Abstract

For organizational efficiency and effectiveness, the leadership plays an important role. Therefore, it is important that leaders at every point in time appraise and re-appraise their style against its effectiveness This paper examined the leadership styles and its effectiveness in academic libraries in South-East Nigeria. This is aimed at ascertaining what type of leadership styles adopted and its effectiveness in carrying out the day to day activities ofthe libraries. The study adopted descriptive survey design using a sample of one hundred and twenty (120) academic librarians in eight (8) university libraries were purposefully selected. With the aid of structured questionnaires data was collected. A total of one hundred and fourteen (114) copies ofquestionnaire was retrieved. The data analyzed, showed that university libraries in South-East Nigeria adopted autocratic, democratic, transformational and bureaucratic leadership styles. However, the democratic leadership style is found to be adopted more, this is same for the effectiveness of the leadership styles as democratic leadership style is also more effective. Findings also showed that leadership effectiveness is affected by personality of the leader, staff training, job satisfaction, environmental factors and the working atmosphere. In line with the findings of the study that leadership style and its effectiveness is key to the running of university libraries, it is recommended that inter-personal relationships be encouraged, better communication channels be established, encourage sense of responsibility among library staff and encouragement of attention to personal needs ofthe individual staff.