Positive Thinking of Librarians of Mashhad Public Libraries and Its Effect on Their Communication Skills

One of the important personality traits is positive thinking that increases the ability to create skills. On the other hand, having employees with strong communication skills is one of the important factors in the success of any service organization. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the status of positive thinking of the librarians of Mashhad public libraries and its effect on their communication skills.

This study was an applied research that has been conducted through survey. The research population included all the librarians of Mashhad public libraries (70 people). The desired sample (59 people) was selected based on Krejcie and Morgan’s sample size table through simple random sampling. The required data were collected by Ingram and Visnicky's positive thinking questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaire of communication skills. The gathered data were analyzed through the SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings showed that the level of positive thinking of the librarians was undesirable. Positive thinking had a significant effect on communication skills of the librarians. A detailed analysis showed that some of the positive thinking components had a greater effect on the components of verbal and non-verbal communication skills. The “positive daily thinking” and “others' evaluations of self” components had the most effect on verbal communication skills. Also, the component of “others' evaluations of self” had the most effect on non-verbal communication skills. However, the “self-confidence” component had the least effect on verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

According to the results of this study, learning or enhancing positive-thinking will directly affect the enhancement and improvement of the librarians’ communication skills. Therefore, improvement of the librarians’ positive thinking through the implementation of workshops and training courses, under the supervision of professional associations and the allocation of certain budgets for all costs of these activities is proposed.