Academic instruction librarians' feelings of job control: Quantitative analysis of responses to a job control inventory

Abstract

Job control encompasses a range of dimensions that reflect the extent to which employees have the freedom and discretion to make decisions about their work. Job control includes control over tasks, scheduling, work pacing, physical environment, decision-making, interaction, and mobility. A web survey was administered to academic librarians with instruction responsibilities. The survey included a previously developed scale for measuring job control and several key demographic and job characteristic questions that were hypothesized to impact job control. 307 academic instruction librarians completed the job control scale. Analyzing each item in the job control scale, teaching workload, status, income, years at institution and in libraries, teacher training, union representation, and tenure status have statistically significant effects on responses to at least one question in the scale. Through analysis of the average response among academic instruction librarians in the sample, control over decision-making, including allocation of resources and salaries, and interactions appear to be two places where managers and library leaders may focus improvements. Control over the amount of money academic instruction librarians earn and over how their work is evaluated were the lowest across the 22 items in the job control scale. As library leaders and managers consider the practical implications of job control research on their work, earnings, evaluation processes, and interactions or interruptions may be key areas to enact changes or provide further transparency and shared decision-making.