During Furloughs, Who Is More Attached to a Public University? Staff? Faculty? . . . Managers

Abstract

Perceived organizational membership (POM) is a relatively new framework to analyze the attachment of employees to their organizations. To date, there are no studies that have examined POM in public higher education. Furthermore, there are relatively few studies that have explored attitudes of public personnel in the context of pay cuts in the form of furloughs. In this article, we present the findings of a survey of more than 5,000 public university faculty, administrative support staff, and managerial personnel. On most POM facets, managerial personnel perceived greater organizational need fulfillment, mattering, and belonging than either faculty or support staff. Implications for university administrators and faculty are discussed, with recommendations to increase POM for all employees.

A Mixed Method Analysis of Burnout and Turnover Intentions Among Higher Education Professionals During COVID-19

“…However, many previous studies of the higher education workforce study one segment of the organizational hierarchy, such as entry-level employees or middle managers. Our data include a cross section of the organizational hierarchy and show that one's location in the organizational hierarchy informs one's perception of the organizational response to the pandemic and working conditions, like prior research on furloughs in higher education (Pelletier et al, 2015). We recommend that future research continue to examine how one's position within an organization informs perceptions of working conditions.…”

“…Persistent years of cost-cutting can make lower-level staff feel disillusioned and less willing to find cost saving measures within departments (Romano et al, 2010). Workforce reductions and furloughs can correspond with increased expectations of individuals at multiple levels of an institution's organizational hierarchy, increasing job-related stress (Pelletier et al, 2015;Romano et al, 2010;Szekeres, 2006). When budget cuts decrease staffing levels, layoff survivors can become disengaged (Li & Guthrie, 2015).…”

Systems change in UK HEIs: how do culture, management, users and systems align?

“…This represents a significant lesson for HEIs, inclusivity from the outset being vital, but also necessitating change in organisations comprising stakeholders afforded higher levels of professional autonomy (Kuo, 2009). This is counter-balanced by changing roles for non-academics, reinforced by enhanced identity and reward (Florenthal and Tolstikov-Mast, 2012; Pelletier et al , 2015).…”

“…As two key stakeholder sets, academics and administrators have different perspectives and perceptions of each other regarding work-related issues and solutions, these straddling technological and economic challenges, decision making, teaching and research expectations and conflict resolution (Kuo, 2009). Working together to deliver strategic change is challenging, although contribution to decision-making, communication clarity on associated responsibility linked properly to reward can limit inter-stakeholder friction (Florenthal and Tolstikov-Mast, 2012) This can be helped by understanding differences in organisation-related fulfilment, belonging and bearing between the groupings and respecting this through role definition, deployment and involvement (Pelletier et al, 2015). Gemmell and Pagano (2003) witnessed diminution in collaboration and teamwork in postimplementation assessment of information system development and roll-out at a UK University.…”

“…Working together to deliver strategic change is challenging, although contribution to decision-making and communication clarity on associated responsibility linked properly to reward can limit inter-stakeholder friction (Florenthal and Tolstikov-Mast, 2012). This can be helped by understanding differences in organisation-related fulfilment, belonging and bearing between the groupings and respecting this through role definition, deployment and involvement (Pelletier et al , 2015).…”