The effect of perceived leadership behavior on the job satisfaction of subordinates in Taiwan's university libraries

The relationship of perceived leadership behavior to job satisfaction has been explored in much literature. These studies found that perceived leadership behavior correlates positively with employee satisfaction. This relationship is generally considered to be causal. Most theories developed and research undertaken in the U.S. seem to indicate that consideration-oriented leadership behavior is more strongly associated with higher job satisfaction than initiating structure-oriented leadership behavior. While the importance of job satisfaction has long been recognized by various organizations, only a few studies have been conducted in the area of university librarianship in a specific country outside of the U.S. Fewer still have been conducted which study to the effects of library directors' perceived leadership behaviors on subordinate librarians' job satisfaction.; This dissertation addresses the following two research questions in Taiwan's university libraries: (1) whether any relationship exists between subordinate librarians' perceptions of directors' leadership behavior and subordinate librarians' job satisfaction; (2) whether the subordinate librarians' background characteristics (age, gender, time in current job, professional education background, supervising level, time spent interacting with the public) relates to their level of job satisfaction. 672 full-time subordinate librarians from 26 university libraries were invited to participate in this study. Subordinate librarians' job satisfaction was measured using the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) (Weiss et al., 1967). Library directors' perceived leadership behavior was measured using the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - Form XII (LBDQ-XII) (Stogdill, 1963).; The findings largely support four hypotheses: (1) Subordinate librarian's perception of consideration-oriented leadership behavior is a significant, positive predictor of job satisfaction in Taiwan's university libraries. (2) Librarians with supervisory responsibilities are significantly more satisfied with their jobs than librarians of a non-supervising level. (3) Male librarians have higher job satisfaction than female librarians. (4) Time spent interacting with the public could increase subordinate librarians' job satisfaction. In this study the independent variables of perceived leadership behavior and subordinate librarians' demographics explained 38.2 percent and 23.0 percent of the variance, respectively, in extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction. Both questionnaires also demonstrated high internal consistency reliability when used in Taiwan's university library settings.