Leadership Commitment as Predictors of Public Relations Integration in Selected University Libraries in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated leadership commitment as a predictor of the strategic and functional integration of public relations in two public university libraries in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative correlational survey design was adopted. Total enumeration was used to survey all 62 professional librarians at the University Library and Information Services, Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University (n = 24), and the Francis Sulemanu Idachaba Library, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University (n = 38). Data were collected with the validated Leadership Commitment and Public Relations Integration Questionnaire (LCPRIQ), with a 100% response rate, and analyzed using simple linear regression at the .05 level of significance.

Findings: Leadership commitment significantly predicted both strategic integration (R = .503, R² = .253, β = .503, p < .05) and functional integration (R = .779, R² = .607, β = .779, p < .05) of public relations. So both null hypotheses were rejected. Leadership commitment explained 25.3% of the variance in strategic integration but 60.7% in functional integration, indicating a stronger influence on day-to-day public relations execution than it has been embedded in strategic decision-making.

Practical implications: University library leaders should institutionalize public relations as a dedicated unit staffed by trained librarians, provide dedicated funding and capacity building, and develop explicit public relations policies with performance evaluation indicators, so that leadership commitment translates into the strategic integration of PR in policy, planning, and budgeting.

Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is among the first empirical studies to examine leadership commitment as a predictor of PR integration in university libraries in Nigeria and it distinguishes between strategic and functional integration.

Keywords: leadership commitment; public relations integration; strategic integration; functional integration; university libraries; Benue State; Nigeria

Paper type: Research paper