Influence of motivation on academic library employees’ performance and productivity in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Employee motivation is very integral to the success of any service organisation like libraries and information centres. This study was carried out to investigate the influence of motivation on employees’ performance and productivity in some academic libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design with a sample of 322 library staff from four selected academic libraries. Three hundred and twenty two copies of questionnaire were administered on library staff from selected libraries out of which 266 representing 80.0% were returned with useful responses. The Motivation and Employees’ Performance and Productivity (MEPP) Questionnaire was used for data collection with a coefficient correlation of 0.90. The study found that various forms of motivations like job security, wages and salary, relationship with colleagues, staff appraisal, financial incentives, and reward were available to the library employees; and that most of the motivational parameters have influence on the performance of the library employees to a very great extent. The study showed that many staff were uncertain about the future of their career, while there was also lack of complete senior management commitment and support. The study recommended that employees in academic libraries should be well and adequately motivated from time to time to boost their morale for efficiency and higher productivity.

Keywords: Motivation, Library employees, Productivity, Performance