UNDERSTANDING LIBRARIANS MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Transcription

1 UNDERSTANDING LIBRARIANS MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES Donna Chan Faculty of Information and Media Studies University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 5B7 Ethel Auster Faculty of Information Studies University of Toronto 140 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario Abstract It is widely recognized that change in libraries requires staff to pursue professional development and workplace learning opportunities. Libraries can provide a supportive environment for staff, but staff must be motivated to take up the opportunities and learn to adopt new roles, innovate new services and master new technologies. Motivation is the most important factor determining participation in professional development. The results of a study of the participation of reference librarians in large urban public libraries in Ontario, Canada, in 2001 are reported. The study examined the role of factors such as professional commitment, age, barriers to participation, organizational climate, managerial support and motivation on the participation of 553 reference librarians in formal and informal professional development. Motivation emerged as the most important factor determining the time spent in professional development activities, including courses, workshops, conferences, reading the literature, discussions with colleagues and on-the-job training. The intrinsic rewards of professional development activities are perceived as more attainable than extrinsic rewards. Implications of these findings for policies and practices related to professional development include the provision of tangible and achievable rewards for pursuing professional development, and the recognition of the role of managers and supervisors in encouraging participation in professional development activities. Introduction In twenty first century libraries, change has become a constant. The introduction of new technologies has enabled the reorganization of work processes and the development of new products and services. In addition, new ways of managing organizations have been introduced. This has led to restructuring, downsizing and the search for flexibility in staffing. The knowledge and skills that workers had acquired through education and on-the-job experience may no longer be relevant for jobs that have been changed by technology or that have been redesigned. Libraries expect staff to take up these challenges and opportunities and learn to adopt new roles, innovate new services and master new technologies by actively pursuing professional development and workplace learning opportunities. This paper examines the crucial role of motivation in the participation of staff in professional development activities. We review the literature on motivation to learn and to participate in 157

2 professional development and present results of a study that explores the extent to which professional development of reference librarians was occurring in large public libraries in Ontario, Canada. We examine components of motivation in order to understand the motivational processes of librarians. Our discussion focuses on the meaning of the results for the policies and practices relating to professional development in libraries in the twenty first century. Review of the literature Across several disciplines and despite varied conceptualizations, motivation emerges as the single most important determinant of participation in training and professional development activities. This finding is consistent across the industrial psychology and education literatures where motivation has been measured as simply as a desire to learn or as complexly as a mathematical construct based on expectancy theory. In addition, researchers have focused on the predictors of motivation. Motivation is the process relating to the category of outcomes an individual wants to achieve or to avoid as well as to the specific actions necessary to attain this. 1 In relation to participation in training and development activities, motivation to learn is an employee s desire to learn the content of training and development activities. 2 In one study, motivation to learn was the only attitudinal variable to have a consistent, positive effect on participation in development activities across three different organizations. 2 In another study, learning motivation was found to be significantly correlated with participation in five types of development activities. 3 Researchers have asked trainees directly about their motivation to participate in the training or development activity being undertaken. Smith and Burgin 4 asked 731 library professionals and paraprofessionals about their reasons for participating in continuing education programs. They identified four factors, professional competence, patron service, collegiality and personal concerns, as motivators. Motivation has been conceptualized using expectancy theory. 5 Expectancy theory predicts that behaviour results from choices individuals make, based on the kinds and levels of rewards they expect to attain and the effort required to obtain the rewards. According to the theory, individuals will be motivated to participate in updating to acquire new knowledge or skills if they: 1. believe that participation in updating activities will result in their being up-todate and competent (expectancy belief); 2. perceive that being up-to-date will influence the kinds of work-related outcomes such as pay, promotion, praise or feelings of accomplishment they can obtain (instrumentality belief); 3. value the work-related outcomes (valence). Expectancy theory predicts that the three factors (expectancy beliefs, instrumentality beliefs and valences) combine in a multiplicative fashion to provide motivation to a course of action. Motivation is expected to be greatest when high levels of effort are perceived to be associated with high levels of performance, which in turn lead to valued outcomes, such as higher pay. This formulation has been used in studies of engineers, 6 administrative staff, 7 nurses, 8 information systems professionals 9 and public servants 10 and their participation in training and development activities. In all these studies, motivation was a significant predictor of participation. The antecedents of training, including training motivation, have been widely studied. A meta-analysis of training motivation drew on 256 studies to examine the predictors of 158

3 motivation and the ways in which motivation influences various outcomes related to participation in training and development. These studies have identified individual characteristics, such as achievement motivation, locus of control, job involvement, organizational commitment, career commitment, self-efficacy, valence and age, as significant predictors of training motivation. Situational characteristics, such as organizational climate, manager support and peer support also play a role in determining training motivation. These characteristics have been linked also to training behaviour (e.g., participation levels) and training outcomes (e.g., knowledge and skill acquisition, reactions to training). The study focused on alternative constructs to model the antecedents of training motivation and outcomes of training. The meta-analysis suggested that motivation mediates the effect certain variables, such as self-efficacy, valence and job involvement, while other variables, such as locus of control, conscientiousness, anxiety, age and climate, exert both direct and indirect effects on motivation, learning outcomes and job performance. 11 Methodology The data used in this paper were collected from reference librarians working in 18 large urban public libraries in Ontario, Canada in A total of 733 professional librarians with reference responsibilities were sent questionnaires and 553 completed responses were received, for a response rate of 75.4%. The objective of the study was to examine the influence of individual characteristics and organizational factors on the participation of librarians in formal and informal professional development activities. Professional development activities included on the questionnaire were both formal and informal. Formal activities are scheduled and structured learning activities, such as inhouse training courses, continuing education courses at an educational institution or professional association workshops. Informal activities are learning activities that occur 12, 13 opportunistically, without strict timetables, and outside of formal structures. These include discussions with colleagues, reading professional literature, writing/editing for publication, on-the-job training, attending conferences and self-directed projects. The other variables in the conceptual framework include motivation; professional commitment (the extent to which an individual identifies with his/her profession); barriers to participation (the personal circumstances that restrict an individual's ability to participate in updating activities); climate (employees perceptions that management policies and practices influence participation in professional development); managerial support (the perception that managers and supervisors in the organization actively support employees in their efforts to keep up-to-date); and, age. Control variables included full/part-time work status and size of the organization. The operationalization of the measures is described in the appendix. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between participation in professional development activities and the control and independent variables. Each participation measure (formal activities and informal activities) was regressed on the control variables (full/part-time status and size of organization) and the independent variables (motivation, age, subjective age, professional commitment, barriers to participation, updating climate and managerial support). Multiple regression analysis was also used to examine the relationship between motivation and the control and independent variables. Listwise deletion was used to handle missing data. This resulted in varying sample sizes, from 477 to 512, for each of the equations. To examine the components of the motivation measure, t-tests of difference of means and Spearman s rank correlation were used. 159

4 Results There were 553 respondents to the survey, representing 75.4% of the survey population. All respondents included in the analysis have professional qualifications (BLS, MLS or equivalent) and are identified as having some public service responsibilities. The respondents are predominantly female (82.5%), work full-time (77.9%), are members of a professional association (51.9%) and are union members (80.5%). Over half of respondents (58.1%) had been employed as a librarian for 15 years or longer. Respondents reported an average of 26.4 hours in the previous year in formal updating activities, and an average of hours in informal activities. The main type of formal updating activity was in-house courses while the main informal updating activity was conference attendance, followed by discussions with colleagues. The average motivation score was 54.0, with a standard deviation of The motivation scores ranged in value from 2.2 to Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation scores were also calculated based on the types of rewards for participating in professional development. Intrinsic rewards were personal satisfaction, development of new knowledge, challenging tasks, preparation for future work and networking with other librarians. Extrinsic rewards were pay, recognition, job security, promotion opportunities and influence over work decisions. The intrinsic motivation score averaged 70.9, with a standard deviation of 25.6; the extrinsic motivation score averaged 37.0, with a standard deviation The difference between these two scores was significant (t=45.88, p=.000). Table 1 presents the results of the regression of the participation variables on motivation and the independent and control variables. The table shows the standardized regression coefficients for motivation, R 2 for the model, the F-value for the model R 2, p value, and the sample size. The details of the results for the other independent and the control variables are not shown. For all equations, the model R 2 is significant. For participation in formal activities, F=6.31 (df=8, 468, p=0.000), and for participation in informal activities, F=9.61 (df=8, 496, p=0.000). Table 1 Regression results for participation variables Formal Activities β Informal Activities β Motivation p Overall model R F-value p N Note: Other independent variables included are full/part-time status, size of organization, years in profession, professional commitment, barriers to participation, updating climate, managerial support. Motivation is a significant predictor of participation in both formal professional development activities (β=.11, p=0.028) and informal activities (β=.20, p=0.000). The effect of motivation is positive. The equations predict that for every unit increase in motivation, participation in formal activities will increase 0.10 hours and participation in informal activities will increase 1.80 hours. Table 2 presents the results of the regression of motivation and the independent and control variables. The table shows the standardized regression coefficients for the independent 160

5 variables, R 2 for the model, the F-value for the model R 2 and the sample size. The model R 2 (0.24) is significant, F=19.53, (df=8, 503, p=0.000) Table 2 Regression results for motivation Predictors β p Years in profession Professional commitment Barriers to participation Climate Managerial support Overall Model R 2 F-value p N Note: Control variables are full/part-time status, size of organization The independent variables are all significant predictors of motivation to participate in professional development activities. Professional commitment (β=.13, p=0.001), barriers to participation (β=.16, p=0.000), climate (β=.26, p=0.000) and managerial support (β=.15, p=0.001) all have a positive effect on motivation. This suggests that the level of motivation is affected by the perceived climate of support for professional development in the library and by the degree of support from the manager. Age, as measured by years in the profession (β=-.11, p=0.004) has a negative effect on motivation. An examination of the components of the motivation measure, expectancies, instrumentalities and valences, allows us to understand more fully the motivation of librarians to participate in professional development. Table 3 shows descriptive statistics for the expectancy component of the motivation measure. This component reflects the perceived benefits of participation. On a scale from 1 to 5, respondents perceived that they would almost always obtain these outcomes from participation in professional development. Better service to patrons received the highest ranking at 4.30, and higher productivity received the lowest ranking at Table 3 Descriptive statistics for expectancy component of motivation Benefits of participation in professional development Mean S.D. N Better service for patrons/clients Greater competence in library work Enhanced performance as reference librarian Higher productivity in professional role The valence component reflects the perceived value of the rewards from participating in professional development, and can be characterised as what respondents want from the organization for participating in professional development. The instrumentality component reflects the expectations of receiving these same rewards as a result of participating in professional development, and can be characterised as what employees think they get from the organization for participating in professional development activities. Table 4 presents the comparison between the valence ( wants ) and instrumentality ( gets ) components of motivation. The ranking of the wants list shows that the top three valued rewards were intrinsic (satisfaction, new knowledge and preparation for future work), followed by three extrinsic rewards (job security, influence over work decisions and pay). 161

6 However, the ranking of the gets list shows that all the intrinsic rewards were thought to be the most likely to be obtained and the extrinsic rewards ranked in the bottom half of the list. The significance of the wants and gets rankings can be assessed using Spearman s rank correlation of association (Spearman s Rho, r s ). Spearman's rank correlation applies to ranked data; a value of one indicates that the two rankings are identical, and a value near zero indicates no association between the two sets of rankings. A significant correlation would indicate that the level of association between the two rankings is different from zero. In this case, the overall correlation between the two sets of rankings was 0.41, indicating a nonsignificant level of association between the two groups (p=0.243). The reward which received the highest average ranking in terms of importance was personal satisfaction at 4.53, on a scale of 1 to 5. However, the reward which was rated most likely to be obtained was new professional knowledge and skills at 4.38 on a scale of 1 to 5. Personal satisfaction was the second reward that was most likely to be obtained. Job security ranked fourth in the list of wants ; however it ranked second last in terms of gets. In other words, job security was quite highly valued by the respondents but it was recognized that it was not likely to be obtained by participation in professional development. Table 4 Comparison of wants and gets Wants Gets N t-statistic p Personal satisfaction New professional knowledge and skills Preparation for future work assignments or projects Job security More influence over work decisions Pay Recognition from organization More challenging tasks or projects Opportunity to network with other librarians Opportunities for promotion or better job Looking at the individual rewards, respondents valued them as important (>3) while their expectations of obtaining these rewards ranged from 4 (likely) to 1 (not at all likely). These gaps between the wants and the gets are significant for all rewards, except for networking opportunities. In most cases, the value of the reward had a higher rating than the expectation of receiving the reward. For example, pay was rated as important (3.90), but the likelihood of obtaining a pay increase through participation in professional development was ranked as not at all likely (1.22; t=66.30, p=.000). Of the significant differences, only new professional skills scored a higher rating on the gets list (4.38) compared to the wants list (4.25; t=-4.03, p=.000). We now turn to examination of the motivation measures by selected characteristics. Table 5 shows comparisons of the means of the motivation measures by gender, years in the profession and union membership. The level of motivation of women is significantly higher than that for men (t=2.98, p=0.003); for librarians who have spent less than 15 years in the profession (t=1.97, p=0.049); and, for librarians who are not union members (t=-2.91, p=.004). Women and men differ significantly on their level of intrinsic motivation (t=4.62, p=0.000), but the difference in their level of extrinsic motivation is not significant. Librarians in the early half of their career show higher levels of extrinsic motivation (t=2.00, p=0.045). Union members show lower levels of extrinsic motivation than non-members (t=-4.47, p=0.000). 162

7 Table 5 Differences in motivation measures by gender, years in profession and union membership Motivation Intrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation Gender Women (n=449) Men (n=92) t-statistic p Years in profession Less than 15 years (n=228) More than or equal to years (n=30) t-statistic p Union Membership Member (n=436) Non-member (n=105) t-statistic p Comparisons of the components of motivation by membership in professional associations are shown in Table 6. There are significant differences in the ratings of wants and gets according to membership in a professional organization, although the rankings of the sets of rewards are highly correlated. Both members and non-members of professional associations ranked the set of wants in a similar manner (Spearman s Rho, r s =0.79, p=.006) and the set of gets in the identical order (Spearman s Rho, r s =1.0). However, the ratings of the individual rewards on the wants list differ significantly for seven of the items. For six of the significant items, members of professional associations value the reward more highly than non-members. These items are personal satisfaction (4.60 for members vs for non-members; t=2.57, p=0.011); new knowledge (4.34 vs. 4.16; t=3.31, p=0.001); preparation for future work (4.29 vs. 4.09; t=3.35, p=0.001); recognition (3.95 vs. 3.77; t=2.62, p=0.009); challenge (3.93 vs. 3.77; t=2.19, p=0.029); and networking opportunities (3.91 vs.3.56; t=4.73, p=0.000). Non-members of professional associations valued job security (4.18) more highly than members did (4.03; t=-2.19, p=0.037). 163

8 Table 6 Comparison of wants and gets by membership in a professional association Member N Non- Member N t-statistic p Value of rewards ( Wants ) Personal satisfaction New professional knowledge and skills Preparation for future work More influence over work decisions Job security Recognition from organization More challenging tasks or projects Opportunity to network Pay Promotion or better job Likelihood of rewards ( Gets ) New professional knowledge and skills Personal satisfaction Preparation for future work Opportunity to network More challenging tasks or projects Promotion or better job More influence over work decisions Recognition from organization Job security Pay increase Discussion The results of this study show that reference librarians working in large urban public libraries in Ontario are participating in formal and informal professional development activities. On average, librarians spent 26.4 hours in the previous year in formal updating activities and hours in informal activities. The 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey showed that on average, in Canada, full-time employed workers with post-secondary education received 63 hours of training (predominantly formal) in the previous year. 14 Canadian surveys of informal learning have found that professional employees spend about 6 hours per week or 312 hours per year on informal work-related learning. 12 The amount of time spent by reference librarians in this study in informal learning seems to be comparable to the time spent by other professionals and by the general population of Canadians. The librarians in the study, however, report spending fewer hours in formal learning activities than other well educated workers. Based on an average workday of 8 hours, librarians in the study spent just over three days in the previous year attending formal professional development activities. This may be due to a lack of interest or to a lack of library-related formal professional development opportunities. Formal activities are provided by the employer, educational institutions and professional associations. Many of the library systems in the study were not large enough to be able to provide many formal in-house courses, yet these types of opportunities were the most heavily used of the formal professional development activities. On average, librarians spent about two of their three days attending in-house professional development activities. There seems to be a reliance on the employer to provide formal development opportunities. 164

9 The study also sheds light on the motivations of librarians to participate in professional development activities. An organizational climate that facilitates participation and a supportive manager are both positive influences on motivation. Managerial support is an important influence on motivation, possibly through the manager s functions of organizing, directing and co-ordinating work. Supportive managers are those who provide feedback on job performance, assign opportunities to develop and strengthen new skills and take an interest in the career goals of their staff. Respondents in the study mentioned the heavy workload of librarians. For example, one wrote: There needs to be more encouragement from management to have professionals take the time during the workday to explore new technologies on their own. Clearly, having a supportive manager who enables practice and experimentation results in higher levels of informal updating. Other positive influences include commitment to the profession and, surprisingly, personal barriers to participation, while age had a negative influence on motivation. The librarians in this study valued all the rewards fairly highly, but their expectations of receiving the rewards were rated as fairly unlikely. According to the expectancy theory of motivation, when individuals perceive a low probability of obtaining a reward that is valued by them they are less likely to be motivated to achieve the outcome. For the majority of the rewards, this gap between the wants and gets existed. There is an opportunity for libraries to influence motivation to participate in professional development by paying attention to the rewards they offer for professional development. One participant wrote, If there were some sort of recognition in terms of promotion/pay/participation in decision-making, I would be more willing to give up some family time for professional updating activities. Another stated, There is no, absolutely no incentive to remain updated or to continue with professional development no pay incentive, no work incentive, no recognition of any kind within the organization. The only incentive is my own personal sense of accomplishment and competency. The study showed that there are differences in motivation scores by gender and there was some indication of inequality of treatment on gender lines. One female noted that in terms of reimbursement of tuition fees, The inequality is divided on gender lines, leaving women with more of the load to bear as far as tuition fees are concerned. A male librarian commented that no male librarians have been promoted in 12 years. Perhaps libraries need to re-examine their policies and practices for these effects. Union membership plays a role in motivation, with librarians who are not unionized showing higher levels of motivation, particularly extrinsic motivation. In unionized workplaces, the reliance on the seniority principle for promotion and pay increases reduces the effectiveness of extrinsic rewards. Age also plays a motivating role. Age, whether a chronological measure in terms of years or a psycho-social measure in terms of feelings of age, was negatively related to motivation. There were significant differences in the expectations of receiving rewards between older and younger librarians. Perhaps one of the stereotypes of older workers is true in libraries: older workers are not interested in investing the time and effort it takes to learn on their own. Libraries need to consider their human resource practices and how they affect the older workers on their staff. In particular, valued rewards for older workers to update may be somewhat different from that of younger workers. The key is to find out what employees value and to design rewards that truly motivate. Membership in professional associations is an important factor influencing motivation to participate in professional development. The differences between members and nonmembers were significant for all rewards in terms of wants (value of the rewards) and in terms of gets (likelihood of obtaining the reward). Some libraries subsidize the cost of 165

10 membership for professional staff and/or attendance at professional conferences and workshops but the policies may not be evenly applied. One respondent told us, Conferences were offered to staff members, but not fully reimbursed financially for attending. This often limited the number of interested staff members, including myself. [It was] never clear that time would be offered in lieu of time spent at off-hours workshops, conferences. Another said, Conference attendance seems to be generally limited to managers, in terms of staff who are encouraged to go. Regular librarians have to make a special request, justify why they should be allowed to go and may not be reimbursed for fees (only their time, if they are lucky). Many participants indicated that their library does not reward or recognize them for their membership of professional associations. There was also a perception held by some librarians that professional associations had nothing to offer them. One librarian wrote, My biggest concern is that our professional association is not providing activities that meet my needs. The sessions that are offered tend to rehash the problems but offer no solutions. I m not looking for the questions, but I am looking for some answers or suggestions. This exploratory study focused on a selected group of librarians in public libraries in a particular geographical region. Future research could expand the scope of coverage. A case study of informal learning in the workplace would be of benefit. This would allow a more indepth examination of the factors found to be significant in this study together with additional variables that might influence informal learning. Causal modeling of the process of maintaining professional competence can be accomplished through longitudinal studies. Limitations Not all possible explanatory variables were included in the study. There are other variables such as self-efficacy, co-worker support and organizational commitment, which have been found to have an influence on motivation in previous studies. The study uses selfreported data that are retrospective in nature. It is known that there is considerable difference between self-reported data on participation in all types of training and development activities and data obtained from administrative records of participation in formal training. 2,15 There is much measurement error in on-the-job training measures, with organizations reporting up to 25% more training on average than do workers. 15 Conclusion This study focused on the participation of reference librarians in professional development activities and their motivations to keep up-to-date. Motivation is a significant predictor of participation levels. Librarians were motivated to participate by their expectations of providing better service for their patrons and greater competence in their work. There were significant gaps between the value they place on the rewards for professional development and their perceptions of their ability to obtain the rewards. Membership in a professional association was found to affect the librarians perceptions of the rewards for updating. Libraries can improve their policies and practices for making professional development opportunities available to their staff, for creating an organizational climate that is supportive of learning, and for recognizing the efforts of their staff to keep up-to-date. In the words of one librarian, The challenges of the new work environment have reinvigorated my career. The learning curve has become steeper, especially in the last 5-6 years. All in all, though, it s been great fun and has provided immense job satisfaction. My enthusiasm for being a professional librarian has increased immensely. 166

11 Appendix. Measures used in the study Participation in professional development activities Respondents were asked to estimate the number of hours they had spent in the previous year engaging in the different types of formal professional development activities. For informal activities, they were asked to estimate the number of hours in the previous month they had spent participating in each type of activity. This estimate was multiplied by 12 to yield an estimate of hours spent in the previous year in each activity. The measure of participation in formal and informal activities represents the sum of hours spent in these styles of professional development. Motivation The measure of motivation was based on expectancy theory. 5,16 Motivation is conceived as a multiplicative function of three factors: 1. Expectancy: the belief that participating in professional development activities will lead to better performance, given a certain level of effort, 2. Instrumentality: the expectation of receiving an outcome, given successful performance, 3. Valence: the value of that outcome. Expectancy was operationalized by asking respondents to estimate how frequently a high level of participation in professional development activities leads to higher productivity, enhanced performance, better service for patrons/clients and greater competence on the job. These were ranked on a scale from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Instrumentality was operationalized by asking respondents to rate the likelihood of attaining certain outcomes if they frequently participated in professional development activities. The rating scale ran from 1 (not at all likely) to 5 (extremely likely). Valence was operationalized by asking respondents to rate the importance of the same outcomes. The rating scale ran from 1 (not at all important) to 5 (extremely important). For the Instrumentality and Valence measures, the same set of 10 outcomes was used. The outcomes consisted of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. The intrinsic rewards were personal satisfaction, development of new knowledge, challenging tasks, preparation for future work and networking with other librarians. The extrinsic rewards were pay, recognition, job security, promotion opportunities and influence over work decisions. Age There were five measures of age. Chronological age, time to retirement, and years in the profession conceptualize age in terms of years. Cleveland and Shore 17 found that age conceptualized in terms of psycho-social age was a useful explanatory measure with respect to work outcomes including participation in development activities. Subjective age refers to how old respondents feel compared to others the same age, while relative age refers to how old respondents feel compared to co-workers. Barriers to participation Barriers to participation were measured using a modified version of the Deterrents to Participation scale 18 and the addition of three other indicators of barriers. The scale-based portion of the measure asked respondents to rate on a five-point scale how influential a set of 19 reasons were in contributing to decisions to not participate in updating activities. Examples of items include The content of the activity was not relevant for my needs and The locations of updating activities were often inconvenient. 167

12 Three additional questions were asked. These concerned membership in a professional organization, having a computer at home, and having an Internet connection at home. Negative answers are barriers and were added to the score obtained on the scale portion of the measure. Membership in a professional organization facilitates access to conferences and professional literature, while having a computer with Internet access in the home enables practice with a changing technology. Professional commitment Professional commitment was measured using a five item summated rating scale adapted from Blau Respondents were asked to rate on a five-point scale their response to statements such as This is the ideal profession for a life work, and I like this profession too well to give it up. Climate The measure of climate was adapted from previous research. 8,9,22 The measure consisted of 22 statements that respondents were asked to rate on a five-point scale about whether they agreed or disagreed. Some examples of statements are: The library is concerned with the professional growth of its staff and The demands of my job leave little time for updating. The ratings were summed to create the measure. Managerial support Managerial support was measured using a nine-item scale. 23 Respondents were asked to rate on a five-point scale their agreement or disagreement with statements describing the support for career development that they receive from their immediate supervisor or manager. Some examples of items include: My manager gives me helpful feedback about my job performance and My manager supports my attempts to acquire additional training or education to further my career. The summed ratings were used as the measure of managerial support. Control variables Control variables of job status and size of the organization were included as these have been identified as consistently affecting participation in training and development. 7,10, 13, 24 Job status refers to full-time or part-time employment status. Acknowledgement This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Ethel Auster, Principal Investigator. References 1 Thierry, H. Motivation and satisfaction. In: Drenth P.J., Thierry H. & de Wolff C.J., (eds) Handbook of Work and Organizational Psychology. 2nd. ed. Hove: Psychology Press, 1998: pp Noe, R.A. & Wilk, S.L. Investigation of the factors that influence employees' participation in development activities. Journal of Applied Psychology 1993, 78, Birdi, K., Allan, C. & Warr, P. Correlates and perceived outcomes of four types of employee development activity. Journal of Applied Psychology 1997; 82, Smith, D. & Burgin, R. The motivations of professional and paraprofessional librarians for participating in continuing education programs. Library and Information Science Research 1991, 13,

13 5 Vroom, V.H. Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley, Farr, J.L., Enscore E.E., Steiner D.D. & Kozlowski S.W.J. Factors That Influence the Technical Updating of Engineers. University Park: Pennsylvania State University, Mathieu, J.E., Tannenbaum, S.I. & Salas, E. Influences of individual and situational characteristics on measures of training effectiveness. Academy of Management Journal 1992, 35, Dorsett, J.G. Understanding the Relationship Between Age and the Updating Process: The Creation of a Model [Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation] University of Akron, Schambach, T.P. Maintaining Professional Competence: An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Professional Obsolescence of Information Technology Professionals [Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation] University of South Florida, Tharenou, P. The relationship of training motivation to participation in training and development. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 2001, 74: Colquitt, J.A., LePine, J.A. & Noe, RA. Toward an integrative theory of training motivation: a meta-analytic path analysis of 20 years of research. Journal of Applied Psychology 2000, 85, Livingstone, D.W. Exploring the icebergs of adult learning: findings of the first Canadian survey of informal learning practices. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education 1999, 13 (2), Noe R.A., Wilk, S.L., Mullen, E.J., & Wanek, J.E. Employee development: issues in construct definition and investigation of antecedents. In: Ford, J.K., Kozlowski, S.W.J., Kraiger, K., Salas E. & Teachout, M.S. (eds) Improving Training Effectiveness in Work Organizations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997: pp Kapsalis, C. Employee Training: An International Perspective. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, Barron, J.M., Berger, M.C. & Black, D.A. How well do we measure training? Journal of Labor Economics 1997, 15, Lawler, E.E.I. Pay and Organization Development. Reading: Addison-Wesley, Cleveland, J.N., & Shore, L.M. Self- and supervisory perspectives on age and work attitudes and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 1992, 77, Scanlan, C.S. & Darkenwald, G.G. Identifying deterrents to participation in continuing education. Adult Education Quarterly 1984, 34 (5), Blau, G.J. The measurement and prediction of career commitment. Journal of Occupational Psychology 1985, 58, Blau, G.J. Further exploring the meaning and measurement of career commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior 1988, 32, Blau, G.J. Testing the generalizability of a career commitment measure and its impact on employee turnover. Journal of Vocational Behavior 1989, 35, Kozlowski, S.W.J. & Hults, B.M. An exploration of climates for technical updating and performance. Personnel Psychology 1987, 40, Greenhaus, J.H. Parasuraman, S. & Wormley, W.M. Effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluation and career outcomes. Academy of Management Journal 1990, 47, Tharenou, P. Organisational, job, and personal predictors of employee participation in training and development. Applied Psychology: An International Review 1997, 46,