The Effect of Librarian's Empowerment Components on the Performance of Iran's Public Libraries

The quality and capabilities of human resources are of the most important factors in the survival, stability and development of an organization. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to find out the effects of librarian's empowerment components on the performance of Iran's public libraries.
This survey was an applied research and used a descriptive, correlational and deductive approach. The main instrument which used in this survey was a questionnaire. To assess the validity of the questionnaire specialist's opinions were achieved and to evaluate its reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was estimated. The research population consisted of all 5900 employees of the Iran's Public Libraries Foundation. Using proportional stratified sampling, 365 subjects were selected as the study sample. Data were analyzed using SPSS software in the form of descriptive and inferential statistics.
FINDINGS: The results of Spearman nonparametric test showed that there was a significantly positive relation between "Specialized skills", "Performance-based remuneration", "Delegation of authority", and "organizational information'' and the performance of Iran's public libraries. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that 0.58 of changes in the performance of public libraries was due to the impact of librarian's empowerment and other changes were related to other factors. Also, the results of regression analysis showed that "specialized skills training" with 0.31 has the most effect and "performance-based remuneration" with 0.14 has the least effect on the performance of Iran's public libraries.
With using empowerment models and analysis approach, the present study evaluated the effect of librarian's empowerment components on the performance of Iran's public libraries. Therefore, administrators, policy makers and planners can use the results of this research to enhance the effectiveness of public library services and performance.