Publications

Faculty members seek employment in an environment that offers good fit and work satisfaction. As in other countries, higher education institutions in the USA vary by size, disciplinary focus, and emphasis on research. This study examined faculty satisfaction by institution type (baccalaureate, master’s, doctoral, and research) for recent full-time faculty members in 100 US 4-year institutions. Findings showed that, overall, satisfaction was highest for respondents in baccalaureate colleges. Subsequent analyses to examine strength of difference across institutional type confirmed initial differences for some facets of satisfaction, but not for others. Although differences that contributed to satisfaction by type were limited, results showed that faculty perceptions of the institutional environment firmly contribute to their satisfaction. Additional findings as well as policy and program implications are discussed.

There is renewed interest in shared governance in American higher education. This evidence-based, exploratory study of faculty leadership identifies indicators of health and promising practices for shared stewardship. It also provides follow up questions for senior leaders to assess the state of faculty leadership and shared governance on their own campuses. The findings are based on interviews with chief academic officers or faculty officers and chief elected faculty leaders at exemplar institutions of various types (baccalaureate, masters, research). These institutions were identified as exemplars through a national faculty satisfaction survey by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE). The author argues for an expansive view of faculty leadership as a key component of institutional resilience and the aim of shared stewardship.

Background/Context: The research on promotion to full professor is sparse. Research that does exist has largely emerged from single campuses and studies conducted through disciplinary associations. Extant studies strongly suggest the presence of equity issues in advancement throughout the academic pipeline. Our study uses cross-institutional results to offer analysis of and potential solutions for the problem

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: We explore the extent to which tenured faculty members at four-year postsecondary institutions are clear about their prospects of being promoted to full professor and how their background characteristics, institutional characteristics, and satisfaction with various aspects of academic work predict their perceptions of promotion clarity. We are focused on whether cultural taxation in the form of heavy service and advising—often associated with underrepresented minority faculty and women faculty—is a factor. We examine the influence of ideal-worker norms and work/family demands on perceptions of promotion clarity. Lastly, we focus on the structural elements of the academy to frame the topic, rather than focusing on individual agency.

Population/Participants/Subjects: This study uses data from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey, a large, national study of postsecondary faculty. Our sample consists of 3,246 individuals who held full-time, tenured positions as associate professor at four-year institutions when they responded to the surveys between 2010 and 2012. The sample was roughly divided between males (54%) and females (46%), and most faculty were employed at research institutions (59%). The sample was predominantly White (82%). The characteristics of the associate professors in the sample are representative of the larger U.S. faculty population at the time of the survey.

Research Design: This quantitative study uses descriptive statistics to examine patterns in promotion clarity across various demographic and institutional characteristics. We examine how satisfaction variables intersect with perceptions of promotion clarity for associate professors. Then we conduct a series of linear regression analyses to explore the influence of predictors on associate professors’ sense of clarity about promotion.

Conclusions/Recommendations: Being unclear about expectations of promotion to full professor is clearly of concern to faculty members at four-year universities in the United States, but it is especially of concern to women. Satisfaction with service is a very important variable in predicting perceptions of promotion clarity. For all associate professors, working at certain types of institutions or in particular academic disciplines had an inverse relationship with promotion clarity. The factors associated with lack of clarity about promotion are more structural than individual.

Changes to faculty status may discourage new doctoral recipients from pursuing academic careers.

Summary

Ongoing shifts in faculty roles and responsibilities – particularly the increasing use of part-time and nontenure-track positions – may lower faculty job satisfaction and diminish academia’s appeal for highly qualified candidates. Faculty attitudes, in turn, can have concomitant effects on student learning, academic scholarship and institutional success. This study examines faculty job satisfaction across different types of institutions and explores how gender, race, age and other personal factors interact with faculty expectations, experiences, and perceptions of the work environment to determine satisfaction.

Key Insights

• Although some faculty report low job satisfaction and a few expressed enough dissatisfaction to consider leaving the profession, most full-time faculty appear satisfied with their work.
• Women report lower salaries than men, but not lower overall job satisfaction.
• Professors in baccalaureate and master’s institutions seem to achieve better work-life balance than those in doctoral and research universities.
• Across all types of institutions, many faculty have seen an increase in their workload and express dissatisfaction with rising levels of bureaucracy.

Methodology

Guided by Hagedorn’s (2000) framework for job satisfaction and Rhoades, Eisenberger and Armeli’s (2001) theory of Perceived Organizational Support, the author used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to examine survey data from Harvard University’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education. She also interviewed a sample of respondents to explore their level of job satisfaction and intent to leave academia.

Background

In nursing education, the academic administrator is critical given the multitude of challenges associated with program delivery (e.g., shortages of faculty, strict and changing regulations for program accreditation, and the sheer demand for more nurses). Unfortunately, with the focus on recruiting and retaining new novice faculty to teach students, academic nursing administrators have been overlooked in recent studies.

Purpose

As such, this study aims to explore the workplace satisfaction and intent to stay of academic nursing administrators by considering their relation to a variety of demographic and work related variables.

Methods

A secondary data source was used from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE). One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with post hoc Fisher's Least Significant Difference tests and t-tests were used in the analysis.

Discussion/Conclusion

Results indicate that several modifiable work factors positively relate to both job satisfaction and intent to stay.

This dissertation studies how higher education policies and practices can affect faculty retention and proposes changes that higher education institutions need to make to retain their faculty. Faculty assessment of reasonableness of tenure expectations is explored in the first manuscript and faculty perceptions of clarity of tenure expectations are explored in the second and third manuscripts. Job satisfaction data from a sample of 2438 tenure-track assistant professors at research universities is used.

The first manuscript investigates the reasonableness of tenure expectations as it relates to work-life balance. The focus is on whether women’s and men’s appraisal of departmental and institutional support for family-work balance and satisfaction with family-friendly policies influence their perceptions of reasonableness of tenure expectations. Bivariate results reveal that women are less likely than men to report that tenure expectations are reasonable. Multivariate results show that for both women and men assessment of departmental and institutional support for family-work balance and satisfaction with family-friendly policies have a positive influence on their perceptions of reasonableness of tenure expectations.

The second manuscript explores whether women’s and men’s assessment of tenure related departmental practices influence their perceptions of clarity of tenure expectations. Findings reveal that women are less likely than men to perceive the expectations for getting tenure as clear. Other results show that for both men and women assessment of fairness in tenure decision- making and in tenure evaluation, and assessment of received messages about the requirements for tenure have a significant and positive effect on their perceptions of clarity of tenure expectations.

The third manuscript looks at how the intersection of gender and race influences faculty perceptions of clarity of tenure expectations. The study also seeks to identify predictors of perceptions of clarity for the intersectionality defined groups (minority women, minority men, white women, and white men). Bivariate results reveal no significant differences in minority women’s perceptions of clarity compared to all other faculty. The multivariate results show that the model does not explain minority women’s perceptions of clarity of tenure expectations as well as it explains white women’s and white men’s perceptions of clarity of tenure expectations.

Non-tenure track faculty are a growing majority in American higher education, but research examining their work lives is limited. Moreover, the theoretical frameworks commonly used by scholars have been critiqued for reliance on ideologically charged assumptions. Using a conceptual model developed from Hackman and Oldham’s (1980) Job Characteristics Model (JCM) and prior research on faculty workplace experiences, this study considers the extent to which full-time non-tenure track and tenure line faculty share a professionalized approach to their jobs, working conditions, and how this is associated with their organizational commitment. Findings demonstrate important consistencies in full-time faculty views of their workplaces and jobs across appointment type. Satisfaction with resources, rewards, autonomy and feedback had a significant positive relationship with odds of organizational commitment for all faculty groups. Overall, the results suggest being removed from the tenure track is not associated with faculty viewing their jobs in a substantially different way than those in tenure line positions, which underscores the importance of conceptualizing full-time faculty work as an integrated whole.