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Understanding and motivating academic library employees: theoretical implications

Bibi Alajmi (Department of Information Studies, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait)
Hessah Alasousi (Department of Information Studies, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait)

Library Management

ISSN: 0143-5124

Article publication date: 6 August 2018

Issue publication date: 5 March 2019

3720

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the levels of motivation and needs satisfaction of academic library employees, adopting Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to examine individuals’ motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study collects and analyzes quantitative survey data. The research population comprises 108 employees working across eight college libraries at Kuwait University.

Findings

While participants generally agreed that their needs were being satisfied at each of the five levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, they reported higher levels of satisfaction of their self-actualization and social needs. Self-actualization is the summit of Maslow’s motivation theory representing the quest for reaching one’s full potential as a person.

Research limitations/implications

One limitation is the relatively small sample size due to Kuwait having only one public university. Future research could overcome this limitation by investigating both private and public universities.

Practical implications

This research contributes significantly and in various ways to understanding motivation in a library setting. It elucidates many aspects of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory criticized in previous literature. Overall, the study’s results should be useful to scholars in the library field interested in motivation, to academic librarians and to managers in academia.

Originality/value

Though many prior studies have focused on motivation in a library setting, Maslow’s theory has been little considered in the context of academic libraries. This study uses a theoretical framework based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to understand and explain the levels of motivation and needs satisfaction of academic library employees.

Keywords

Citation

Alajmi, B. and Alasousi, H. (2019), "Understanding and motivating academic library employees: theoretical implications", Library Management, Vol. 40 No. 3/4, pp. 203-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-10-2017-0111

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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