Relationship between organisational determinants and turnover intentions of librarians in public libraries in Gauteng province

Abstract

Public libraries across the globe, and particularly in developing countries, are faced with challenges in the mitigation and management of the complex turnover intention phenomenon. The situation is further exacerbated by ineffective retention strategies, retiring baby-boomers, and the millennials not being attracted to the public libraries due to ineffective retention strategies or unmet expectations. Therefore, turnover intention is a matter of grave concern for libraries, as it is associated with deleterious effects such as loss of knowledge, shortage of skilled librarians, indirect and direct costs to the library. This quantitative study used the census method and adopted the cross-sectional survey design, including the use of a structured questionnaire to collect data from 174 librarians at the City of Johannesburg Libraries in South Africa. Data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences. The results reported significant and negative relationship supervision, personal interpersonal and training to develop and utilise new skills, and turnover intention. The results further revealed an insignificant relationship between perceived alternative employment opportunity and leadership, and turnover intention. It is recommended that in order to decrease turnover intention and increase talent retention, effective measures should be developed which could integrate the variables such as supervision, personal interaction and training programmes. It is critical to revisit the library retention strategy at least once a year to stay abreast of best human resources or retention practices in public library sector.