Career paths of department chairs: A national perspective

Department chairs in 101 Carnegie Council Research I and II and Doctorate-Granting I and II institutions were surveyed to describe their career movements prior to becoming chair, and the length of tenure as chair and the movement from the chair position that their two predecessors in the position of chair had made. Additional variables addressed were discipline, department size, chair's age and gender, the nature of departmental hiring practices, and whether chairs had previous administrative experience. The Biglan model of discipline classification was used to differentiate among disciplines. Sixty-five percent of chairs return to faculty status after their tenure as chair. However, gender, departmental hiring practices, and discipline all have significant effects on the likelihood that a chair will return to faculty status or go on to further administrative service.     

Oh,won’t you stay? Predictors of faculty intent to leave a public research university

Understanding and predicting faculty intent to leave is important to the development of improved conceptual frameworks of faculty success as well as the implementation of effective retention strategies for academic leaders and institutions that invest considerable resources in recruitment, institutional support, and compensation. This study examined the relationship between various research-based factors and faculty intent to leave by integrating components identified in the extant literature for employee turnover more generally and faculty intent to leave more specifically. The results of binary logistic regression models identified workplace stress, being in a “soft-pure” discipline, fewer years of service at the university, and higher research productivity as key predictors of faculty having considered leaving for another institution. Key predictors for faculty having considered leaving academe altogether were being in a “hard-applied” discipline, not having a spouse or partner, a perceived lack of support, a perceived lack of fit, stress of raising a family, and dissatisfaction with certain aspects of the “faculty job”. The implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.     

Dimensions of stress among university faculty: Factor-analytic results from a national study

Previous studies on the role of the professor reflect the existence of a multifaceted complex of strains on faculty. This research study investigated identifiable patterns of faculty stress. From a sample of 80 doctorate-granting institutions, 1,920 professors were selected and stratified by academic rank and Biglan's academic discipline model. The response rate was 75.28%. The multidimensionality of the 45-item Faculty Stress Index, investigated through factor analysis, resulted in five distinct dimensions of perceived stress: reward and recognition (55% common variance); time constraints (12% common variance); departmental influence (7% common variance); professional identity (6% common variance); and student interaction (6% common variance). Each factor was also analyzed according to professional and personal characteristics, and the analysis resulted in significant differences in the areas of tenure, rank, age, gender, and marital status. No differential pattern was discovered among disciplinary categories.     

The Dynamic between Knowledge Production and Faculty Evaluation: Perceptions of the Promotion and Tenure Process across Disciplines

This study sought to understand predictors of faculty satisfaction with promotion and tenure processes and reasonableness of expectations in the context of a striving institution. The factors we investigated included discipline (high-consensus [science and math] vs. low-consensus [humanities and social sciences]); demographic variables; and institutional support including mentoring, collegiality, work-life integration, and college commitment to faculty members’ fields. High-consensus faculty members were less satisfied with promotion and tenure processes than were low-consensus faculty members (p?<?.01). Faculty members who were more satisfied with collegiality (p?<?.001) and with college commitment to their fields (p?<?.05) were more satisfied with promotion and tenure processes. Faculty members who were more satisfied with work-life integration and mentoring were more satisfied with reasonableness of expectations (p?<?.05).     

The study of academic department performance

The paper proposes a systems model of academic department performance and reports an empirical test of the model in a set of 20 departments. Departmental input and process variables related to eight departmental outcomes were identified: (1) student satisfaction with their overall learning experience, (2) student satisfaction with faculty, (3) student satisfaction with academic advising, (4) student graduate school admissions ratio, (5) student employment in field ratio, (6) faculty satisfaction with departmental research quality, (7) faculty job satisfaction, and (8) degrees conferred per faculty member. The eight departmental outcomes were found to be largely independent of one another and predicted by relatively unique patterns of departmental characteristics. Salient among the correlates of departmental outcomes were faculty workload, tenure pattern, and disciplinary differences.Presented at the Nineteenth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Diego, California, May 1979.     

Institutional factors in time to the doctorate

The aim of this study was to delineate departmental differences in the length of time that doctoral students take to receive their degrees and the institutional characteristics linked with it. Variables describing graduate departments in three disciplines (chemistry, English, and psychology) and their parent universities were obtained from available records. In analyses of departments in each discipline, a relatively small set of institutional variables correlated with average time to the doctorate for the department, after controlling for characteristics of students in the department, and these relationships differed from discipline to discipline. The clearest and most extensive findings emerged for psychology: the institutional variables identified primarily concerned faculty accessibility (student/faculty ratio and department size)—a longer time to the doctorate for departments with many students per faculty member or many students.     

What makes them leave? A path model of postdocs’ intentions to leave academia

A growing number of postdoctoral academics cite stressful working conditions for considering abandoning their studies and leaving the academic profession entirely before they obtain a tenured position. This paper identifies the mechanisms by which work stress influences postdocs’ intentions to leave academia. Based on Schaubroeck et al.’s (1989) stress-turnover-intention model, we propose a professional turnover-intention model that includes both the effort-reward imbalance model as a comprehensive measure of work stress and affective professional commitment. The research model is tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) and data from 421 postdocs. The results show significant support for the hypothesized effects. In particular, a three-path-mediated effect is found from work stress to the intention to leave academia via strain and job satisfaction. Additional analyses reveal significant gender differences: The relationship between overcommitment and strain is stronger for female postdocs than it is for male postdocs, and the direct link between work stress and the intention to leave academia applies only to female postdocs. Further, job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between affective professional commitment and the intention to leave academia. Thus, we provide a model on an academics’ professional turnover intention that goes beyond previous research by incorporating two important mediators, strain and job satisfaction. We also confirm the relevance of affective professional commitment to professional turnover intentions in the realm of academia. Specific policy recommendations for retaining more postdocs in academia are given.     

Organizational health and teacher education

Abstract

The concept of organizational health in teacher education programs is conceptualized and investigated. Eleven dimensions of organizational health in academia are identified and described. In addition, the current state of affairs regarding organizational health as recognized by the faculty and administration of 12 colleges/schools of education in the United States is described. Respondents felt most positive about the dimension of loyalty and commitment; the resource utilization dimension received the most negative organizational health rating. Demographic variables of age, gender, type of appointment (administrative or faculty), academic rank, number of years at the present institution, and tenure status were examined to determine whether they influenced perceptions of organizational health in teacher education programs. Type of appointment was the most influential factor on perceptions of organizational health; administrators had significantly higher perceptions than did nonadministrators on 10 of the 11 organizational health dimensions. Age was also found to be a significant factor on more than one‐half of the dimensions, and number of years at the institution influenced perceptions of three of the health dimensions.     

Audio‐conferencing in graduate education: A case study

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a study that examined the relationship between distance teaching and the faculty reward system. Using a qualitative approach, the study sought to understand how distance teaching is valued, rewarded, and accommodated within the institutional reward structure. Based on interviews with faculty members, distance education program administrators, and the chief academic officers at four research universities, the study describes a reward culture that is not accommodating to and rewarding of faculty work in distance education. The study finds that: 1) distance education occupies a marginal status, 2) distance teaching is neither highly valued nor well‐rewarded as scholarly activity, 3) distance teaching is not highly related to promotion and tenure decisions, and 4) rewards for distance teaching are dependent on the academic unit's commitment to distance education.     

ON THE TENURE TRACK IN GERONTOLOGY: I WISH I HAD KNOWN THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW

With the emergence of gerontology as an academic discipline, the need for formalized training to address early career issues has increased. This paper offers personal experiences and advice regarding some of the challenges new faculty are likely to face when on the “tenure track.” Some of the challenges include whether to pursue a career in academia, the potential value of a post-doctoral research position, grant writing, academic duty, preparing for the job interview, negotiating, and achieving success in academia. In addition to offering personal perspectives on each of these challenges, a number of resources are provided to help those who seek additional insight or advice on early career management. Implications for creating formalized graduate training to assist those students struggling with early career challenges are discussed.     

Prying the gates wide open: academic freedom and gender equality at Brown University, 1974–1977

In 1974, Brown University’s Department of Anthropology denied tenure to assistant professor Louise Lamphere. Convinced that her dismissal was the product of sex discrimination, Lamphere filed suit against Brown. Lamphere and three other female scholars who joined her suit successfully pressed Brown into an out-of-court settlement in 1977. Significantly, the settlement required Brown not only to provide redress to the plaintiffs but also to take sweeping action in rectifying its faculty’s inequitable gender ratio. While Lamphere’s case marked a rare victory for academic women in the male preserve of the Ivy League, this study concerns the bearing of the lawsuit on academic freedom. It argues that academic freedom entails two interlocking principles: freedom of inquiry and departmental autonomy. Lamphere emphasised the former while Brown advocated the latter. Ultimately, the Lamphere case illustrates how academic freedom loses its efficacy when freedom of inquiry and departmental autonomy are decoupled.     

Achieving congruent actions and intentions: An empirical assessment of faculty work in a regional public university

Two explanations of congruency of ideal (intent) and actual (action/behavior) work of faculty are examined—reward expectations and referent others. Based on interviews with 5 college deans and 32 chairpersons, a survey of 503 faculty (69% return rate), and institutional data, it was found that referent others' goals have a greater influence than reward expectations on the congruency of work actions and intentions of faculty. Peers, chairpersons, and deans affect, in differing ways, the congruency of actions and intentions of faculty. Overwhelmingly, peers have the strongest effect, followed by chairpersons and deans. Of the three reward expectations variables (perception that work leads to tenure, promotion to associate professor, and merit salary increases), only the perception that work leads to tenure affects congruency of faculty work actions and intentions.     

A causal model of faculty turnover intentions

A causal model is proposed and estimated to assess the relative influence of individual attributes, institutional characteristics, contextual-work environment variables, and multiple measures of job satisfaction on the intentions of faculty to leave their current institutions. Special attention is given to similarities and differences among variables in the model for tenured and untenured faculty. Regardless of tenure status, younger faculty, those at institutions that have experienced decline and that have more autocratic forms of governance, and those that have lower levels of organizational and career satisfaction are more likely to leave their institutions. Being a male, spending more time on research, and having a stronger record of scholarly productivity are positive influences on the intentions of tenured faculty to leave their institution, while salary satisfaction is an influential variable only for nontenured faculty. The research and policy implications of these findings are discussed. Source of data: Carnegie Surveys of Undergraduates and Faculty. Copyright 1985, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1985.     

To stay or not to stay: retention of Asian international faculty in STEM fields

The present study identifies characteristics of individuals and work settings that influence Asian international faculty members’ intentions to continue their employment in US research universities. Given the demand for researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM), the higher rate of turnover among untenured faculty, and the replacement costs associated with turnover in STEM, the sample is limited to assistant professors employed in these areas. Multinomial regression analyses are conducted to identify variables that “pull” and “push” uncertain faculty toward intentions stay and leave their current institutions. The results suggest that faculty who are more satisfied with time available for research and those who express stronger organizational commitment are more likely to say they will stay. Those dissatisfied with the fairness of work evaluations and believe tenure decisions are not merit-based, are more likely to say they will leave.     

Some empirical issues in research on academic departments: Homogeneity,aggregation, and level of analysis

This study investigated the appropriateness of the academic departmental level of analysis. Homogeneity of faculty members' responses to measures of organizational structure, environmental uncertainty, and task routineness was examined to determine the legitimacy of aggregating those responses to create departmental level variables. Analysis of variance suggested that the structure and environmental uncertainty subscales were measuring departmental level phenomena, but that the task routineness scales were not. Results demonstrate the importance of empirically testing, rather than assuming, levels of analysis in studies of academic departments.     

‘The voice inside herself’: transforming gendered academic identities in educational administration

This paper traces the academic identity formation(s) of 10 Canadian female academics whose disciplinary knowledge is in the field of educational administration. We trace the ways in which discourses of gender, institutional power, and other cultural and social influences shaped their sense of themselves as academics in the highly patriarchal domain of the academy as an institution as well as within the discourse(s) of educational administration in faculties of education. In doing so, we discuss the ways in which these women's entry into academia transformed identity possibilities for themselves and others. We conclude that these women share a commitment to rigorous scholarship and to the values of equity and social justice. The way in which they engage with those values in their work and lives has been taken up in the particular institutional and personal circumstances of their academic lives and has been shaped by the effects of normative discourses of gender. The result, individually and cumulatively, has been transformative on the individuals, within the institutions in which they have worked, and on the scholarship of Canadian educational administration.     

Two types of voluntary undergraduate attrition: Application of Tinto's model

Tinto's model of institutional attrition was tested by comparing undergraduate students who had dropped out from Washington State University (WSU) one year prior to the study with a control sample of students who continued at WSU. Tinto's constructs of individual attributes, past educational experience, goal commitment, institutional commitment, social integration, and academic integration were operationalized using variables obtained from precollege records, academic records at the university, and a post-withdrawal survey. Setwise discriminant function analysis was used to discriminate between the attrition sample and the control sample using Tinto's constructs. Variables measuring individual attributes, past educational experience, institutional commitment, and academic integration all contributed significantly to the discriminant function when all other variables were controlled for. Tinto's model was also able to explain the differences between those attrition students who transferred to another institution and those who dropped out of higher education. Those that dropped out had a significantly lower academic ability, lower academic integration, lower goal commitment, and lower social integration.     

Describing and explaining research productivity

This article describes results from a study of academic productivity in Australian higher education. It estimates the output (in terms of quantity of publications) of individual staff and academic departments across different subject areas and types of institution. Concerning research productivity, Australian academics resemble their colleagues in other countries: the average is low, while the range of variation is high. Most papers are produced by few academic staff. Several potential correlates of productivity, including level of research activity, subject area, institutional type, gender, age, early interest in research, and satisfaction with the promotions system, are examined. A model linking departmental context to personal research performance through department and personal research activity is developed and tested. The results support the view that structural factors (such as how academic departments are managed and led) combine with personal variables (such as intrinsic interest in the subject matter of one's discipline) to determine levels of productivity. There is also evidence that research and teaching do not form a single dimension of academic performance.     

The Department as Double Agent: The Call for Department Change and Renewal

The well-known and respected Pew Foundation recently suggested four prerequisites for departmental change and renewal—a dedication to teamwork, collective dialogue and inquiry about effective teaching, a commitment to quality control and rewarding collective goals, and the leadership of a purposeful chair (Pew Foundation, 1996, pp. 7-9). Many realities that surround academic programs work against these critical conditions for renewal: conflicting faculty interests, turbulent environments, unclear institutional goals, to name a few. This paper examines teamwork, teaching, quality, and leadership as means to mitigate the contradictions and enhance department renewal.