Understanding and motivating academic library employees: theoretical implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the levels of motivation and needs satisfaction of academic library employees, adopting Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to examine individuals’ motivation. Design/methodology/approach The study collects and analyzes quantitative survey data. The research population comprises 108 employees working across eight college libraries at Kuwait University. Findings While participants generally agreed that their needs were being satisfied at each of the five levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, they reported higher levels of satisfaction of their self-actualization and social needs. Self-actualization is the summit of Maslow’s motivation theory representing the quest for reaching one’s full potential as a person. Research limitations/implications One limitation is the relatively small sample size due to Kuwait having only one public university. Future research could overcome this limitation by investigating both private and public universities. Practical implications This research contributes significantly and in various ways to understanding motivation in a library setting. It elucidates many aspects of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory criticized in previous literature. Overall, the study’s results should be useful to scholars in the library field interested in motivation, to academic librarians and to managers in academia. Originality/value Though many prior studies have focused on motivation in a library setting, Maslow’s theory has been little considered in the context of academic libraries. This study uses a theoretical framework based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to understand and explain the levels of motivation and needs satisfaction of academic library employees.