An investigative study of relationship between organizational culture, organizational structure and knowledge sharing practices of employees in university libraries in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper investigated relationship between organizational culture, organizational structure and knowledge sharing practices of employees in university libraries in south-west, Nigeria and it was guided by three research hypotheses vis-à-vis there is no significant relationship between the existing organizational culture and knowledge sharing practices in selected university libraries in the South-West Nigeria; there is no significant relationship between the existing organizational structure and knowledge sharing practices in selected university libraries in the South-West Nigeria and lastly, there is no significant joint relationship between organizational culture, organizational structure and knowledge sharing practices in selected university libraries in the South-West Nigeria. The research is quantitative and copies of a self-developed and structured questionnaire which was adopted as the research instrument were served on the academic librarians and non-academic librarians that served as the population of the study. The findings revealed that organizational structure influenced knowledge sharing practices among academic librarians but there was no significant relationship between organizational culture and knowledge sharing practices among academic librarians in the studied libraries. It was concluded that knowledge sharing practices in Nigerian university libraries is strongly being supported by organizational structure unlike the organizational culture that recorded no significant relationship with knowledge sharing practices. The paper therefore recommended that the prevailing organizational culture in the studied libraries should be beef-up so as to enhance knowledge sharing practices. In doing so, managers in the university libraries should put up mechanisms that will strengthen trust, teamwork, fairness and justice among employees to enhance continuous knowledge sharing practices. By extension, concerted efforts should be put in place to further strengthen the existing organizational structure for the enhancement of knowledge sharing practices in Nigerian university libraries.