Insight Into Work Environment and Job Commitment of Librarians

Job commitment of librarians is intricately linked to organizational factors. Reports reveal that job commitment of librarians in Nigeria is low. Previous studies on job commitment of librarians focused largely on the influence of motivational factors like reward system. This study examined work environment as a determinant of job commitment of librarians in federal universities in southern Nigeria. Social exchange theory (SET) was used as the theoretical framework, while survey design of the correlational type was adopted for the study. 356 librarians in 18 federal universities in southern Nigeria served as the population and a total enumeration of the population was used for the study. The data collection instrument was questionnaire and data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that the social work environment of the libraries was conducive ( , while the physical work environment was barely average ( = 2.52). There was a significant relationship between work environment and job commitment of librarians ( = 0.181). Specifically, physical work environment ( = 0.338) and social work environment ( = 0.487) had significant relationships with job commitment. Based on the findings, the study advocated for improvements on the physical work environment of librarians to enhance their job commitment levels and ultimately increase job productivity.