The purpose of the study was to investigate the leader behavior of library directors in medium size academic libraries and the influence of the director on selected goal setting activities and goal achievement. Hypotheses were developed to determine if relationships existed between: (1) the leader behavior of library directors as perceived by middle management supervisors and self-perceptions of leader behavior by the director; (2) the middle management perceptions of leader behavior of the directors and the existence of selected goals as perceived by middle --management supervisors; and (3) the middle management perceptions of leader behavior of the directors and the level of goal achievement as perceived by middle management supervisors. The population for the study was identified as medium size academic libraries associated with universities accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Directors and middle management supervisors in twenty-four universities participated in the study. Participants responded to the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnarie XII and a Selected List of Goal Setting Activities developed for the study. The Hotelling T2 and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient were used to analyze the data.FindingsThe LBDQ-XII mean scores for directors were higher on all subscales than the mean scores for subordinate supervisors.A significant difference was found in leader behavior of directors of academic libraries as perceived by subordinates and self-perceptions by the directors.The subscale of Consideration clearly contributed to the rejection of null Hypothesis I at the .05 level of significance.The subscales of Initiating Structure, Tolerance of Freedom, Production Emphasis, and Predictive Accuracy provided some evidence of a joint contribution to rejection of the hypothesis of no difference. However, the contribution was not great enough for any of the four factors to be independently significant with a critical value derived by application of a conservative Post Hoc t test at the .05 level of significance.Seventy-six percent of all responses for goal existence were circled yes.No correlation was found between middle management perceptions of library director behavior and perceptions about the existence of goals.An average score of 20.832 was observed for goal achievement for all participating libraries. The highest attainable score for achievement on all goals would have been 11.000 and the lowest 55.000.No correlation was found between middle management perceptions of library director behavior and perceptions about the level of goal achievement.Conclusions1. Directors of middle size academic libraries and subordinates do not agree on perceived behavior of library directors on either the Person or the System Dimensions. Library director perceptions are higher on the consideration factor of the People Dimension. Thatrelationships between the director and middle management supervisors as exhibited by trust, respect, and friendship, than are perceived by the middle management supervisors.2. The mean number of yes responses from each respondent indicates a general acceptance of selected goals in middle size academic libraries at the department level is, library directorsperceive stronger social.3. Based on the average response to goal achievement, middle management supervisors generally perceived that the selected goals are being achieved to a moderate degree in middle size academic libraries.4. The LBDQ-XII offers one method of examining the leadership style of an academic library director.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175601 |
| Date | 03 June 2011 |
| Creators | Comes, James F. |
| Contributors | Patton, Don C. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vii, 146 leaves : diagrs. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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