A Study of the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction in the Chinese Public and Private Universities, Mentorship and the Role of College Academic Libraries

Abstract

University staff member satisfaction is strongly tied to the university development, leadership practices, organizational support and career opportunities, as well as working environment. Academic libraries are a significant professional environment in Chinese higher education institutions where librarians and library personnel have to deal with research support, information services, digital resources, learning spaces, scholarly communication, and user-based services. Mentorship can link workers to career resources, expertise, role modelling, social support, and institutional supports. A conceptual model relating mentorship and job satisfaction is developed and tested in public universities, private universities, and college academic libraries in China and mentorship is acted as an explanation mechanism. The conceptual framework has six direct hypotheses: mentorship is associated with job satisfaction in the public universities (H1), private universities (H2), and academic libraries (H3); and guidance is associated with job satisfaction in public universities (H4), private universities (H5), and academic libraries (H6). This is a quantitative cross sectional design, and it is proposed that 420 academic library employees from the public and private libraries of the country be sampled evenly. The reliability, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple regression, sector comparison and bootstrap mediation analysis are indicated. To ensure transparency in the manuscript developmental process, the numerical results presented in this paper are produced based on a synthetic dataset designed based on the proposed design, rather than using the data of observations collected from real Chinese universities. The simulated analysis results in positive and statistically significant direct relationships, for the six hypothesized paths. The strongest direct links with library job satisfaction are for mentorship, and guidance is also a significant predictor following the inclusion of mentorship in the regression models. The results offer a quantitative visualization of the application of mentoring and guidance in the research of human resources and library management in Chinese higher education. The paper ends with a "bench-to-bedroom" model of a measurement structure and implications for institutional mentoring design, library leadership, professional development and comparative public-private university research.