Despite the importance of faculty retention, there is little understanding of how demographic variables, professional and institutional worklife issues, and satisfaction interact to explain faculty intentions to leave at a national level. Using the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:1999) database, this study proposes (a) to extend our previous conceptualization and understanding of those issues that comprise the dimensions of faculty worklife, satisfaction, and intentions to leave, (b) to examine relationships between these three dimensions, and (c) to determine the extent to which demographic variables and the quality of worklife have an impact on satisfaction, and faculty members' intentions to leave. Using structural equation modeling, the findings indicate that the perceptions faculty members have of their worklife have a direct and powerful impact on their satisfaction, and subsequently their intentions to leave. That is, a combination of worklife perceptions of faculty members' professional and institutional issues and satisfaction initiates individuals' behavioral intentions and the desire to leave for another position and/or career alternative.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40197294.pdf

Faculty Members' Intentions to Leave: A National Study on Their Worklife and Satisfaction

A reduction in college students' binge drinking associated with an intervention to change perceptions of drinking norms is described. The 5-year study was conducted at a public residential campus of 23,000 students. A traditional intervention proved unsuccessful, but a media campaign designed to change student perceptions of the amount of binge drinking showed an 18.5% drop in the number of students who perceived binge drinking as the norm (from 69.7% to 51.2%) and a corresponding reduction in self-reported binge drinking of 8.8% (from 43.0% to 34.2%). The apparent effectiveness of this prevention effort suggested that changing college students' perceptions of drinking norms may lower the proportion of students who engage in binge drinking.

Changing the perception of the norm: a strategy to decrease binge drinking among college students.

Retention of female faculty is an important issue for institutions of higher education aiming for excellence and diversity. However, an essential first step in understanding retention is to examine what contributes to career satisfaction for academic women. This study is based on data from a census survey of faculty conducted in 1996 at a Research I university located in the Midwest. Using Hagadorn's (2000) model for conceptualizing faculty job satisfaction, the study identifies domains of environmental condition, departmental climate, and demographics that play a role in female faculty's overall career satisfaction.

/pdf/culture-climate-and-contribution-career-satisfaction-among-32o85zfm3d.pdf

Culture, Climate, and Contribution: Career Satisfaction among Female Faculty.

Faculty members are rarely satisfied with their own institutions. They see administrators as incompetent, communication as poor, and their influence as declining (Boyer, Altbach, & Whitlaw, 1994). This discontent with their institutions is in stark contrast to their satisfaction with their intellectual lives, the courses they teach, and their collegial relationships (Bowen & Schuster, 1986; Boyer, Altbach, & Whitlaw, 1994). Faculty members are dedicated to their work and they love what they do, but they often wonder if they would not be happier doing it somewhere else. The extent to which faculty members actually act on their discontent and leave their institutions is an empirical question, but institutions would benefit from a clearer understanding of what contributes to faculty decisions to leave. Turnover is both a blessing and a curse for institutions. Turnover brings in fresh, new hires, often at a lower cost. On the other hand, searches are costly, and too often the faculty who leave are those the insti tution would prefer to retain. Concerns about retention have generated a number of studies directed toward understanding why faculty members leave or intend to leave their institutions or academia (Barnes, Agago, & Coombs, 1998; Johnsrud & Heck, 1994; Manger & Eikeland, 1990; Matier, 1990; Smart, 1990). These studies have attempted to identify what is important to faculty members in order to explain their decisions to leave. Despite the challenge of faculty retention and the considerable research devoted to faculty worklives, the accumulated work tends to be disjointed. Examinations include attention to faculty satisfaction (Boyer et al., 1994; Olsen, 1993; Olsen, Maple, & Stage, 1995; Tack & Patitu, 1992), the decline in morale (Bowen & Schuster, 1986; Kerlin & Dunlap, 1993; Johnsrud & Rosser, 1999), rewards (Boyer, 1990), and motivation and productivity (Blackburn & Lawrence, 1995; Layzell, 1996). The need remains to reduce the complexity of such constructs as the quality of faculty worklife, to clarify how perceptions of worklife affect such outcomes as morale or satisfaction, and in turn, to determine what contributes to faculty intentions to leave. The purpose of this study is (1) to advance our understanding of the constructs of faculty worklife, morale, and intentions to leave, (2) to examine relationships among these three constructs, and (3) to determine the extent to which these relationships operate within faculty groups (as individuals) or between faculty groups (as institutions). Conceptualizing Turnover and Intent to Leave Early turnover studies focused on the motives of individuals within organizations and their decisions to leave (Caplow & McGee, 1958; Flowers & Hughes, 1973; March & Simon, 1958; McCain, O'Reilly, & Pfeffer, 1983; Steers, 1977). Subsequent studies shifted to the impact that organizational and structural variables have on work-related attitudes. Organizational theorists (e.g., Bluedorn, 1982; Price, 1977) developed a model of the process producing voluntary turnover composed of structural, economic, and social psychological variables. They posit a range of antecedents involving how the organization is experienced (e.g., salary, size, integration, communication, centralization, opportunity) that affect intermediate social psychological variables such as job satisfaction, morale, and commitment. In turn, these variables are proposed to affect intended and actual organizational turnover. As Bluedorn notes, the organizational factors the individual experiences include its technology, internal opportunity structure s (e.g., promotion and transfer), and its emergent structures (e.g., rules and regulations, work unit differentiation, centralization) and processes (e.g., communication, decision making, conflicts). Members will react (affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally) in accordance with their perceptions of organizational situations. …

Faculty members' morale and their intention to leave: a multilevel explanation

Objective: Drinking motives have frequently been linked to both the quantity of alcohol consumption and the likelihood of negative consequences. For motivational models of drinking to be useful, however, drinking motives must have predictive power independent of other variables typically associated with alcohol-related problems. Thus, this study evaluated the relationship between drinking motives and alcohol-related problems, after first accounting for high-risk alcohol consumption and gender, Method: Subjects were 139 male and female (61%) college undergraduates, who completed a battery of self-report questionnaires as part of a course requirement. Results: Using hierarchical regression techniques, we found that the combination of maximum daily quantity and negative reinforcement reasons for drinking accounted for 61% of the variance on a measure of lifetime alcohol-related problems. Contrary to earlier research, neither gender nor positive reinforcement motives were significant predictors in the complet...

Denise K. Magner

Papers

The Graying Professoriate.

Report Says Standards Used to Evaluate Research Should Also Be Used for Teaching and Service.

Alcohol-Related Problems Have Not Decreased on Most College Campuses, Survey Indicates.

Blacks and Whites on the Campuses: Behind Ugly Racist Incidents, Student Isolation and Insensitivity.

Seeking a Radical Change in the Role of Publishing.