Perceptions on Human Resource Management (HRM) Practices among Public Library Employees: Special References to the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka

HRM practices must be purposefully chosen and be used strategically to foster high levels of organizational and professional growth. Therefore, the present study was initiated to find out the employees’ perceptions on HRM practices. A self-administrated questionnaire was used among all employees of the public libraries in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka (n= 303). The analytical tool used for the study was Exploratory Factor Analysis. The findings reported that there were 4 factors that explained with a cumulative variance of 58.621%. Those factors were “Training and Development”, “Rewards and Recognition”, “Inappropriate practices” and “Recruitment and Selection”. The results revealed the malpractices such as neglecting library staff by top administrators, not revising circulars and policies from time to time, not filling permanent carders with suitable persons and lack of promotional opportunities in the public library system in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The study recommends that library management should take immediate actions to eliminate the malpractices in the existing public libraries system and revise the policies and procedures to attract the right talent. Additionally, improving the HRM processes within the public library system in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka is essential.