Influence of Job Satisfaction on Turnover Intentions of Library Personnel in Selected Univerisities in South West Nigeria

Background of the Study A characteristic of organisations in the 21st century is the continuous and rapid pace of change. Volatile free market economic environments, rapidly changing technologies, global competition, workforce diversity, and new organisational structures are some of the challenges an organisation faces. Organisations may differ in the priority they attach to the human resource component, in their efforts toward achieving high productivity and competitive advantage, yet they all recognize the value of a qualified, motivated, stable, and responsive team of employees (Huselid, 1995). Retention and productivity levels of the existing workforce are an essential concern in human resource management. Employee turnover is one of the most studied topics in organisational psychology (Mitra, Jenkins and Gupta, 1992) and is of interest to other professionals, including personnel researchers, and managers of organisations (Mobley, Griffeth, Hand and Meglino, 1979). Literature Review According to Tella, Ayeni and Popoola (2007), the management of people at work is an integral part of the management process. To understand the critical importance of people in the organisation is to recognize that the human element and the organisation are synonymous. A well-managed organisation usually sees an average worker as the root source of quality and productivity gains. Such organisations do not look at capital investment, but at employees, as the fundamental source of improvement. An organisation is effective to the degree to which it achieves its goals. An effective organisation will make sure that there is a spirit of cooperation and sense of commitment and satisfaction within the sphere of its influence. In order to make employees satisfied and committed to their jobs in academic libraries, there is need for strong and effective motivation at the various levels, departments, and sections of the library. In order for an organisation to be successful they must continuously ensure the satisfaction of their employees. Job satisfaction is defined as "an individual's reaction to the job experience" (Berry, 1997). There are various components that are considered to be vital to job satisfaction. These variables are important because they all influence the way a person feels about his/her job. These components include the following: pay, promotion, benefits, supervisor, co-workers, work conditions, communication, safety, productivity, and the work itself. Each of these factors figure into an individual's job satisfaction differently. One might think that pay is considered to be the most important component of job satisfaction, although this has not been found to be true. Employees are more concerned with work in an environment they enjoy. Job can be influenced by variety of factors like quality of one's relationship with the supervisor, quality of physical environment in which one works and the degree of fulfillment in one's work. Positive attitudes towards job are equivalent to job satisfaction where-as negative attitudes towards job have been defined variously from time to time. In short, job satisfaction is determined by a person's attitude towards job. Job satisfaction is an attitude which results from balancing and summation of many specific likes and dislikes experienced in connection with the job-their evaluation may rest largely upon one's success or failure in the achievement of personal objective and upon perceived combination of the job and combination towards these ends. According to Pestonejee, job satisfaction can be taken as a summation of employee's feelings in four important areas. These are: (1) Job - nature of work (dull, dangerous, interesting), hours of work, fellow workers, opportunities on the job for promotion and advancement (prospects), overtime regulations, interest in work, physical environment and machines and tools. …