DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AS FACTORS INFLUENCING TASK PERFORMANCE AMONG LIBRARY PERSONNEL IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES, SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of gender, marital status and level of income on task performance among personnel in public university libraries in southwestern Nigeria. Previous researches focused more on job satisfaction as it relates with work/job performance without much attention being paid to how demographics influence task performance in the library sector. The survey research design of correlational type was adopted while questionnaire titled ‘Library Personnel Task Performance Questionnaire’ was used to generate data from 330 personnel, working in 13 public university libraries in southwestern Nigeria. The findings from the study revealed high task performance among the respondents. Further findings from the study revealed significant relationships among gender, marital status, income and task performance of respondents. While marital status, gender and income had significant relative influence on task performance of library personnel, marital status, gender and income were equally found to have significant joint influence on task performance of the respondents. It is therefore, recommended that gender, and marital status of library personnel should be positively leveraged on by supervisors to bring about responsive and responsible behaviour that can bring about positive disposition to assigned job duties and responsibilities. Furthermore, income should be constantly reviewed to ensure that remuneration earned can cater for the needs and wellbeing of library personnel.

Keywords: Performance; gender; marital status; library personnel; public universities in Nigeria