Faculty Satisfaction with Institutional Support as a Complex Concept: Collegiality, Workload, Autonomy.

Authors: Pollicino, Elizabeth A. 1996

This paper assesses public and private, four-year college or university faculty satisfaction in the context of the complexity of satisfaction and the importance of the interaction between faculty professional values or expectations and institutional values. Satisfaction is defined as the extent to which faculty perceive that the institution provides a climate ensuring professional autonomy and activity commensurate with specialized expertise. Data were obtained from the 19-item Likert-type scale used on the National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty, 1988; a parallel analysis was also performed to provide additional confirmation of results. Mission was classified by four of the Carnegie categories for baccalaureate-granting institutions: research, doctoral, comprehensive, and liberal arts. The most noteworthy results center around the complexity of satisfaction and the need for congruence of institutional mission and individual goals. A principal components analysis was conducted for items reflecting satisfaction that yielded three distinct factors associated with satisfaction: collegiality, workload, and autonomy. Analysis of variance procedures determined that there is a significant effect of mission on satisfaction with collegiality and workload but not with autonomy. Findings confirm the complexity of faculty satisfaction based on a very strong need for collegiality between faculty and between faculty and administration. Implications for research include the challenge to expand the exploration of faculty satisfaction by including the influence of personal professional variables, such as tenure status and academic discipline. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/NAV)