Competencies and personal qualities towards organisational performance among academic librarians in Malaysia / Anum Shafeera Amdan

Competencies in this study refers to the skills and ability of academic librarians that perform a specific task or activities in an effective way while personal qualities can be explained as the characteristics or attributes described in themselves. The current trend of automation and data exchange in the new technologies have called for a fresh look at the competencies and personal qualities of present and future librarians. However, previous research indicated that the competencies and personal qualities of academic librarians in the libraries did not match the current requirement. The purpose of this study is to identify the competencies and personal qualities towards organisational performance among academic librarians in Malaysia. Quantitative approach was adopted in this study. A research survey method using questionnaire was mailed to 634 librarians at public universities libraries in Malaysia. A survey instrument with a sevenpoint interval scale was built around nine competencies and ten personal qualities variables. Only 240 (37.85%) of the questionnaires were returned and usable for further analysis. The statistical analysis included are descriptive and inferential statistics. Factor analysis, Independent Samples t-test, One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression were used. From the findings, the competencies dimensions on technical skills for expert in searching library digital resources was ranked as the highest while for personal qualities, responsibility was ranked as the highest indicating that it was the most preferred response as perceived by the respondents. Using ANOVA test, the results showed that there were no significance differences regarding competencies dimensions among respondents' age. The independent sample t-test comparison analysis also indicated that there were significant differences regarding the librarian personal qualities among respondents' position and qualification. A positive relationship was found between the competencies dimensions and personal qualities which scored moderately correlated. Similarly, a positive relationship also recorded between personal qualities and organisational performance. Moreover, the results of the coefficients indicated conceptual skills had the highest significant positive effect on organisational performance, followed by human skills and technical skills among academic librarians. The main outcome is to develop a set of competencies and personal qualities that are significant to librarianship and the body of knowledge and also to contribute and expand further to other researcher in different culture and the setting environment.