Performance Evaluation of Public Library Managers in Qom by 360-degree Feedback Method

Purpose: 360-degree evaluation is one of the evaluation methods that provides a complete and accurate evaluation of the skills, abilities, competencies, and performance of the evaluator due to the use of several sources to evaluate people. The aim of the study is to evaluate the performance of public library managers in Qom city by 360-degree feedback method. Method: The current research is an applied study which used a survey-analytical method to evaluate the performance of libraries managers in eight indicators (management skills, decision-making, encouragement and innovation, communication and interaction, leadership, professional skills, behavioral skills and teamwork) by 360-degree feedback method. The statistical population included all library managers (12 people), librarians (42 people) and superior officials (2 people) in the public libraries in Qom city. The tool for collecting data was the Brown questionnaire (with some modifications) in the five-point Likert scale with 64 items. The face validity of questionnaire was approved by experts, and its reliability was calculated by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.97). Non-parametric tests of SPSS (version 26) software were used for data analysis. Findings: Findings revealed that the status of all indicators of the performance of the managers of public libraries in Qom city is in a favorable situation, and there was no significant difference between the managers’ self-evaluation with librarians and superior officials- except for the “leadership” indicator. “Management skills”, “Interaction and communication” and “Team work” are ranked first to third. According to its average rating, the “decision-making” indicator has the least importance from the respondents’ point of view and there was a high and significant correlation between performance indicators of managers. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between the opinions of the respondents based on the demographic variables of age, gender, education degree, discipline and work experience. Originality/value: Thus far, there has been no study on evaluating the performance of public library managers with this method. 360-degree feedback method can be a suitable model for deciding on the performance of public libraries managers in a group and selecting them. The need to pay attention and delegation of authority is emphasized in indicators such as “encouragement and innovation”, “leadership” and “decision-making” according to the findings of the research in evaluating the performance of managers. Moreover, compiling and communicating performance evaluation indicators to librarians and managers of public libraries in order to gain a better understanding of these indicators and improve the quality of their performance can be useful.