Planning for academic excellence: tenure and professional considerations

Exploring and testing the predictors of new faculty success: a mixed methods study

“…Our qualitative findings confirmed expectations, collegiality, and balance as themes new faculty report as critical to their success (Austin and Rice 1998;Austin, Sorcinelli and McDaniels 2007;Boice 1992;Eddy and Gaston-Gayles 2008;Luce and Murray 1998;Mullen and Forbes 2000;Nir and Zilberstein-Levy 2006;Rice, Sorcinelli and Austin 2000;Trower and Gallagher 2008;Trotman and Brown 2005). A lesser identified theme in previous literature was job location (Eddy and Hart 2012;Trotman and Brown 2005), which may have been emphasized by our focus groups due to the remote northern location of their community.…”

“…A critical factor in the success of new faculty members was having job expectations clearly laid out for them, which has been a well-established theme in previous research (Austin and Rice 1998;Eddy and Gaston-Gayles 2008;Luce and Murray 1998;Mullen and Forbes 2000;Nir and Zilberstein-Levy 2006;Rice, Sorcinelli and Austin 2000;Trower and Gallagher 2008;Trotman and Brown 2005). At the start of every focus group, at least one participant stated that meeting performance standards was a priority; for instance, one participant defined domains of success as 'research, teaching and service … to meet those expectations as far as being successful in the department front.'…”

“…Our own review of qualitative studies indicates three overwhelmingly recurrent themes emerge when new faculty were asked about the factors affecting their success: clarity of expectations, finding balance, and collegiality. First, many new faculty report their success was affected by unclear expectations for attaining tenure, receiving conflicting messages about their responsibilities, and a lack of discussion about their progress (Austin and Rice 1998;Eddy and Gaston-Gayles 2008;Luce and Murray 1998;Mullen and Forbes 2000;Nir and Zilberstein-Levy 2006;Rice, Sorcinelli and Austin 2000;Trower and Gallagher 2008;Trotman and Brown 2005). New faculty in the study by Sorcinelli (1988), on the contrary, had a clear sense of what they had to do to get tenure; however, those participants were strictly in their first year and tenure may have been too distant to be concerned about concrete expectations.…”

Examining the Factors Impacting Academics’ Psychological Well-Being: A Review of Research

“…Harrison and Kelly (1996) also identified feelings of anxiety and loneliness (43%) among academics seeking tenure, with loneliness being significantly and negatively associated with career satisfaction and intentions of staying in academia. Other studies related to tenure-track academics have similarly found academics to report feelings of insecurity and fear about obtaining tenure, or the tenurerelated impact of poor course evaluations, as well as uncertainty and confusion about the tenure process (Boice, 1991;Nir & Zilberstein-Levy, 2006;Whitt, 1991). Concerning other organizational factors, research has also shown faculty to experience negative emotions arising from inequities in pay and employment benefits, with these perceptions further found to be associated with emotions of anger, fear, and sadness in a study of U.S. faculty (Smith et al, 2008).…”

Tenured and non-tenured school principals in Greece: a historical approach

“…Furthermore, tenure's contribution to creative initiatives and long-term planning (Nir and Zilberstein-Levy 2006) as well as to the performance of both, teachers and principals, has been stressed (Semendinger 2000). Bauck (1987, p. 92) indicated that '[ … ] tenure was related to effectiveness'; Bess (1998) stated that staff's motivation and productivity is linked more closely to organisational conditions rather than tenure.…”