Organizational Segmentation and the Prestige Economy: Deprofessionalization in High- and Low-Resource Departments

Abstract

Research often considers vertical stratification between U.S. higher education institutions. Yet differences also exist within higher education institutions, which we term “organizational segmentation.” We understand organizational segmentation as a consequence of the external “prestige economy,” which favors research revenues from high-resource science and engineering fields relative to instructional revenues collected by low-resource humanities departments. We use qualitative data from 83 interviews with faculty in high- and low-resource departments to examine how organizational segmentation, academic work, and professionalization are shaped by external and internal resource pressures. We find that deprofessionalization has occurred in different ways for faculty in high- and low-resource academic units. Faculty in high-resource units, like Brint's (1994) “expert”professionals, depend on external research resources and shape their careers accordingly, whereas faculty in low-resource units rely upon teaching revenues distributed by campus administrators.

• organizational segmentation
• faculty work
• academic capitalism
• professionalization
• prestige economy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kelly Ochs Rosinger

Kelly Ochs Rosinger is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Virginia; [email protected].

Barrett J. Taylor

Barrett J. Taylor is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Texas.

Lindsay Coco

Lindsay Coco is an administrator at the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia.

Sheila Slaughter

Sheila Slaughter is Louise McBee Professor of Higher Education in the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia.