ABSTRACT
Digital
revolution has brought about employee mobility resulting in increased turnover
intentions which is now regarded as a global challenge; and universities are
not excluded. Employees seemed
dissatisfied with their job; and many stayed due to non availability of
alternatives. Dissatisfaction leads to
turnover intentions which have become a topical issue and provides an
estimation of employees’ self-assessments on whether they might quit in the
near future. Understanding the reasons why employees quit might be a precursor
to high turnover intentions. Turnover intentions of librarians have become a
human resource problem in private universities because of their inability to
retain librarians they nurtured due to ready availability of job alternatives. This
study investigated the influence of Leadership Style (LS), Emotional
Intelligence (EI) and Empowerment of Librarians (EL) on Turnover Intentions
(TI) in the private universities in South-West and South-South, Nigeria.
The
survey research design was adopted. A
total of 200 librarians from selected private universities in South-West and
South-South, Nigeria constituted the target population for the study. Purposive
sampling technique was used to select twenty-seven out of the thirty-eight
private universities in South-West and South-South, Nigeria. Total enumeration
was used. The instrumentfor data collection was a modified and validated
questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for the variables
ranged between 0.69 and 0.97. A response rate of 85% was recorded for the 200
copies of the questionnaire administered. Data were analysed using descriptive
and inferential (Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression)
statistics.
The findings indicated that there was a
significant correlation between LS (r=0.40, p<0.05);
EI (r=0.24,p<0.05); EL (r=0.18, P<0.05) and TI. LS had a significant
influence on TI;(Adj. R2=0.292;F(3,166)= 23.974;P<0.05). EI had a significant
influence on TI(Adj.R2= 0.106;F(3,166)=7.586;P<0.05). EL also had a significant
influence on TI(Adj.R2=0.041; F(2,167)=4.525; p<0.05). LS, EI and EL had a combined
influence on TI (Adj.R2= 0.149; (F(8,161)=10.764;P<0.05).
The study concluded that the
appropriateness of leadership style and leadership behaviour remain the secret
tool in understanding employees’ behaviour, attitude and retention. The
engagement and retention of Librarians is highly dependent on leaders with a
critical mass of emotional intelligence and empowering behaviours. It was
therefore recommended that continuous leadership trainings with emphasis
onemotional intelligence and empowering behaviour should be conducted in
conjunction with relevant stakeholders. Curriculum in library schools should
integrate emotional intelligence skills while exit surveys should be conducted
for quitting librarians to identify reasons for leaving.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
Information society has brought about some
developments which are dictating the direction of the future of humanity. These developments include globalization, the
prominence of the knowledge economy and the permeating effect of information
communications technology. These three
developments have combined to exert increased importance on the
human capital which, more than ever, has the freedom to decide where to work and
whom to work for. One significant attribute of the knowledge society is
globalization which has also brought more visibility and competitiveness among
organizations resulting in employee mobility. Employee mobility has the
resultant effect of high employee turnover and turnover intentions for every
organization, and more especially for organizations that do not embrace best
management and human resource practices. In the higher education sector,
universities have become “open global markets” where only the best will
ultimately survive and retain good quality staff, whose demand often out-strips the supply; hence, the need
to pay serious attention to staff turnover and the intent. The Human
Development Report: Work for Human Development (2015) states pointedly that the
fast changing world of work, driven by globalization of work and digital
revolution, presents opportunities, but at the same time poses risks; affirming
that the benefits of this evolving new world of work is not evenly distributed
and there are winners and losers.
Tettey (2006)
argues that a well-developed human capital base is not only an asset
that enables countries to promote forward-looking ideas, initiate and guide
action and build successes; it also makes those countries attractive
destinations for investment and intellectual collaboration, both of which if managed
appropriately will lead to positive returns and transformation. This also
applies to every organization, and the transformation of an organization is a
leadership responsibility. The impact of leadership in every organization
cannot be over emphasized. Leadership as
a concept for centuries has continued to attract the attention of philosophers,
academics, researchers, human resource practitioners, organizations and
countries. Stodgill(1974) affirms that
there are many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have
attempted to define the concept.
Bennis(1959:259)
summarizes this when he says:
Always, it seems, the concept of
leadership eludes us or turns up in another form or taunts us again with its
slipperiness and complexity so that we have invented an endless proliferation
of terms to deal with it… and still the concept is not sufficiently defined.
This
study defines leadership as the ability to manage uncertainty, conflict,
adversity, inadequacy, abundance, human and physical capital under changing
circumstances with appropriate tenacity in harnessing and turning environmental
information into knowledge in arriving at the proposed goal to the benefit of
group members and organization. The
consistent pattern of action or attitude which a leader exhibits over a time is
regarded as the leadership style.
Leadership style (LS) is regarded as a form of cross situational behaviour
consistently exhibited by a leader, which highlights the manner inwhich a
leader interacts with his/her subordinates, contemporaries, outsiders and
stakeholders. Leadership style also
depicts the way or form in which a leader influences employees decision to be
hired, decision to be engaged, committed and remain with the institution in
spite of other alternatives; the way structural changes are managed, reducing
administrative demands, ensuring quality reviews, without compromising high
standard.
The
changing demographics of labour market, enduring skills shortages and employees’
demand for work-life balance have created a so-called “war for talent”(CIPD
2006) This “war” implies that
organizations must seek to improve their strategies, policies as well as
practices for the attraction, development, deployment and retention of talents
vital for their sustenance and success. This is also applicable to private
university libraries which seemingly have challenges with staff retention. The
CIPD/Hays Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey (2013) reports that the
proportion of employers reporting a war for talent has risen from 20% in 2009
to 62% in 2013; and six in ten organizations had experienced difficulties
filling vacancies. Leadership needs to realize more than ever that superior
talent is increasingly recognized and accepted as the prime source of
competitive advantage. The supremacy of the employees, the rapidly changing
business environment and globalization have brought about the growing need for
globally aware managers and professionals with multi-functional fluency,
technological literacy, entrepreneurial skills and the ability to operate in
different cultures, structures and markets.
This is a function of leadership who is expected to function effectively
in trans-border as well as domestic contexts.
This assertion demands the need for a careful selection, grooming and
development of leaders who can operate in a globalised environment.
Leadership capability has to do with the process
which is employed to hire qualified employees and equally retain them through
the establishment and practice of a culture of quality work-life, good work
ergonomics, motivated work climate as well as best practices in talent
management and human resources and all these have to do with leadership style.
This study in determining the effect of leadership style on turnover intention
of librarians in private university libraries in South-West and South-South
geopolitical zones of Nigeria, has adopted a definite leadership style which is
the Full Range Leadership Model(FRLM) developed by Avolio and Bass(1994). The Full Range Leadership Model (FRLM)
consists of a combination of three styles of leadership as a continuum. These are the Transformational Leadership
style, Transactional Leadership style and Passive Avoidant Leadership style. Researchers in the field of leadership
believe leaders adopt more than one leadership style, hence the Full Range
Leadership style seems to be an answer to addressing the inadequacies inherent
in adopting a single leadership style.
The Full Range Leadership Model(FRLM) is a
well-researched model in the higher education sector. Studies by Bodla and
Nawaz (2010) ; Gozukara (2016) and Morris (2016) agree on the effectiveness of
FRLM in colleges and universities. The
FRLM in its current form comprises nine measurable elements which are combined
to form the basis on which leadership style; behavior and effectiveness are
scaled. The FRLM is organized around two axes. The first being the degree of
activity and the second is the degree of effectiveness of leadership. The activity axis rates the behavior pattern
of the leader in terms of how active or passive in relating to others and
towards the aims and goals of the organization and in this study, private
university libraries and the university communities at large. The activity axis concerns the leader’s level
of engagement and involvement in the leadership process.
On the other hand, the effectiveness axis has to do
with the effect the specific leadership style has on the employees, group and
organizational outcome, such as performance, internal motivation and wellbeing,
and willingness to remain on the job. Ultimately, transformational leadership
is based on intrinsic or autonomous motivation according to Bono and Judge
(2003). This means motivation of group members is basic, inherent, ingrained,
inseparable, and ineffaceable to transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership provides clear
vision
and mission, inspires self-esteem in employees wherein the leader gains trust
and respect through charisma. The Transactional Leadership style transacts
rewardas a leader/member exchange, with subordinates performing tasks as
planned. Employees are rewarded in line with stated standards inexchange for
accomplishments according to Sosik and Jung(2010). The rewards also include punitive measures in
cases where subordinates do not live up to expectation. Transactional
leadership style could be termed as a “Quid
pro quo” style - meaning an exchange of goods or services, where one
transfer is contingent upon the other. The Passive Avoidant/Laissez-faire style
allows the system to run itself while the leader only intervenes
occasionally. Some consider it an
ineffective off-hand style, however it has its usefulness under some specific
organizational clime.The other part of the style is the Leadership By Exception
(passive) wherein the leader is reactionary and only intervenes when things are
going wrong. This style of leadership
may be sparingly applied in systems where employees are expected to be
knowledgeable workers, self-motivated, and are able to workindependently with
little or no supervision to produce result; especially in a manufacturing
outfit where schedules are defined and specific.
University
library leadership and the style of leadership are essential to the library’s
effectiveness as a central academic organ.
Hersberger (1989) argues that an important aspect of a successful
library leadership is the ability to recognize what can be offered to
“followers” that might “engage” or “satisfy” their “motives”. The FRLMfulfillsthis sinceit is not about a
single pattern of behavior, but the dominantpattern which could be interchanged
with others becomes the style. Laissez
may crop up at times, but it is the consistent combination of transformation
and transactional styles that make the FRLM quite attractive, and suitable for
private university libraries in South-West and South-South, Nigeria. According
to a Conference board study of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD), the recruitment and retention of talented employees is the
number one business concern of Chief Executives in Europe. It is therefore generally believed that
leaders and their skills in evolving a healthy work-place environment or
culture that speaks to employees in a way that encourages them to feel valued
and willing to stay on the job, remains a secret weapon in preventing or
ameliorating turnover and TI. This
presupposes the ability of leadership to exhibit and apply EI skills which can
negate turnover intentions of librarians who are the subject of this study.
This could ordinarily be interpreted as making the work environment
employee-centred.
Today’s
workforce and work environment are becoming increasingly diverse and employees
are seeking for opportunities to learn and enhance their skills as well as
having an open valve for imagination, expression and creativity, in order to
add value to their organizations. It follows therefore that a leader’s interest
in the employees’ well-being, a workplace culture which promotes psychological
conditions which give meaning to work, making it safe, and enriched, with
supportive supervisors and good organizational citizenship are all that the
work environment requires. The recognition of these values by leaders will
result in greater employee loyalty and lower turnover intentions. All these
attributes require a critical mass of emotional intelligence. EI involves a
combination of competencies which allow a person to be aware of, to understand,
and to be in control of his or her emotions, to recognize and understand the
emotions of others, and to use this knowledge to foster success for self,
others, and organization. Emotional
Intelligence is an intangible trait in every being which affects how we manage
behaviour, interpret others’ feelings, navigate social complexities and make
decisions which affect others as well as personal decisions.
Emotion is a significant and an influential
component of personality and the effective management of emotion remains an
important aspect of human adjustment to life situations; while some even
consider it as an aspect of mental health.
People with highly developed EI are said to be more successful in the
workplace because they understand their emotions and why they behave the way
they do. Goleman (2006) defines EI as the habitual practice of using emotional
information from self and others, further integrated with our thinking and
using this in arriving at informed decision making, problem solving, helping to
get what is required or sought after from the immediate situation and life. One
of the most applied constructs which EI has been associated with is that of
leadership; and leadership literature equally suggests that effective leaders
must possess a critical mass of EI. The perception of the leader’s EI is said to
significantly affect subordinates’ turnover intentions. Goleman (2001) posits that leaders high in EI
are key to organizational success, linking aspects of EI to success in the
sense of accuracy about performance feedback and aptness of rewards; the clarity
people have about mission and values; and finally the level of commitment to a
common purpose. Each factor has a
measurable effect on the “climate” of the organization. All these are based on level of the emotional
intelligence of business.
McAdam and McClelland (2002) identify six key
factors which could influence an organization’s work environment: its
flexibility– that is how free the employees feel to innovate, unencumbered by
red-tape; their sense of responsibility to the organization; the level of
standard that people set; the sense of accuracy about performance feedback and
aptness of reward; the clarity people have about mission and values; and
finally the level of commitment to a common purpose. Each factor has a
measurable effect on the “climate” of the organization. All these are based on
the level of emotional intelligence of leaders which this study believes is
necessary for university library leadership.
Emotional Intelligence consists of three main models; the ability EI
model, the trait EI model, and the mixed EI model. Emotional intelligence is made up of six core
skills that pair up under three Primary Competencies – Personal Competence –
self regulation and self awareness; Social Competence – relationship management
and social awareness; and Empathy- affective and cognitive.
Gottman
(2002) argues that in the last few decades, science has discovered more facts
about the role which emotions play in human lives. He claims researchers have
found that even more than IQ, emotional awareness and abilities to handle
feelings will determine success and happiness in all walks of life. Emotional Intelligent leaders inspire
employees to have a sense of self-actualization, apart from meeting the goals
of the organization and this feeling often has to do with the need for
recognition as employees are value-driven.
This idea is driven home by the
Global Workforce Study Report 2014.
The
Global Work Force Study Report reveals that after decades of emphasizing the
responsibility of the employeesto know the customers’ needs and meet them; many
employees have now started to expect the same from their employers, to know
employees’ needs and meet them. The Global Workforce Study Report clearly
points to the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership as companies
where employees rate their leaders high on EI have more engaged employees. It
also raised the need to handle the concerns of the employees painstakingly;
emphasizing the importance of empowering employees. It stressed theimpact of
effective leadership on employees’ commitment, productivity and engagement
which will result in low turnover intentions.
Emotionally
intelligent leaders, naturally empower the employees. Ultimately, an
organization’s concern for the welfare, work environment and the needs of
employees remain a great response to empowering employees and initiating effort
to retain them. Although empowerment
within organization is aimed at a systemic change, organizational leadership
now recognize that, this is what the global environment requires in order to
retain good employees. The changing
nature of the relationship of employees to organization is pushing
organizational leaders to rethink traditional power structures. As individuals redefine the definition of
ownership and capital within the knowledge economy, “harnessing the
capabilities and commitment of knowledge workers (which librarians in private
universities are) is arguably the central management challenge of our
time; unfortunately it is a challenge
that has not yet been met” (Maneville and Ober, 2003:48). Employee empowerment is no longer about how
much power leaders are willing to relinquish, it is about redefining the role
of employees in issues of “ownership” and “power” as well as an internal
understanding within and among employees the importance of empowerment. The
foregoing stress the critical nature of librarians’ empowerment in private
university libraries.
Empowerment
is a management technique aimed at increased employee productivity, engagement
and commitment for the optimum release and use of individual and group
abilities in order to achieve organizational goals without compromising group
members’ aspirations and individual goals.
It remains a development and retention strategy for organizational competitive
edge. Empowerment is a process of giving authority to the employees to make
necessary decisions on their own about their day to day activities (Haas,
2010). In a globalised world, turnoverintentions and turnover cost have
negative impact on organizations which ultimately make them less competitive, hence
the need to expedite the process of providing quick services to clients. He
argues that if responses are delayed, this may result into loss of clients and
employees who are not empowered, hence the need to come up with strategic
policies and human resource best practices to ameliorate turnover and turnover
intentions. Empowerment involves
employees in decision-making, leaving them open to a level of control that
gives the employees confidence and recognition for their talent, skills,
knowledge and experience, allowing decision-taking with full support while the
organization accepts gaps for mistakes.
It is believed that to empower the human resource means the creation of
a required collection of capacity in staff which enables them to create added
value in organization and role playing responsibilities with efficiency and
responsibility.
According to Peterson (2014), rapid change in
functional work domains causes organizations to dispense traditional
hierarchical position-based leadership models in order to implement
structures where decision-making authority is stimulated at lower ranks
within an organization. Empowerment is
practiced by leaders when they provide employees with development opportunities
to establish self-leadership skills, which could assist in the facilitation of
positive response to new roles and responsibilities (Bester, Stander and van
Zyl, 2015). Invariably, empowerment naturally releases the human energy that
makes the employees to assume responsibility and take decisions for the benefit
of the group members and the organization.
Empowered employees exhibit a high level of job satisfaction, identify
problems and also proffer solutions.
Wagner and Harter(2006) claim that employee empowerment leads to higher
level of collaboration across cadres of employees, increase interdependence and
trust which often reduce cost due to knowledge sharing.
In
organizations where employees are empowered, structures and culture must be geared
towards supporting it. This means that remuneration practices must take the
expectation of individual risk-taking and decision-making into account. Conger
and Kanungo (1988) were among the first to apply motivational approach to
empowerment as the psychological motivation of employees in the workplace. While some may take empowerment as a “sham”, others
may approach it intricately. In spite of
dissenting views of the managerial theorists and the critical perspective
theorist on the process to empowerment the two schools believe in the need for
employee empowerment as a tool towards staff retention and improved productivity. In addition, different factors influence an
employee’s decision to stay or leave an organization. The Expectancy Theory (Lawler, 1994)
stipulates that employees take up employment with expectations and values, which
if met translate to their remaining a member, while they are likely to leave if
their expectations are not met. The Expectancy Theory framework consists of
structural and psychological dimensions. The structural expectations include
autonomy, support for innovation and appropriate levels and forms of
communication.
The
importance of autonomy which is empowerment must be stressed as a determining
variable in employee retention. Empowerment gives the employee the latitude to
be fully involved in how work is done, providing the employee independence,
support for safe mistakes and input into decision making in an unencumbered
manner. Apart from these stated facts, appropriate levels and forms of
communication among the network of employees in an organization that has a
culture of empowerment is indispensable.
Effective communication assists in providing a sense of ownership,
belonging, appreciation, involvement, and, commitment on the part of employees.
Inthe absence of the right communication framework, is a gap in participatory
interaction, both of which could compel employees to become dissatisfied, with
the intention to leave. These are issues
requiring attention in studying the level of empowerment of librarians in private
universities in South-West and South-South,Nigeria.
Librarians
are expected to support, enhance and facilitate teaching, research, studying
and learning. These call for the need
for private university libraries to develop policies
which can influence librarians’ satisfaction and retention,
by turning the libraries into settings
where librarians exercise greater
influence and control over their
work. The library leadership will become more effective if they provide a
mentoring system with an appropriate leadership structure which provides
support for librarians; there is every likelihood that turnover intentions
ratio in private university libraries will remain low. However, the leadership
structure in university libraries is hierarchical and organizations are doing
away with hierarchical structures as they do not adequately support empowerment
according to Peterson (2014).
Van
Dierendonck and Dijkstra (2012) argue that for empowerment to succeed,
decision-makers need to be empowered by leaders. The other part of the retention empowerment
framework is the psychological dimension of employees’ expectations. This focuses on issues like morale, intrinsic
satisfaction which employees experience at work for performing their
duties. A school of thought believes
that the psychological approach seems less effective, and whichever way one
looks at it; none can exist exclusive of the other. A structural inadequacy can manifest in the
psychological clime leading to serious dissatisfaction which can in turn
destroy any structural transformation. Ultimately,
the ideal approach to
ameliorate turnover intentions of employees will be to explore both the
structural and psychological approaches of
employees’ empowerment and work life-balance in order to put in place an
efficient and effective intervention.
Furthermore,
many other factors like the size and reputation of organization, psychological
contract, possibility of exerting an influence on organizational
matters havebeen found to be responsible for why some employees leave
employment according to Perez (2008) Each
of the variables used in arriving at the causes ofturnoverintentions is a part
of a larger framework. This study is
concerned with the influence of leadership style, emotional intelligence of
leaders and the level of empowerment of librarians on turnover intentions in
the study area. Emotional intelligence and empowerment are regarded as
leadership tool and technique. Developmental psychologists believe that what
differentiates leaders is not so much their technique, philosophy, personality
or management style per se; but their internal “action logics”. Trivett (2014)
says action logics refer to the ability to inquire into ones actions with the
purpose of increasing effectiveness. It makes individual self-aware, creative,
with more sustainable decision-making ability and being conscious of dangers
and opportunities. Action logics provide a way of understanding how people tend to interpret events and how they
are likely to act. It is how a leader
interprets the environment,and howthe leader reacts when his/her power or
safety or that of the employees or the organization is challenged.
Internal
“action logics” specifically means the ability of a leader to put emotional
skills into action to resolve day to day problems in the work environment. This highlights a manager’s ability to
navigate social complexities, understandingthe feelings of others, and to
correctly interpret environmental information in managing his or her own
behavior. The leader’s attitude,behavior
and style either empower or disempower employees. The leader’s style may exert influence that
expands the capabilities ofindividualswithin the team and the teamas a group
and this can help to improve performance as well as ensuring continuous
improvement in the organization.This can invariably lead to staff retention and
lower turnover intentions. On the other
hand, a leader’s negative or inappropriate style may demoralize, and alienate
employees, stiffen productivity and trigger turnover intentions. However, there
is an acceptable level of turnover which every organization may experience.
However, a high turnover ratio generally has serious consequences on
organizations and their employees. For organizations, there is the separation
cost, replacement cost and training cost for the new entrants as opined by
(Perez, 2008). There is also the possibility of operational disruption within
the organization especially in organizations where there is interdependence of
work roles as obtainable in university libraries.
On
the part of employees the loss of key members especially in an organization
that is regarded as being mainly interdependent and specialized may affect the
ability of the remaining employees to fulfill their work task. It is assumed
that the higher the level of position to be filled the greater the potential
for disruption. Another consequence of turnover is the demoralization of
organizational membership. This has to do with the attitudes of the remaining
members, and here lies the issue of intentions.
An employee’s decision to quit may provoke a reflective sentiment among
the remaining members who may start to ponder on the validity of their
motivation to remain. This presupposes that turnover can trigger turnover
intentions of existing staff and additional turnover by stimulating
deterioration in attitudes towards the organization. The perceived reason for quitting is regarded
as one essential factor which could disrupt organizational equilibrium. This
takes a more serious dimension if the reasons have to do with organizational
culture or dimensions such as organizational injustice, lack of supervisory
support and psychological breach of contract. Since turnover intention is a
precursor to actual turnover, it is of great importance to investigate and predetermine
the intent and take remedial step to stem turnover.
The
Human Development Report (2015) posits that strategies to ensure workers’
well-being must focus on rights, benefits, social protection and inequalities.
It stressed that guaranteeing rights and benefits of workers is at the heart of
strengthening the positive link between work and human development; concluding
that the quality of work is an important dimension in ensuring that work
enhances human development. The need to make work meaningful to employees is
not tied to technological advancement, nor globalization, or information
communications technology per se. The Human Development Report is equally not
saying a new thing but to affirm the important role of the employees had
hitherto been committed to memory, but must now be committed to life. Markham
(nd) had earlier posited this view when he said that in vain we build the city
if we do not first build the man. This implies that a strong employee base must
be the first to be built up above every other resource.
Leadership’s positive response to the
employees’ welfare is generally believed to be a strong response towards empowering employees
and also understanding their behaviours and attitudes. Invariably, poor leadership often leads to
failure to empower librarians which invariably may lead to high
turnover intentions. The need to adopt flattened
leadershipstructureas opposed to the hierarchical structure has often been
recommended for academic
libraries. There is also the need to redefine
“power”, “authority” and “ownership” as they affect librarians in academic
libraries. This means allowing
librarians to have control over their jobs, distributing power down the ranks
and taking ownership of the job and job process. The leadership should
understand librarians and other employees, and being able to assess them in a
two dimensional ways of “competence” and “commitment”. This entails knowing
which employee to nurture, groom and invest in as competent and committed, key
influencers and future leaders who are likely to think less of quitting their
jobs.
Ultimately, employees remain the hub of every organization, hence the 21st
century is described as the “Century of Humanity”. Tettey (2006) driving home this view, says
the most tangible cost, and one that is most difficult to estimate, is losing
future leaders. This means that if private universities fail to recruit the
best minds, and also find it difficult to retain them, the loss will not only
negatively affect students, staff and individual private universities, but will
equally translate into a burden and a cost to be borne by the entire university
system as well as individuals in the current and future generations. On the
other hand if private universities turn their libraries’ work environment into
that which could enhance human development, expand productivity, allowing a
remunerative and satisfying quality work opportunities, which could enhance
librarians’ skills, potentials and well-being, there might be the likelihood of
a notable reduction in turnover intentions.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Turnover
intentions seem to have become a human resource problem in private university
libraries because of their inability to retain many of the librarians whom they
have nurtured because of ready availability of job alternatives. Since
intentions are likely to influence behaviour and the actual performance of the
intent, interventions which can identify and target factors which propel the
intention become a necessary condition to ameliorate or prevent the
actualization of the intention.
Could leadership style,
emotional intelligence of leaders, empowerment of librarians be a strong
response to reducing turnover intentions of librarians in private universities
in South-West and South-South, Nigeria? Hence this study investigated turnover
intentions of librarians in private university libraries in South-West and
South-South, Nigeria.
1.3
Objective
of the Study
The main objective of this study was toinvestigate
the influence of Leadership Style, Emotional Intelligence and Empowerment on
Turnover Intentions of librarians in Private Universities in South-West and
South-South, Nigeria.The specific objectives are to:
1. find out
the leadership style most used in private university libraries in South-West
and South-South, Nigeria;
2. ascertain
the level of Emotional Intelligence of leaders in private university libraries
in South-West and South-South, Nigeria;
3. establish
the level of empowerment of librarians in private universities in South-West and South-South,
Nigeria;
4. determine
the level of turnover intentions of librarians in private universities in
South-West and South-South, Nigeria;
5. find out
the relationship between the independent variables- leadership style, emotional
intelligence, empowerment of librarians and the dependent variable, turnover
intentions of librarians in private universities in South-Westand South-South,
Nigeria;
6. ascertain
the influence of leadership style on turnover intentions of librarians in
private universities in South-Westand South-South, Nigeria;
7. determine
the influence of emotional intelligence of leaders on turnover intentionsof librarians
in private universities in South-Westand South-South, Nigeria;
8. find out
the influence of empowerment of librarians on their turnover intentions in
private universities in South-Westand South-South, Nigeria and
9. establish
the combined influenceof leadership style, emotional intelligence and empowerment of librarians on their turnover
intentions in private universities in South-West and South-South, Nigeria.
1.4
Research
Questions
These
research questions were fundamental to this research work. They dwelt on the
areas of concern as well as the questions which were believed to need
clarification. These were used in
guiding this research work:
1. What is
the leadership style most used in private university libraries in
South-West and South-South Nigeria?
2. What is
the level of application
of emotional intelligence
by leaders in private university libraries in South-West
and South-South Nigeria?
3. What is the level of empowerment of librarians in
private universities in South-West and South-South Nigeria?
4. What
is the level of turnover intentions of librarians in private universities in
South-West and South-South Nigeria?
1.5
Hypotheses
The
study was guided by the following null hypotheses; hypotheses were tested at
0.05 level of significance.
1. There is
no significant relationship between Leadership Style,Emotional
Intelligence, Empowerment and Turnover
Intentions of Librarians in private universities in South-West and South-South,
Nigeria.
2. There is
no significant influence of leadership style on turnover intentionsof
librarians in private universities South-West and South-South Nigeria.
3. There is
no significant influence of emotional intelligence of leaders on the turnover
intentionsof librarians in private universities in South-West and South-South,
Nigeria.
4. There is
no significant influence of empowerment on turnover intentions of librariansin
private universities in South-West and South-South, Nigeria.
5. There is
no significant combined influence of leadership style, emotional intelligence,
and empowerment on the turnover
intentions of librariansin private universities in South-West and South-South,
Nigeria.
1.6
Scope of
the Study
This study focused on the turnover intentions
of librarians in private university libraries in South-West and South-South geo-political
zones which have 38 out of the 61 private universities in Nigeria accounting
for 63.3% of the total number of private
universities in Nigeria according to Okebukola (2015) It covered the effects of the independent
variables – Leadership Style, Emotional Intelligence and Librarians’
Empowerment on their Turnover Intentions (which is the dependent variable) in
private universities in South-West and South-South, Nigeria. The study covered
all private universities in the two geo-political zones established before
2015. The universities established in
2015 were believed to probably lack the enduring structures which could
honestly provide valid responses to the questions raised by the research. The number of universities not used due to their recent establishment
was four for the South-West as well as two others which were not used for other
reasons. The affected universities were: Augustine University, Chrisland
University, Christopher University, Hallmark University.The two others were: CETEP University on which adequate information
could not be gathered on its status though it was established 2005, but seemed
not to be operational and still appeared on the National Universities Commission
sources. The second was Achievers University, where it was revealed after three
visits that staff and students were on an indefinite vacation due to some
pestering challenges and a single questionnaire completed by a librarian on
ground was not used.
In the South-South, universities excluded from
the study because they were established in 2015 were: Edwin Clark University,
Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, and Ritman University. Rhema University
was also excluded inspite of its establishment in 2009 because the university
was still effectively located in a different geo-political region- South-East
and only maintains a campus which was not operational in Obeama Asa. The researcher considered the effective
location to be outside the geographical scope of the study.The study used all
librarians in the university libraries for the study. The study ultimately gave
the global outlook on the issues or challenges raised by the study on
leadership style, emotional intelligence, librarians’ empowerment and turnover
intentions of employees generally and librarianship in particular and narrowed
it down to private university libraries in the study area, justifying the need
for the study of their turnover intentions.
1.7
Significance
of the Study
The private higher education sector has been
described as the fastest growing segment of the entire higher education system
globally and the Nigerian situation aligns with this trend. Literature on turnover intentions of
librarians had hitherto addressed the Nigerian university libraries generally,
and private universities were not given adequate attention. This study
addressed this and it suggested the need for private university libraries to be
managed differently by taking advantage of their ability to quickly adapt to changes
and being result-oriented.
The study strongly called for the extension of
government interventions in the area of human capacity building and development
to private universities. This study also touched on the appropriateness of
leadership style, as a secret tool in understanding employees’ behaviour,
attitude and retention. It stressed that the engagement and retention of
librarians was heavily dependent on leaders with a critical mass of emotional
intelligence and empowering behaviour.
Another significance of this study was the need
to introduce continuous leadership training with emphasis on emotional
intelligence skills and empowering behaviour. The development of the quadrant
classification of librarians in terms of “commitment” and “competence” in
determining turnover intentions is significant. The recommendation of the
study to integrate emotional
intelligence skills into the curriculum in library schools remain significant;
while the introduction of exit surveys for librarians leaving the universities
would assist in taking remedial action. Ultimately, the outcome and
recommendations from this study would remain useful beyond private university
libraries setting. The recommendations would also be adaptable and useful in
the entire university system.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
Leadership is the
ability to influence, inspire, convince or urge others without coercion to work
as a team or individual towards the attainment of organizational goals for the
benefit of all. It is the ability to
manage in adversity, conflict, uncertainty as well as in good and stable times
to achieve sustainable success and organizational goal.
Leadership Style (LS)is
defined as how a leader leads to arrive at set goals. It is a consistent attitudinal pattern of a
leader towards subordinates, clients, stakeholders and self.
It could
also be the process or processes consistently in place which naturally affects
the attitudes of leadership and the employees (librarians in this study) with
the resultant effects of determining the organizational culture and attainment
or non attainment of organizational goals.
Emotional intelligence (EI) refers
to intrapersonal and interpersonal understanding and application of self
awareness and the awareness of others in the management of relationship in the
work environment or ordinary life situations.
It is a characterization of the habitual stance towards self and the
world firmly determined by the attitudes held by leadership or individuals.
Empowerment in this
study refers to the process of giving librarians the freedom to use their
initiatives, authority to take decisions on how job is positively executed,
exercising some power once reserved for the university librarians without the
leaders losing authority and control. It
is about trusting subordinates to make decisions in user-services situation or
front-end situations and believing in their ability to achieve set goals.
Turnover Intention means
“intent to quit”, it means the subjective estimation of an employee’s (and in
this study Librarians in private universities, South West, Nigeria) probability
of leaving the organization in the near future.
It is a culmination of a series of psychological, social and physical
circumstances in the work environment that signify a latent underlying
rejection of a particular work environment with the high possibility of
voluntarily leaving employment. It also
refers to the probability of the organization removing employees from
employment or from their positions.
Librarians;it refers
to persons in the employment of private university libraries in the study area
with training in library science, Information Science, Archival Studies and
other related disciplines equipped with knowledge in information handling and
management.
Private Universities in
Nigeria are universities owned, managed and funded solely by individuals,
organizations, religious bodies or other participating agencies other than government,
but licensed by government through the
National Universities Commission. Their
mhhain objectives are the same with public universities but are often further
envisioned to be proactive, innovative, effective and efficient as well as
being market oriented.
University Libraries refer
to the central or main libraries in private universities in the study
area. They are central statutory
academic organs as no university can operate without one. Their adequacy remains a necessary condition
for a satisfactory university.
South-West, Nigeria: One of
the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria which consists of six states, Ekiti,
Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo. It is a
Yoruba speaking area and aside the main yoruba language are other dialects
spoken by indigenes of the different states.
Academic Libraries in the
context of this study refers exclusively to University Libraries.
South-South, Nigeria: One of
the six geo-political zones in Nigeria consisting of Edo, Delta, Rivers,
Akwa-Ibom, Cross-River, and Bayelsa. It consists of many ethnic groups with
different dialects. The pidgin English remains the commonly spoken language.
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