A Comparative Assessment of Non-tenure Stream Faculty Members’ Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Commitment at Two Canadian Universities
Abstract
This study explored the employee-organizational relationship of non-tenure stream faculty teaching at two research-intensive Canadian universities through an examination of faculty members’ perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, and organizational exchange relationship. Through a survey of 146 non-tenure stream faculty teaching at two institutions in the 2013-14 academic year, the study examined their composition, characteristics, career aspirations, and views about working as a non-tenure stream teacher at their institution, from a comparative perspective. Five research questions were addressed. The closed- and open-ended survey question results were analyzed and presented for both the pooled and individual institutional samples. The measures of perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, and organizational exchange relationship were analyzed and scale reliability results are reported. Key findings include: one third of study participants are teaching in a non-stream position because they could not find a tenure stream position; three quarters of participants had other employment (whether it was full-time or part-time, at or external to the university); participants feel emotionally attached to their institution (affective commitment) and believe that their institution supports them and values their work (perceived organizational support); part-time non-tenure stream faculty were less ‘emotionally attached’ than were full-time non-tenure stream faculty; full-time non-tenure stream faculty associate greater ‘costs’ to leaving their institution of employment (continuance commitment) than part-time non-tenure stream faculty; over four fifths of participants were satisfied working at their institution and would recommend the institution as a good place to work; participants identified job security and stability, a greater respect, sense of belonging, recognition, being undervalued, and better compensation and career related issues, as concerns; working with students, learners, colleagues, and teaching were what participants liked best about working at their university.
Description
Keywords
Education--Administration, Education--Higher
Citation
Burge, R. (2016). A Comparative Assessment of Non-tenure Stream Faculty Members’ Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Commitment at Two Canadian Universities (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24665