Talent management practices and job performance of librarians in university libraries in Nigeria

Abstract

Job performance of librarians in university libraries has been a major concern to the university community and stakeholders within the profession. This is evidenced by librarian's inability to apply professional and technical knowledge to practical issues and low productivity in research output. Studies have investigated some factors which influence librarian's job performance. However, there is a dearth of studies on talent management as it relate to job performance of librarians. This study therefore, investigated the job performance of librarians and its relationship with talent management practices of librarians in university libraries in South-West, Nigeria.The survey research design of the correlational type was adopted for the study. Total enumeration method was used to cover all the 364 librarians in university libraries in South-West, Nigeria. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire titled: Talent Management and Job Performance of Librarians' Scale (TMJPLS). The instruments were validated using construct and face validity. Cronbach's alpha test was used to determine the reliability of the main constructs: Assessment of talent management practices α = 0.867 and level of job performance α = 0.973 respectively. A total of 277 copies of the questionnaire (76.1%) were returned and found usable. Data collected were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation.The findings showed that librarians' level of job performance was moderate (63.1%). Succession planning was the least of talent management practices employed in university libraries (46.6%). The major problems affecting talent management in university libraries were poor funding (65.3%), constant loss of best brains (60.3%) and poor communication (51.3%). The findings revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between talent management practices and job performance of librarians (r = 0.58, p < 0.05).The study therefore, concluded that talent management practices had an effect on job performance of librarians. It is therefore recommended that library management should focus more on developing and managing the potentials of librarians in university libraries so as to increase their performance on the job and reduce brain drain in the library.