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

Abstract

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.

Internal Push Factors and External Pull Factors and Their Relationships with Lecturers’ Turnover Intention

“…The four factors included as attractive external pull factors in this study are job opportunity, compensation, working location and university image (Ahmad & Riaz, 2011;Ali Shah et al, 2010;Mahony, Mondello, Hums, & Judd, 2006;Ryan, Healy, & Sullivan, 2012;Yan et al, 2015;Zhou & Volkwein, 2004). The review of past literature has highlighted that these four factors have been commonly cited as external pull factors, however relatively few studies have empirically tested these four factors with turnover intention.…”

“…A lecturer who is a productive scholar and is well known for his/her work will attract interest from a more prestigious university (Ryan et al, 2012). Ali Shah et al's (2010) study on 100 teachers from five institutions of higher education in Pakistan revealed that a pull to join a reputable university affected lecturers' intention to quit.…”

Perceptions of Teaching, Research, and Service Expertise, Workload, Organizational Support, and Satisfaction among U.S. Faculty Members’ Intent to Stay in Tier 1 or Tier 2 Organizations: A Structural Equation Model

“…Job satisfaction and faculty turnover have been studied using various factors such as rank, gender, and salary, with little correlation among them (Ryan, Healy, & Sullivan, 2012). However, the work itself, level of engagement and perceived value of it, along with a sense of administrative support appear to affect job satisfaction, which may negatively influence any intention of leaving the organization .…”

Revisiting differential grading standards anno 2014: an exploration in Dutch higher education

“…He identified three dimensions of academics' perceived characteristics of academic subject matter: hard or soft (the degree to which paradigm consensus exists in the field), pure or applied (the degree of concern with application of disciplinary knowledge), and life or non-life systems (1973). Subsequently, this model has been used to explore socialisation function within faculties (Creswell and Bean 1981), faculty member's intent to leave (Ryan, Healy, and Sullivan 2012), the influence of teacher's gender on female students' academic performance (Johnson 2014), and obstacles to research collaboration due to paradigmatic divergences between faculty from the hard and soft sciences (Gardner 2012).…”