KNOWLEDGE CREATION, SHARING AND USE AS PREDICTORS OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION OF LIBRARIANS IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Creativity and innovation are essential ingredients for rendering value-added information services to users in university libraries. There is record of low generation and poor implementation of new ideas among most federal university librarians to solve service-related problems that can enhance service delivery. This has consequently led to low patronage and general complaints among library users in federal universities in Nigeria. Previous studies have focused largely on some aspect of knowledge management (preservation, storage and transfer), with little attention paid to knowledge creation, sharing and use. Therefore, this study was carried out to examine Knowledge Creation (KC), Knowledge Sharing (KS) and Knowledge Use (KU) as predictors of creativity and innovation of librarians in federal universities in Nigeria. Social Exchange, Resource Based View, Cognitive Fit, Diffusion of Innovation and Knowledge Utilisation theories provided the framework. The survey design of the correlational type was adopted. Forty federal universities and the 518 librarians in the libraries were totally enumerated. The instruments used were KC (r=0.87), KS (r=0.85), Channel of KS (r=0.98), KU (r=0.88), Creativity (r=0.94) and Innovation (r=0.75) scales. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance. The respondents’ age was 40.58 ± 2.30 years and 59.1% were males. Respondents’ qualification were Master’s degree (62.7%), Bachelor’s degree (18.1%), Ph.D’s degree (13.5%), and M.Phil degree (5.6%). The KC ( =38.64), KS ( =98.47), KU ( =51.57), creativity ( =85.45) and innovation ( =86.60) were high, as against the thresholds of 30, 85, 40, 80 and 75, respectively. Bibliographic compilation ( =3.09), publishing in high impact journals ( =2.99), writing conference papers ( =2.98), producing technical reports ( =2.95) and current listing of literature ( =2.92) were high, as against the threshold of 2.50. Channels of knowledge sharing, which include face-to-face interaction ( =3.54), use of mobile phone ( =3.39), e-mails ( =3.27), formal/informal meeting ( =3.23) and seminars, workshops and symposia ( =3.21), were also high, with the test norm of 2.50. The KC (r=0.42), KS (r=0.61) and KU (r=0.65) correlated significantly with creativity, while KC (r=0.38), KS (r=0.50) and KU (r=0.45) correlated significantly with innovation. Significant relationships existed between KC and KS (r=0.52), KS and KU (r=0.63) and KC and KU (r=0.52). The KC, KS and KU had significant joint contribution to creativity (F (3;514=16;373), Adj. R2 =0.49) and innovation (F (3;514=68;922), Adj. R2 =0.28), accounting for 49.0% and 28.0% of their variances, respectively. The KC (β=0.31; β=0.25), KS (β=0.29; β=0.34) and KU (β=0.66) contributed relatively to librarians’ creativity and innovation. Knowledge creation, sharing and use influenced creativity and innovation of librarians in federal universities in Nigeria. Library administrators should promote knowledge creation practices, formalise knowledge sharing and formulate knowledge use policies in order to improve their creativity and innovation.