Assessment of faculty self initiated intention to leave: A causal model of turnover

• Main Author: Ochola, Joseph Evans
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2008
• Subjects: Career Change; Causality; Educational administration; Educational Attainment; Employee turnover; Literature Reviews; School administration; School faculty; Undergraduate Study
• ISBN: 9780549950974; 0549950974

This study addressed self-initiated faculty intention to leave institutions of higher learning. The purpose of the research was to identify the determinants of faculty members' intention to leave. The study examined a causal model of institutional turnover and tested its efficacy on faculty surveyed in 1993 and 1999 using the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF). This empirical research focused on the dynamics of faculty intention to leave and faculty satisfaction as an important university outcome and predictor of faculty mobility behavior. In what ways do individual, institutional, and work experience characteristics directly influence different aspects of faculty job satisfaction? From the literature and data, four general constructs were used: individual characteristics, organizational characteristics, work experience, and job satisfaction. First, I examined the following variables under individual characteristic construct: gender, ethnicity, age, educational attainment, family/marital status, and family SES. Second, I analyzed variables under organizational characteristic construct: institutional control, institutional type, and faculty members' benefits. Third, I observed variables under work experience: academic rank, tenure status, workload, productivity, and compensation. Finally, job satisfaction variables were explored: job security, compensation autonomy, resources, and institutional climate. Perhaps the most important finding from this study is that tenure position and academic titles are good indicators of a faculty member's career phase: The former indicates the end of a probationary period and the latter indicates one's status on the academic hierarchy. On the other hand, tenure status is not automatically associated with higher academic rank. As some associate professors are non-tenured and are subject to self-initiated intention to leave, it is not surprising to find a higher percentage of associate professors that have tenure on a campus; this makes the associate professors' mobility rate lower. What these suggest is that the effects of compensation on continuation rates may actually reflect the effects of other conditions of employment, such as lower teaching loads or institutional prestige.