Investigating faculty motivation and its connection to faculty work-life balance: Engaging public service motivation to explore faculty motivation

ABSTRACT

Discussions of work-life balance challenges among members of the academy abound and this study contributes to those conversations by taking a step back and investigating faculty motivation. We contend that understanding the motivation of faculty members and their views of work are necessary as we engage in work-life balance conversations. More specifically, we integrate the public service motivation (PSM) literature to study the motivation of faculty in public administration and political science programs in this exploratory study. We find that faculty in this study are motivated by their desire to contribute meaningfully to society, by an interest in working with students and the fulfillment that comes with teaching, and by an opportunity for intellectual stimulation and autonomy that comes with being a member of the academy. These insights are useful because they help us understand the levels of intrinsic motivation among faculty and the resulting tendencies to experience stress, fatigue, and burnout. Undoubtedly more research in this area is needed, but we posit that understanding faculty motivation is an essential piece of the conversation about faculty work-life balance.

KEYWORDS:

• Faculty motivation
• work-life balance

Notes

1. The survey was administered using Qualtrics.

2. Since our sampling strategy does not permit computation of a response rate, examining the data available from associations such as NASPAA, the American Society for Public Administration, and the American Political Science Association could help contextualize the broader community of public administration and political science faculty. However, it would still not assist in generating a response rate.

3. The numbers of respondents are as follows: adjunct (1), lecturer (5), assistant professor (16), associate professor (21), professor (12), other (2).

4. The numbers of respondents are as follows: administrative role (26), no administrative role (27), prefer not to answer (3).

5. The numbers of respondents are as follows: doctoral university (30), master’s institution (16), baccalaureate (6), other (2), prefer not to answer (2).

6. The numbers of respondents are as follows: mostly/exclusively graduate students (26), mix (14), mostly/exclusively undergraduates (16), prefer not to answer (1).

7. The numbers of respondents are as follows: teaching focused (13), research focused (15), equally focused (27), prefer not to answer (1).

8. One respondent preferred not to answer.

9. For some context, ASPA reports that 53% of their membership is male and 62% Caucasian. APSA reports 62% of its members are male and 75% are Caucasian.

10. This overrepresentation of individuals who identified as white makes it difficult to explore potential differences in responses; this will be further discussed in the limitations section.

11. Out of 81 responses to this question, 21 strongly agreed, 30 agreed, 18 neither agreed nor disagreed, 11 disagreed, and 1 strongly disagreed.

12. Out of 81 responses to this question, 23 strongly agreed, 43 agreed, 6 neither agreed nor disagreed, 7 disagreed, and 2 strongly disagreed.

13. Out of 81 responses to this question, 45 strongly agreed, 34 agreed, and 2 neither agreed nor disagreed.

14. Out of 77 responses to this question, 11 strongly agreed, 36 agreed, 15 neither agreed nor disagreed, 12 disagreed, and 3 strongly disagreed.

15. Out of 75 responses to this question, 13 strongly agreed, 40 agreed, 14 neither agreed nor disagreed, 6 disagreed, 1 strongly disagreed, and 1 preferred not to answer.

16. Out of 77 responses to this question, 23 strongly agreed, 42 agreed, 6 neither agreed nor disagreed, 5 disagreed, and 1 strongly disagreed.

17. Out of 76 responses to this question, 8 strongly agreed, 32 agreed, 27 neither agreed nor disagreed, 8 disagreed, and 1 preferred not to answer.

18. Out of 56 responses to this question, 23 responded teaching was very important, 17 said important, 13 said moderately important, 2 said less important, and one said unimportant.

19. Out of 58 responses to this question, 16 said their enthusiasm for teaching was very high, 30 said it was high, 10 said moderate, two said low, and zero indicated it was very low.

20. And recall that Calkins included this in an effort to expand the scope of understanding about faculty motivation.

21. There were 72 respondents to this question; 27 responded that they were extremely motivated, 33 said they were motivated, 10 said somewhat motivated, two said unmotivated, and none said extremely unmotivated.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle C. Pautz

Michelle C. Pautz is a Professor of Political Science and Assistant Provost for the Common Academic Program at the University of Dayton. Her research largely focuses on two areas: the implementation of environmental regulation, particularly at the state level, and the portrayal of bureaucracy and bureaucrats in contemporary American cinema and its effects on audiences. She has published more than two dozen articles in journals ranging from Administration & Society, Policy Studies Journal, and Review of Policy Research to Public Voices, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Journal of Political Science Education. She has published seven books, including Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywood’s Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats, The Lilliputians of Environmental Regulation: The Perspective of State Regulators (with Sara R. Rinfret), and US Environmental Policy in Action (now in its second edition, also with Sara R. Rinfret). She holds a Ph.D. in public administration and a MPA from Virginia Tech and a B.A. in economics, political science, and public administration from Elon University.

Morgan D. Vogel

Morgan D. Vogel is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the School of Public Administration. Her primary research interest is understanding public service work as a vocation or calling. She also studies the motivations and ethics of public and nonprofit practitioners. She has her B.A. in political science and her MPA from the University of Dayton.