A Comparative Study of Leadership Competencies of Academic Librarians in Malaysia

Abstract

This study aims at examining the perception of library leaders and librarians about leadership competencies for academic library leaders and identifying the degree of differences in their perception. The study takes on a quantitative approach, involving a survey of library leaders and librarians at a Malaysian university library. Two separate questionnaires were designed based on an adaptation of the MySkillsProfile@2012 and Gorman’s Competence Inventory to examine what leadership competencies were considered to be most important among the two groups. The study found that academic librarians only possessed moderately developed leadership competencies and the frequency of leadership training courses, which are being conducted by an academic library in a year, is not adequate for them to acquire leadership competencies. The top five leadership attributes, as perceived by library leaders, showed little difference in the ranking of the competencies between the two groups. The adapted instrument developed from this study can be applied, tested and used to determine leadership training needs based on the perceived gap.

Keywords: Leadership Competencies, Academic Library, Library Leaders, Malaysia

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