Leadership practices and employee job satisfaction in the academic libraries of the State University System of Florida

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership practices and employee job satisfaction in the libraries of the State University System of Florida (SUS). Two research questions were developed: (1) Is there a statistically significant relationship between the employees' perceptions of their managers' leadership practices and the employees' job satisfaction? (2) Is there a statistically significant relationship between the employees' job satisfaction and the employees' ethnicity, gender, age, years of service, salary, graduate degrees, position classification, or type of library work?;The population was librarians in the major SUS libraries. Data were collected with three instruments: the Leadership Practices Inventory: Other (LPIO), the Survey of Organizational Climate (SOC), and a demographic questionnaire. One hundred sixty-five librarians responded (70% return rate).;Descriptive statistics for the five subunits of the LPIO, the six subunits of the SOC, and the eight variables of the demographic questionnaire were given. Correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, and the Scheffe procedure were used to determine the relationship between subunits of the LPIO and the SOC and between subunits of the SOC and the variables of the demographic questionnaire.;The average respondent was white, female, and 45-54 years old. She worked in a public service department and held the rank of University Librarian with 20-30 years of experience. The woman had a Master of Library Science and an annual salary of ;The major conclusion based on Research Question 1 was that librarians' job satisfaction was more closely related to autonomy in the work setting than to the leadership practices defined by the Leadership Practices Inventory. This finding also serves as a caution to library leaders to respect the individuality that librarians prize and may require for their job satisfaction.;The major conclusion based on Research Question 2 was that, in the State University System of Florida (SUS), Associate University Librarians were less satisfied with their jobs than academic librarians in the SUS who held other position classifications. The practical implication of this finding is that Associate University Librarians' needs differ from other SUS librarians. Attending to these needs could increase job satisfaction of librarians in this classification.