Information Seeking Pattern as Predictor of Managerial Effectiveness of Academic Heads of Departments in Public Universities in South-Western Nigeria

At the departmental levels in the universities are academic HODs appointed among the lecturers to direct and coordinate the activities of their departments with a view to ensuring good quality education through their effectiveness. Managerial effectiveness is the academic heads of departments’ ability to achieve desired results and goals of the departments and universities. This study investigated the influence of information seeking pattern on managerial effectiveness of academic heads academic HODs in public universities in South West, Nigeria. Survey research design which included the collection of primary data from the respondents was adopted for the study. The study population comprised 770 academic HODs in public universities of South-West Nigeria. Yaro Yamani table of sample size determinant was used to draw sample size of 258 from the population. A structured and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient for the constructs ranged from 0.73 to 0.84. A response rate of 96% was achieved. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential (simple and multiple regression) statistics. Information seeking pattern has significant influence on managerial effectiveness of academic heads of departments in public universities in South West, Nigeria (R 2 = 212, β=.460, t (246) = 8.112, p<.05). The study concluded that information seeking pattern is a catalyst to managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in South West, Nigeria. The study recommends that academic HODs should improve on the level of their managerial effectiveness. The university management in public universities in South West of Nigeria should also strive to reduce some of the identified challenges inhibiting the effectiveness of academic.


Introduction
The university institutions globally are complex because of the demand in planning, decision-making, organizing, staffing, leading, controlling, communicating, evaluating and making choices as the requirements of students, staff, employer and the society changes. According to Babatola (2017), universities exist as effective means for developing citizens to full capacities and potentials in human resources and creation of a competent workforce with acquired practical skills for global relevance and veritable means of developing a sound and intelligent learning society. Thus the need for confident talented leaders or managers (academic and administrative) that will create a healthy university with clear goals, commitment to working together effectively to solve problems and achieve the goals. In the university system, academic department is the engine room for all academic activities and has the primary responsibility for the training of students using a curriculum approved by the university senate. At the departmental levels are the academic heads of departments (HODs) whose positions are filled with several responsibilities such as directing, guiding, coordinating and evaluating lecturers and students' activities appropriately to ensure good quality education and effective functioning of the department. However, literature is lacking in whether academic HODs consider information seeking behaviour to effectively manage various tasks to achieve university academic goals. The reason may be because the integration of the managerial effectiveness by scholars into the field of library and information science has been rarely conceived. Hess (2013) defined academic HOD as the chair of a department responsible for the leadership and management of the smallest unit of the university where teaching and learning occurs. Edet and Ekpoh (2017) opined that the university academic HODs are major players in the management involving directing, guiding, coordinating and evaluating lecturers and activities appropriately to ensure good quality education and effective functioning of the department geared towards the achievement of university aims and objectives. Academic HODs handle matters about colleagues, students, the department, the faculty and visitors to administrative tasks. According to Jones (2011), an academic HOD is an academic leader who guides the members of a department to work towards a common shared vision with an ability to articulate and implement the strategic vision of the department in line with its institutional goals, values and culture. The job of academic HODs seems to be the most difficult and demanding because they bridge the gap between deans, departments and the university management. Thus responsibilities of managers and the competitive pressures on them have increased their need to be effective (IBS Centre for Management Research (ICMR), (2020). Simpson et.al (2016) found out some overwhelming problems of HODs effectiveness to stem from role ambiguity and tension, lack of funding, insufficient professional development, lack of support from the school head, lack of understanding of their role, lack of sufficient time, interpersonal relations challenges, disrespect and indiscipline by colleagues, rigid educational framework, insufficient and inappropriate training, lack of teaching resources/facilities, heavy workload, overcrowding of classrooms, working with staff from different cultures, lapses in administrative procedure, poor remuneration, enhancing productivity, maximising students and co-staff satisfaction and so on. It is on this backdrop that managerial effectiveness of academic HODs is crucial to the success or failure of the academic departments they manage.

Review of Literature
Managerial effectiveness is a leader's ability to achieve desired results. It is entirely about achievement of organisational goals. Thompson (2019) described managerial effectiveness as how team and department leaders in the organization are able to organize employees to accomplish goals. Managerial effectiveness is foundational to the success of any organisation. Chepkonga (2015) revealed that managerial effectiveness plays an important role in ensuring survival, growth and adaptability of organisations and that it is central issue in the management because every organization wants to achieve goals effectively and efficiently. Managerial effectiveness is essential for smooth running of organizations and also helps in the creation of value-based leaders and coordination of workers to achieve goals. Drucker (2006) stated that managerial effectiveness is not an end but a means to the end, that is, efficient attainment of organisational goals hence in order to accomplish the tasks effectively, managerial effectiveness deals with managerial jobs, skills of managers and the organisation as a whole. Edward et.al. (2013) identified managerial skills as one of some major parameters of managerial effectiveness. However, this research considered managerial skills as the parameter for measuring managerial effectiveness as this study is concerned. The reason is that Peterson and Fleet (2004) found out that although the exact skill set managers need to perform their jobs is still being debated, clearly managers must possess a core set of skills to achieve the organization's goals effectively, however managerial skills allow managers to enact the functions of management. Thus without some fundamental skills, managers cannot effectively plan, direct, control, or assess work activities. So, skills then are necessary for effectively carrying out managerial functions that are in turn necessary for the effective functioning of academic departments of universities.
A skill is a combination of ability, knowledge, technique, methods and experience that enable a person to do something well (Ritonija et. al. 2016). Managerial skill is what practitioners need to be able to do to undertake their role effectively. A general three-category typology skills of effective administrator for successful performance in managerial roles was proposed by Katz (1955;1974) namely: technical, human and conceptual skills. In general, while technical skills focus on things and human skills focus on people, conceptual skills focus on ideas and concepts. These skill sets are interrelated, and at the same time may be developed independently (Bukhari, et.al., 2021). Thus within each category, more narrowly focused abilities could be identified. The Katz (1955;1974) model provides a clean, simple classification that supports the goals of this research, and therefore was adopted as an operational means to classify managerial effectiveness skills. The beauty of the model is obviously that it indicated managers must possess a core set of skills to achieve the organization's goals effectively. Thus, the indicators adopted for managerial effectiveness as this study is concerned are technical, human and conceptual skills.
Technical skills are defined as the understanding of specific activities that require the use of specialized tools, methods, processes, procedures, techniques, or knowledge (Mukarromah, Mudjito andPurbaningrum, 2019 citing Katz, 1974). Generally, technical skills are thought of as the specific skills an individual needs to perform some specialized task. Technical skills give the manager's knowledge about, competency, proficiency, the ability and analytical ability in a specific work or activity to use different techniques to achieve what they want to achieve. These skills enable a manager to coordinate work, solve problems, communicate effectively, and also understand the big picture in light of the front-line work that must be performed. Having appropriate technical skills signifies that the person is competent and knowledgeable with respect to the activities specific to an organization, the organization's rules and standard operating procedures, and the organization's products and services. ICT skill is the most prominent among the skills suggested for technical skills by some scholars such as Mahdavian, et al. (2016);Zhiwen and Heigden, (2008). ICT skills is the ability to use tools of information and communication technology to define one's information problem clearly, access information efficiently, evaluate the reliability, authority and bias of the sources, organize and synthesize one's information with the best ICT tools available in order to use it effectively and responsibly and communicate one's new ideas effectively and ethically.
Human or Interpersonal skills are the skills of human relations, that is, the skills in establishing relationships with others (Whetten., & Cameron, 2016). According to the authors, human skills are knowledge of human behaviour and the relationship between one person and another person, the ability to understand feelings, attitudes, and motivations of the words and others' behaviour, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively, and the ability to form cooperative and effective relationships. Human skills are defined as the ability to work cooperatively with others, to communicate effectively, to resolve conflict, and to be a team player (Chai et.al., 2016). The major player in human skill is interpersonal relations. Interpersonal relationship helps to understand the needs of staff and show positive and productive relationship with staff (Divleli., & Ergun, 2015). Good communication skills are the basis for any relationship by effective managers. Without the ability to communicate well, staff often become confused and things get distorted (Clampitt, 2012). Skilled communicators are trusted and they effectively convey a thought or need. The key to good communicating is also strong listening skills that it is important to hear what people are saying to one in a work place. Kazi (2017) evidently found that delegation, being a good planner, organising ability, good human relations, managerial and leadership skills indicated that senior managers need more interpersonal and analytical skills rather than informational and decisional skills. Also, Ali and Patnaik (2014) entire study was based upon dimensions such as functional, interpersonal and personal effectiveness and their components, and found to have positive relations with managerial effectiveness.
Conceptual skills are abilities to work with ideas and concepts. According to Mukarromah, Mudjito and Purbaningrum (2019), Katz (1970) stated that conceptual skills are general analytical abilities, logical thoughts, fluency in shaping concepts and conceptualization of complex and ambiguous relationships, creativity in idea making and problem solving, and the ability to analyse events and feel trends, to anticipate change, and to recognize opportunities and potential problems. Ruiz., Hamlin and Carioni (2016) averred that conceptual skills are the ability to organize thoughts, to understand various theories in their fields, to take action and to see trends based on theoretical abilities needed. Some of these skills are goal setting, result orientation, leadership, problem solving, innovation, logical thinking, strategic planning and analytical skills (Danim, 2010). In these situations, conceptual skills are the most beneficial to the organization. With conceptual skills, it becomes easier to understand abstract or complicated ideas and challenges. Factors considered for managerial effectiveness under conceptual skills as this study is concerned are leadership, result orientation, problem solving and innovation Leadership as viewed by Lussier (2017) is concerned with ensuring fair human resource development, handling administrative tasks timely, maintaining an active effective research and scholarly agenda and host of others. Effective leadership promotes good results, even under difficult circumstances. Thus, leadership is therefore an important aspect of all organizations. Results orientation is another requirement that involve desire to achieve and direct resources towards maximising results. Result orientation is about identifying with the institution and goals, directing resources towards maximizing results, taking up challenging assignments and desire to achieve higher performance through time commitments. Joshi (1991) found out in his study that higher desire of Chief Executives to achieve led them to take up challenging assignments and also emphasised directing all resources especially the human resources towards maximising results. Problem solving is the ability that allows an individual to detect, better understand complex scenarios, analyse and develop creative and monitor and seek quality information sources on solutions. According to Galli and Hudson (2020), problem solving and decision making are inseparable concepts in that both problem-solving and decision-making each require an evaluation of the effectiveness of the chosen solution and the methods of execution employed. Institutions and organisations are no doubt bound to face challenges that require innovative and creative ways of thinking. Innovation is about exhibiting powerful imaginative skills to make thing happen and make a change when necessary in departmental projects. Ozkan and Tokel (2018) found out in the era of information, that it is now a requirement to raise individuals that show their critical thinking abilities, produce information, question and think creatively thus a leader can think through their ideas, transforming thoughts into action-driven solutions. Mukarromah, Mudjito and Purbaningrum (2019) found out in their study that managerial skills consisting of conceptual skills, human skills, and technical skills have a great influence on school effectiveness.
Information seeking pattern is another concept being examined in this study and perceived plays significant roles in the effectiveness of administration of academic HODs in universities. Case (2012) revealed that long ago much information seeking literature is intertwined with decision making and that a prime example of their point may be found in the study of Julien and Duggan (2000), in which a majority of self-motivated searches for information were for decision-making purposes. According to Kundu (2017) information can be defined as what are ought to have for one's work, research, education, recreation etc. Mishra, Allen and Pearman, (2015) stated also that information about alternative courses of action, information about the resources available, and so on play critical roles in the quality of decision. Thus the more information is made available, the less the degree of uncertainties associated with the decision making process hence the decicion maker is required to acquire the necessary information before making final decisions (Adeleke, 2017). IBS Centre for Management Research (ICMR) (2020) averred that apart from collecting all the information about available alternatives and weigh their effect on the decision, effective managers prepare plans after taking into account the knowledge and information they have acquired from various experiences or from various reports.
Academic HODs need adequate information about curriculum, trends, needs and environment. It against this backdrop that the researcher perceives that academic HODs need to be highly informed, innovative, appropriate realistic plans and have information to all necessary officers about planning decisions and curriculum implementation. Such knowledge or ideas and application are perceived would enhance the discharge of duties of academic HODs in the academic administration. However, in the context of information seeking behaviour and managerial effectiveness of academic HODs there is little or no evidence of any investigation done, of which the rationale could be that when discussing information needs, people usually think of faculty members and students.
Information seeking behaviour is described as a general term used to denote a set of actions undertaken by an individual to express information needs, seek information, evaluate and make information, and finally use this information to meet their information needs (Obi., Akanbi., & Kehinde (2018); Verma., & Laltlanmawii, 2018). Some of the well-established information-seeking behaviour models include: Wilson's (1981) theory of information behaviour, Kuhlthau's (1991;2004) Information Search Process model; Leckie et.al.,1996). Rather and Ganaie (2018) averred that Wilson's theory of information behaviour proposed that the information behaviour covers all aspects of human information behaviour whereby searcher interacts with information system. Wilson's Model was conceived to offers a three-fold view of information-seeking namely: The context of the seeker; the system employed (which might be manual or machine and navigated either personally or by an intermediary); the information resources that might be drawn upon. Case (2012) defined information seeking as a conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap in your knowledge concerning the interactive utilization of the three basic resources namely, people, information and system. Thus sources or services may be asking a friend or professor for information (human resources), visiting the university library (information systems) or using one's personal library (other resources). However, managers today are privy not only to a choice of new information delivery mechanisms and a vast array of information sources and channels, but also to the concept of information anytime and anywhere (Alwis, 2006).
Kundu (2017) revealed that Kuhlthau's (1993) information process model characterised the information-seeking pattern of information users which theorised people experience of information search process as an interplay of thoughts (what is to be accomplished), feelings (what the searcher was feeling), actions (what the searcher did physically) and strategies (what the searcher was trying to achieve physically). Bhattacharjee and Sinha (2016) affirmed that Kuhlthau's information search process model is a detailed analysis of the cognitive and affective stages or processes in the active search for information involving initiation, selection, formulation, collection, exploration and presentation. Bawden and Robinson (2013) averred that Kulthau defined a strategy as a tactic used to seek information or to work through a stage of the search processes or patterns. Wilson (1999) states that information-seeking behaviour is a consequence of a need perceived by an information user, who, in order to satisfy that need, makes demands upon formal or informal information sources or services, which result in success or failure to find relevant information. Robson and Robinson (2013) revealed that Leckie et.al. (1996) developed general model of professional information seeking primarily from a literature review of representative studies of three professional groups: engineers, health-care professionals, and lawyers. The model assumes that the roles and associate tasks undertaken by professionals in their daily practice prompt particular information needs, which in turn give rise to the information-seeking process. The model comprises six components: work roles; associated tasks; characteristics of information needs and the factors affecting information-seeking; awareness; sources; and outcomes. The model proposed the following characteristics of information sources as important factors in this regard: familiarity with and prior success in using a source; trustworthiness, or belief that a source will provide accurate information; packaging (format in which the information is provided and convenience); timeliness; cost; quality (this links to trustworthiness, as it concerns accuracy and level of detail); and accessibility (ease-of-use and proximity which links to packaging).
The factors considered in information seeking patterns or behaviour as this study is concerned are information needs, awareness of information sources and accessibility of information. These factors are drawn majorly from the theories of Wilson (2005), Leckie e.al. (1996) and Kulthau (1996). Information need generally refers to individual user needs regarding information needed by each person to meet the needs. Information need is understood as evolving from vague awareness of something missing, culminating in locating the information that contributes for understanding and meaning (Doraswamy, 2017). According to Itasanmi and Okanlawon (2019) the term information need is associated with a person or group of persons' desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a sentient or insentient need. In the process of filling the gap the mind begins to ruminate over where, the point or the location to get information to fill the gap which eventually results into awareness of the information sources or products designed to acquire needed information. Awareness is the state of being conscious of something or the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. Thus, awareness of information sources or products is having the idea or knowledge of or being familiar with sources or products that the needed information can be obtained. University academic administrator's awareness of various information sources is perceived affects the path that information seeking takes. Information seekers get familiar with information they need through a variety of methods and in many places instead of the library. Information need, awareness and accessibility of information sources activate the mind-set of user to access needed information. Thus, decisions that are unique and important require conscious thinking, information gathering, and careful consideration of alternatives.

Statement of Problem
Managerial effectiveness which is a manager's ability to achieve desired results is an important factor for the accomplishment and foundational to the success of universities' academic departmental goals. As such managerial effectiveness is highly necessary to actualise the academic goals and visions of the university by the university academic HODs that are major players in the academic management. It is rather unfortunate to observe that the job of academic HODs is laced with problems which constitute setbacks to effective management. Some of the problems are lack of funding, meeting deadlines, delayed exam results, excess workload, provision of facilities, students registration, lapses in Student and personnel administration, inefficient staff, conflict resolution and poor mentoring for junior staff. The challenges of academic HODs by some researchers often result into low rating of the Nigerian Universities among the world universities, low managerial efficiency or administrative effectiveness and withdrawal behaviour (Azelema., & Osumah, 2022). A good number of attributes have been identified to be responsible for goals achievement in universities without much attention to managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in universities in public universities in Nigeria's South West. However, in the context of information seeking behaviour and managerial effectiveness of academic HODs there is dearth of empirical evidence of investigation done. The researcher thus considered this a serious gap that is felt necessary to be filled hence the reason for this study to investigate the influence of information seeking behaviour on the effectiveness of academic HODs in some public universities in South-West, Nigeria.

Objectives of the Study
1. Find out managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in South-West, Nigeria 2. find out the information seeking patterns of academic HODs in public universities in South-West, Nigeria 3. find out the influence of information seeking pattern on managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in South-West, Nigeria

Research Question
1. What is managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in South-West, Nigeria 2. What is information seeking patterns of academic HODs in public universities in South-West, Nigeria 3. What are the challenges of academic HODs managerial effectiveness Hypothesis H 1 : Information seeking patterns has no significant influence on managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in the universities

Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is the public universities in South West geo political zone of Nigeria. The population covered in this study were academic HODs of public universities in South West, Nigeria. The scope of this study was information seeking pattern and managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in south western Nigeria. It treated issues bothering information seeking pattern and metrics as regard information needs, awareness of information sources and accessibility of information and managerial effectiveness with features such as leadership, goal setting, problem solving, innovation, interpersonal skills, and result orientation.

Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will serve as a reference document or tool for the information managers or librarians that are the link between the university Management at either federal or state level to adequately fund information provision services and facilities. Researchers in the field of library, archival and information science will find the study to be useful contribution by allowing them identify the gap(s) that need filling thus affording the opportunity to see the link or relationship of this study with other studies and the existing knowledge in information seeking behaviour.

Methodology
The population for this study was approximately 770 (Seven hundred and seventy) comprising academic HODs of 16 public universities in South West, Nigeria. The population was obtained through personal enquiries from academic planning units of the concerned universities and their websites. To determine the appropriate sample size sampling for the study the Yaro Yamani table of sample size determination was used. As seen on the table (see appendix) the appropriate sample size for this study is 257. However, the proportionate sampling technique was used to draw sample from the population. The Yaro Yamani formula used was n = N/1+N(e 2 ) where n = sample size, N = Population size, e = margin of error(MOE), e = 0.05. Therefore, n = 770/1+770(0.05) 2 = n = 770/3 = 256.66. n = approx. 257, thus the sample size of 770 is 257. Therefore, the percentage of 257 of 770 i.e 257/770 x 100 = 33.4% was derived to determine the proportionate sampling of departments in each university as reflected in Table 1. The result from the table gave us approximately 258. Thus the appropriate sample size for this study is 258. The rigorous effort of the researcher enabled the involvement of significant numbers within the population that made it possible to get deep insights into this research. The instrument used for data collection was an adapted structured questionnaire which was validated using Cronbach's alpha test. The reliability values which ranged from 0.72-0.88 were considered adequate and of high level of inter-item consistencies in the instrument. The content validity index (89.06%) values of the instrument exceeded the prescribed threshold of 0.70, inferring that the data collection instrument was valid. Two hundred and fifty eight (258) questionnaires were distributed to the academic HODs and two hundred and forty eight (248) copies were returned, making a good usable response rate. Data analysis involved the use of descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency counts, mean, standard deviation and regression statistics.

Data Analysis and Discussion of Findings
Two hundred and fifty eight (258) questionnaires were distributed among the respondents and two hundred and forty eight (248) were retrieved. Descriptive analyses involving frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviations were used to analyse the socio-demographic characteristics, managerial effectiveness of academic HODs, the information seeking pattern of academic HODs and challenges in tabular forms. Simple and multiple linear regression statistics were used to test all the stated hypotheses by determining influence attributed to managerial effectiveness of, the information seeking pattern of academic HODs in public universities in the South-West, Nigeria. Finally, the findings of the study were discussed based on related scholarly literatures on the same subject matter. Decision rule: if mean is ≤ 2.49=low, 2.5-2.99=average, 3.0-3.49=high, 3.5-4.0=very high

Demographic Information of Academic Heads of Departments
The grand mean as seen on table 4.4 reveals that the information seeking pattern of academic HODs is high (mean=3.39, SD=.602). As displayed on table 4.3, the information needs of academic HODs are teaching and research activities (mean=3.58), details of PG/UG degrees workload (mean=3.56), curriculum program development (mean=3.47), student and staff complaint (mean=3.46), student course registration (mean=3.45), and coordination of academic staff meetings (mean=3.44) among others. The level of awareness of information sources of academic HODs as indicated by the group mean (3.38) is high. This is further expressed as they indicated that they are aware of university departments (mean=3.48), libraries/archives and records centres (mean=3.47), books-print and electronic (mean=3.47), ICT facilities (mean=3.47), journals/magazines-print ad electronic (mean=3.46), academic colleagues (mean=3.45), and correspondences, documents and data warehouses (mean=3.37), amongst others.

Research question one:
What is the managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in South-West, Nigeria in public universities in South-West, Nigeria? HODs can define information problem clearly (mean=3.51), access information efficiently and organize and synthesize one's information with best tools (mean=3.43). On interpersonal relationship effectiveness the respondents revealed the demonstration of understanding the needs of departmental members (mean=3.54), being accessible to staff and students of the department (mean=3.51), and in communicating clear reports and correspondence with members (mean=3.46). On problem solving, the responses revealed that it make academic HODs to a high extent need to detect problems (mean=3.56), need careful analysis of best solution for implementation (mean=3.48), need to use quality information sources on components of problem-solving (mean=3.48), and need to monitor the success of outcomes of the chosen solution (mean=3.48). On innovation respondents indicated it is needed in investing own time and resources into making things happen (mean=3.43), and in the need to exhibit a powerful imagination skill (mean=3.42). In leadership skill respondent revealed the need in advancing the units of undergraduate and postgraduate programs effectively (mean=3.51), and in maintaining an active effective research/scholarly agenda. The result also showed under result orientation respondents indicated higher desire to achieve and taking up challenging assignments (mean=3.52), and compel to identify with university goals (mean=3.40).

Research question three:
What are the challenges of managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in South West, Nigeria

Analysis and presentation of research hypothesis
Hypothesis: Information seeking patterns has no significant influence on managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in the universities

Discussion of Findings
Finding revealed that the level of information seeking pattern of academic HODs was high. Thus an indication that information is highly sought for administrative activities such as teaching and research activities, details of PG/UG degrees workload, curriculum program development, student and staff complaint, student course registration, coordination of academic staff meetings and host of others. This finding justified Kundu (2017 assertion that the Leckie et.al. (1996) model assumed that the roles and associate tasks undertaken by professionals in their daily practice prompt particular information needs, which in turn give rise to the information-seeking behavioural pattern. Itasanmi and Okanlawon (2019) expressed the term information need as associated with a person or group of persons' desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a sentient or in sentient need. Schrevel1 and Jost (2013) indicated that in organisations, information need, seeking process, and management are the keys to management leading to organisation systematic innovation and success it brings. This again justified Case (2012) discovery that information seeking literature is intertwined with decision making and that majority of self-motivated searches for information were for effective decisionmaking purposes. Also the level of awareness and the level of accessibility of some relevant information sources of academic HODs were found to be high. This finding is line with the discovery of Robson and Robinson (2013) that accessibility is the dominant factor and that professionals prefer to seek information from the sources that are readily available to them, and with which they are familiar. Inaccessibility to the information resources could defeat users' purpose. This finding took us to the hypothesis that information seeking patterns has no significant influence on managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in the universities. The result of regression analysis in this assumption disproved the statement in that the variations in managerial effectiveness can be accounted for by information seeking patterns. The finding on the questions on managerial effectiveness of the academic HODs revealed that academic HODs agreed that the indicators: problem solving, interpersonal relationship, innovation effectiveness, leadership, goal setting effectiveness and results orientation put forward in measuring managerial effectiveness are highly required for effective administration of their departments. This supported Peterson & Fleet (2004) in Ritonija et.al. (2018) that stated that without these fundamental managerial skills, managers cannot effectively plan, direct, control, or assess work activities. It was also found that the regression analysis result disproved the hypothesis that there is no significant influence of information seeking patterns on managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in the universities. The analysis further showed that information seeking patterns help academic HODs monitor and apply the identified managerial skills in this study to manage their departments effectively.
Finally was question that bothered on examination of challenges of academic HODs effectiveness in public universities in South West of Nigeria. Almost all the academic HODs agreed that all the challenges listed are experienced by them in the course of seeking information. Corroborating this finding Finally, it is recommended that university management in conjunction with academic HODs should strive to reduce lapses in student and personnel administration, students' registration, insufficient professional development, delayed examination results, lack of teaching resources/facilities, lack of funding and excess workload, conflict resolution, inability to meeting deadlines and inefficient staff.

Conclusion
This study confirmed that a lot of research has been carried on information seeking pattern and some issues but none has ever been related to managerial effectiveness of academic HODs in public universities in Nigeria. Much of the studies on information behaviour were found to be concentrated on mere information need and seeking behaviour of diverse population such as students, personnel (academics and non-academics), and traders and so on. This study found that the influence of information seeking behaviour on the goal aspirations of the different categories of population were rarely considered or examined. In this study it is evidently shown that information seeking patterns could help academic HODs monitor and apply the identified skills to effectively manage their departments. The study further showed that academic HODs seek information for the purpose of administrative and academic activities such as teaching, research activities, curriculum program development, student and staff matters, correspondences, meetings and host of others. The study also indicated that information sources in which the academic HODs are familiar with include libraries, journals, books-both print and electronic, ICT facilities, academic colleagues and staff, meetings, conferences and workshops, correspondences, university departments, units and centres. Finally, some identified challenges of HODs effectiveness include lapses in student and personnel administration, students' registration, insufficient professional development, delayed examination results, lack of teaching resources/facilities, lack of funding and excess workload.

Recommendations
The following recommendations were made based on the findings: 1. There is need for academic HODs in public universities in South West of Nigeria to improve on ICT skills, interpersonal relationship, leadership, results orientation, problem solving, innovation skills to manage departments effectively. 2. Academic HODs in public universities in South West of Nigeria need to improve on their information seeking pattern to meet information needs for the achievement of departmental strategic goals and objectives. 3. Finally, it is recommended that university management in conjunction with academic HODs should strive to reduce lapses in student and personnel administration, students' registration, insufficient professional development, delayed examination results, lack of teaching resources/facilities, lack of funding and excess workload, conflict resolution, inability to meeting deadlines and inefficient staff.