across the thirty-six states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. The National Library of Nigeria (2005) states the vision of the library as: To ensure the building of an informed and enlighten citizenry through the provision of resources that are readily available and accessible. The mission statement on the other hand is: To acquire, process, organize, disseminate as well as provide link to information resources to all Nigerians for their educational pursuits and for informed decision making.
Based on the vision and mission statements, it has three main objectives as cited by Aguolu and Aguolu, (2002). They are:
- To provide necessary support for intellectual efforts in all activities directed at progress and development.
- To ensure the availability of a comprehensive collection and full access to such treasury both within and outside the nations boundaries.
- To generate a free flow of information between this nation and others, thereby ensuring Nigerian’s participate in the community of nations that depend on recorded knowledge and information for survival in a world of rapid advancement based on competition of ideas.
Apart from the vision, mission statements and objectives, the main role of the National Library of Nigeria is not different from the role played by libraries in general which according to Adeyemi, (2009) serves as a tool for intellectual freedom and economic development; a gateway to political, economic and social happiness and survival. Based on these, the importance of National Library to the political, economic and social development of Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. It serves as a repository of knowledge in all forms and shapes through the following functions as contained in the National Library Act No 29 of 1970 which among others is to;
- Collect legal deposit materials, in order to facilitate the distribution of published materials.
- Assemble, maintain and extend a collection of books, periodicals. Maps etc
- Develop the National bibliography of Nigeria.
The National Library of Nigeria also provides some fundamental library and information services which according to Omolayole, (2002) “are not at variance with the salient features that have been highlighted in the UNESCO’s definition”. The services are aimed at meeting the mission, vision statements and the objectives as stated above. The National Bibliography of Nigeria (NBN) 2008 supplementary edition outlined the library and information services carried by the National Library of Nigeria by its five (5) professional departments- Public Services Department (PSD), Collection Development and Processing Department (CDPD), National Bibliographic Control Department (NBCD), Planning, Research and Statistic Department (PRSD) and the Virtual Library Services Department (VLSD) to include among others the provision of reference and document delivery services, acquiring materials through subscription/purchase, promotion of research in the field of information , provision of bibliographic services to the nation and transforming knowledge into digital content for all levels of education in Nigeria.
These library and information services are perform by the National Library personnel (staff) whose creativity and ingenuity are relevant for effective and efficient service delivery. The library personnel are made up of the librarians and the para-professionals. A paraprofessional according to Iwu, (2011) is a train worker who is not a member of a profession but who assists a professional. Iwu also cited Oberg who classified paraprofessional in the library to include library assistant, associates, technicians and technical assistant and paraprofessional position titles as interlibrary loan assistant, catalog assistant, periodical supervisor, reference assistant etc. In a similar vein, the librarians are professionals with a degree in library or information science (Aziagba, 2009). The librarians are veritable mediators between man and information resources that have been produced through generations. There primary objective is to minimize the social utility of these records of human culture for the benefit of humanity (Aguolu, 1986).
Librarians perform some functions of meeting the information needs of their clients. Omekwu, (2003) listed some professional competences of a Librarian in performing these functions to include: demonstrates expert knowledge of the content and format of information resources including the ability to critically evaluate and filter them, employs specialized knowledge appropriate to the business of the organization or client, assembles most appropriate suite of information access tools to meet the ongoing information needs of the organization or clients, leads in the testing, selection and application of the latest technologies and tools for information delivery and promote the use of appropriate information formats and technologies in the hybrid world of information sources and services etc. Likewise, Senyah, (2003) gave the duties performed by paraprofessionals to include ordering, filling, shelving, charging and discharging of books, bibliographic searching, stamping and accessioning. The execution of these functions and acquisition of competences by the library personnel to provide information services befitting of a National Library depends on their job satisfaction and performance.
The oxford Learners Dictionary defines job as work for which you receive regular payment or a particular piece of work that you have to do. It is the activity that has almost occupies the entire human life and it is an important aspect of people’s life where most people spend large part of their working life in work. Job has several facets like satisfaction, performance, training, motivation etc. This makes human resource development central in the attainment of the goals and objectives of any organization that is focused on providing services that will meet up to best global practices. It is therefore important for organizations to create a working environment that will attract, motivate and retain hardworking individuals who will be better positioned to succeed in a competitive business environment that demands quality and cost efficiency.
Job satisfaction is a complex and multi-faceted concept which can mean different things to different people. It is the level of containment and commitment which workers exhibit in the course of carrying out their functions in the workplace. Popoola, (1982) defined it as the totality of an individual’s social and psychological well-being relative to his or her job and job performance. Tafida, (2009) simply put it as the quality of life at work as experienced by the employee, and the condition that could be promoted by social responsibility programs executed by the employer. On the other hand, Williams, (2004) defined it as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their Job. From these definitions, it is important to realize that attitudes to job vary according to individual experiences and expectations and hence there is no single unitary concept of job satisfaction.
In line with the deferent definitions of job satisfaction, it will be seen that it generally depends on once attitude and personnel feelings which according to Jordan as cited in Udomisor and Haruna, (2010) said “since job satisfaction is an emotional response to work environment, it can only be ascertained through the worker’s expression of his or her personal feelings about the job and it’s environment, perception which depends on age, education, gender, experience, judgments and other personal attribute peculiar to the individual which influence his or her job satisfaction’. The Society for Human Resource Management, (2009) gave five top factors that affect or lead to job satisfaction to include job security, benefits, compensation/pay, and opportunity to use skills and abilities and feeling safe in the work environment. Individual’s feelings towards these factors determine their level of job satisfaction. Thornton, (2000) therefore suggested that management style and quality of work life affects job satisfaction and that overall job satisfaction is a function of many needs.
In relation to the attainment of organizational goals and objectives is the job performance of its personnel. Job performance is simply the extent to which an individual carries out his/her assignment or task. Ojo, (2009) defined job performance as the extent to which the day-to-day work is being carried out. Hose, (2012) simply puts it as the way employees perform their work. Job performance is therefore an important criterion that relates to organizational outcomes and success. It is determined by factors such as knowledge; skills, motivation, ability, work environment etc and some indicators are used to measure job performance which includes quantity, quality, timeliness, creativity etc.
With an overview of the concepts of job satisfaction and job performance, it is clear that they are relevant to the attainment of the goals and objectives of any organization. Job satisfaction and job performance are somehow interrelated and interdependent. The relationship between the two is that it is not clear so far that either job satisfaction is dependent on job performance or job performance is dependent on job satisfaction but it is assumed that “when an employee feels a satisfaction about the job, he/she is motivated to greater effort to the job performance. Then it tend to increase the overall performance of the organization” (Pushpakumari, 2008). With this argument, they both have common antecedents as motivation, work environment, facilities/equipments etc. The level of satisfaction or performance depends on how these antecedents are perceived by the employee. Also, these antecedents can be a barrier to job satisfaction and performance if not rightly provided. But at the same time, organizations use them as a strategy to improving job satisfaction and job performance.
The job satisfaction and job performance of National library personnel remain central for the library to be effective and efficient in meeting up to its statutory functions as stated in the Act establishing it. The National Library of Nigeria is a federal government agency and its personnel are guided by the civil service rules. The library personnel seem not to be meeting up to the duties of providing quality services. This may have resulted to the poor access and utilization of its resources by users. Okojie, (2009) argued this by saying that “the poor services are due to National Library of Nigeria staff work condition which is characterized by low morale, low productivity and low motivation”. And since the information services of the National Library of Nigeria is essential for the political, economic and social development of Nigeria, it will be necessary for the researcher to study the job satisfaction and job performance of National Library of Nigeria personnel so as to identify reason for their ineffectiveness and to proffer solution to ways of making them more committed and productive in the job.
Statement of the Problem
The National Library of Nigeria apart from preserving the intellectual heritage of the country is involved in the management of information resources. In addition to these functions, it is the apex library in the country due to the unique role it plays in bibliographic control. It has some personnel who are responsible for the gathering, processing, storage, retrieval and dissemination of its information services. The job satisfaction and job performance of these library personnel is important because it will make them more productive, creative and committed to their job.
During a preliminary visit to the National Library of Nigeria, it was observed that the library personnel seems to be reluctant and uninterested in the work of assisting library users get the information resources they are looking for and that information resources also seems to be unavailable or unorganized despite the explosion of information and the opportunity brought by information and communication technologies to manage them. This may be caused by poor working condition of staff. The inability of National Library of Nigeria to take job satisfaction and performance as a priority may result to low intellectual growth and poor access and utilization of information by its users.
The situation if not address will have a negative effect on the library personnel and the information service delivery of the library. The library personnel will not be able to perform their work effectively which will adversely have an effect on the quality of information services being provided.
Bamigboye, Buraima and Ajani, (2008), Tella, Ayeni and Popoola, (2007) have all carried out study on job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel. Their studies have shown that motivation is key to improving job satisfaction and job performance. The job satisfaction and performance of library personnel with particular reference to National Library of Nigeria has not been investigated. It is against this background that the study seeks to address job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel of National library of Nigeria to fill the gap.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine the job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel of National Library of Nigeria. Specifically, the study set to:
- Find out the level of job satisfaction among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria.
- Find out the level of job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria.
- Determine the extent of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria.
- Determine the barriers to job satisfaction and job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria.
- Suggest strategies that could be adopted to enhance job satisfaction and job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria.
Research Questions
In other to carry out an investigation into the research problem, the following research questions where drawn to serve as a guide:
- What is the level of job satisfaction among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria?
- What is the level of job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria?
- What is the degree of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria?
- What are the barriers to job satisfaction and job performance among library personnel of National Library of Nigeria?
- What are the strategies that could be adopted to improve job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel of National Library of Nigeria?
Significance of the Study
The Job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel has a central role in the provision of quality information service delivery. Based on this, the study seeks to find out the level of job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel of National Library of Nigeria and the findings will no doubt add to the existing literatures in the field of librarianship. In relation to this, the study will be of importance to the management of National Library of Nigeria, Library personnel of National Library of Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria and other researchers.
The findings will be of great importance to the management of National Library of Nigeria by helping them improve on the factors that positively influence job satisfaction and job performance and eliminating those contributing to job dissatisfaction and poor performance. It will also help them to motivate their personnel who in turn will be gingered to provide effective and efficient service delivery that will improve the organization and meet up to the information needs of its users.
In addition, the study will help library personnel of National Library of Nigeria to make good choices on how to show positive attitude to their work and to make a psychological healthy society. Furthermore, the study will reveal to the Federal Government of Nigeria the need to attach great importance to national library development due to the roles it plays in the information society which is very vital in climbing the pyramid of globalization.
Finally, the result of the study will benefit students and researchers who will embark on similar studies in this area or related areas in future and serve as a reference source.
Scope of the Study
The study intends to cover job satisfaction and job performance of library personnel of National Library of Nigeria. It will discuss in details the constituents of job satisfaction and job performance and their effect on library personnel of National Library of Nigeria. It will also discuss the barriers and strategies to improving job satisfaction among personnel of National Library of Nigeria. The study will focus on the professional departments that made up the National Library of Nigeria. These are Public Services Department (PSD), Planning, Research and Statistic Department (PRSD), National Bibliographic Services Department (NBCD), Collection Development and Processing Department (CDPD) and Virtual Library Services Department (VLSD). It will also cover seven (7) out of the twenty-four (24) state branches of the National Library of Nigeria located in Lagos, Enugu, Edo, Jos, Kaduna, Bauchi, and Abuja representing the six (6) geopolitical zones of Nigeria and the federal Capital Territory (FCT).