New Zealand Law Librarians' Association members' intention to comply with their voluntary principles of professional practice

Abstract

This study applies the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen 1988, 1991) to the question of whether New Zealand Law Librarians' Association members intend to comply with their voluntary Principles of Professional Conduct. It investigated, via semi-structured interviews with a small purposive sample of NZLLA members, their attitude, subjective norm and perceived control in relation to compliance behaviour. Participants were also asked whether they intended to comply with the Principles in future. The study found that participants and their social referents were strongly in favour of compliance with the Principles and participants intended to comply with the Principles in future. However, the strength of the intention was mediated by factors limiting perceived behavioural control.