Incentive categories related to job satisfaction in full time faculty in postsecondary education using the 1988 national survey of postsecondary faculty

Abstract

This study investigates the incentive categories related to job satisfaction for full time faculty in postsecondary institutions in the United States. The data for the analysis is from the 1988 NSOPF conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. Using secondary analysis of the data a job satisfaction index was derived from the responses to the twenty-nine subquestions in question 19 of the faculty questionnaire.

Three incentive categories, financial, job related, and personal, provided the context in which job satisfaction was explored. The research questions focused on job satisfaction in the three incentive categories relating to research and teaching, institutional type, and academic rank. The major conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: full time faculty in postsecondary institutions are: Less than dissatisfied with research opportunities across institutional types and academic ranks; Satisfied with the same amount or less teaching opportunities across institutional types and academic ranks; More job satisfied at two year institutions in all three incentive categories, financial, job related, and personal; Satisfied with the type of institution in which they are presently employed and are less likely to leave for a different type of institution; Satisfied as full professors for all three incentive categories, financial, job related and personal; Least satisfied as associate professors for personal incentive category; Least satisfied as assistant professors for financial and job related incentive categories.