Examining junior faculty work-life balance in public affairs programs in the United States

ABSTRACT

Transitioning from doctoral student to assistant professor involves many changes for junior faculty beginning tenure-track careers. Research, teaching, and service demands, on top of adjusting to a new home environment, create tremendous pressures on tenure-lined, junior faculty members to adapt and perform. By understanding influences of junior faculty work-life balance, departments can become more aware of the unique, individual needs to help make their junior faculty successful, both personally and professionally. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study utilizes surveys to junior faculty in all NASPAA-accredited, public affairs programs in the United States. Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling and demonstrates that workload, presence of work-life balance policies, and stress have a significant direct impact on work-life balance satisfaction of junior faculty. The findings from this research have significant implications for universities that want to “care for/tend to” and retain their junior faculty members, as junior faculty success impacts the prestige of the program, school, and university through their scholarly achievements, teaching contributions, and service activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Public affairs
• junior faculty
• work-life balance

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lauren Azevedo

Lauren Azevedo is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg. Her current research focuses on nonprofit management, community foundations, capacity building, board governance, and diversity and social equity. Her work has been published in Public Integrity and Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship.

Wanzhu Shi

Wanzhu Shi is an Assistant Professor in the Master of Public Administration program at Texas A&M International University. Her current research interests focus on nonprofit management, social media usage in public sectors, and community assessment. Her most recent work has been published in the International Journal of Public Administration in the Digital Age.

Pamela S. Medina

Pamela S. Medina is an Assistant Professor of public and nonprofit administration at the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration at California State University San Bernardino. Her current research focuses on citizen-administrator relations, comparative public administration, and social equity. Her most recent research has appeared in the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, and the International Journal of Policy Studies.

Matt T. Bagwell

Matt T. Bagwell is an Assistant Professor and Interim Director of the Division of Public Administration at Tarleton State University. He has worked extensively in health research, and his current research interests include, broadly: health policy, ethics, policy analysis, public budgeting, organizational theories, human resource management, and leadership for public administrators.